Where will we live

Housing land to cater for the Gold Coast’s growing population is hard to come by – two pre-eminent developers have contrary opinions as to how to keep our tradies in work

ONE of the Gold Coast’s richest developers is offering the city a way forward as it runs out of space for new housing, revealing he is preparing to break ground on two huge Tweed projects 25 years in the making.

But a second major developer sees salvation in the city’s northern canelands as he joins the push to get the suburban housing industry humming again, calling for governments to release the brakes on agricultural land so the city is not locked into purely tower developments while bracing for an extra 350,000 residents by 2041.

Billionaire Leda boss Bob Ell says he will finally proceed with construction of his $1 billion Cobaki Lakes and Kings Forest projects just across the NSW border, with the first sod to be turned within 24 months, while prolific developer and former city councillor Norm Rix has called for construction incentives and the northern canelands to be rezoned so they are not locked into just agricultural use.

Mr Rix’s stance puts the developers at odds, with Mr Ell adamant the longhoped-for rezoning of the canelands will come to nothing.

“The land is drying up, there is no more and it is going to be impossible to rezone anything further, particularly in the canefields,” he said. “There will be a shortage of it as the land around Coomera, that which is north of Helensvale and south of Rochedale (in Brisbane).”

In a rare interview Mr Ell says the time is right to proceed with the Tweed projects after gaining nearly all the necessary approvals on the back of a slowdown in the Gold Coast market.

“The current population of the Gold Coast is over 606,000 people with a growth rate of 2.3 per cent that has exceeded the rest of the southeast since 2007,’’ he said.

“This growth and economic boom have been based on the ability to provide affordable housing creating thousands of local jobs.

“Last year the amount of approved lots on the Gold

Coast dropped like a stone and with a 71 per cent drop in approved residential lots to just over 550 last (financial) year the builders and developers are struggling to find sites and keep up to the demand.

“The Gold Coast is finished when it comes to finding affordable land. I have been developing for nearly 40 years and it has never been this tough. I have builders calling me every day asking if we have any stock. They need to keep the tradies and staff going or they are done.”

Mr Ell, who divides his time between the Gold Coast and Sydney, bought the 605.4ha Cobaki property southwest of Gold Coast Airport in 1994 and has long attempted to make the housing estates a reality.

Kings Forest is expected to be home to 4500 properties while Cobaki Lakes will become a 5500-home masterplanned community. Mr Ell said the projects would provide a much-needed boost to the economy.

“The much-needed supply will be required to give the economies of the Gold Coast and Tweed a muchneeded boost and alternative to the cyclic tourism and service industries.”

STRUGGLE STREET

THE Gold Coast Bulletin this week revealed 18,000 of the Coast’s 35,000 tradies were forced to find work elsewhere last year.

Many out-of-work builders have taken jobs in Brisbane and Victoria.

This came just months after a Bulletin report showed the number of development applications fell 13.4 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year, compared to the corresponding three-month period last year.

The number of applications being turned into bricks and mortar fell, with plumbing applications declining 69.5 per cent. Plumbing applications are made by developers as an immediate precursor to construction beginning on their project and are seen as a bellwether for the strength of the building industry. This slowdown has been blamed on the fallout from last year’s banking royal commission and the federal election.

It has sparked calls from

the Queensland Master Builders for the Gold Coast City Council to reintroduce its “Construction Kickstart” incentive scheme, which slashed infrastructure charges for “shovel-ready” projects.

The 2013-14 scheme fuelled a 20 per cent spike in development applications, and a 111 per cent increase in residential projects, injecting more than $885 million into the economy.

The scheme involved the slashing of council infrastructure charges by 50 per cent for all projects that began construction within six months of approval.

Mayor Tom Tate has fallen short of promising a return of incentives but said his door was open to development figures hoping to discuss their concerns.

Mr Rix, one of the Gold Coast’s most prolific and longest-serving developers, yesterday backed calls for incentive schemes and warned the city was facing a building drought without them.

He called for the council to work proactively to get land in the city’s far north rezoned.

“Council needs to open up more land – there’s land to the west and in the canefields which could be built on,” he said. “There are so many people who want to come and build here but they do not have any land.”

The northern canefields have long been eyed off by developers hoping to secure the giant tracts of land to convert into housing.

In 2017, Chinese developer Songcheng, the same company behind a proposal to build a theme park at Carrara, announced plans to spend more than $1 billion to buy up 6117ha of farmland in the Norwell Valley and build a giant masterplanned city.

Cane farmers in the region have spent much of the past decade appealing to successive state governments to rezone the area to allow for upward of 10,000ha of land to be developed. But with the canefields protected by legislation as agricultural land, there has been no political appetite to change it.

Mr Rix, who once boasted he had knocked down more trees than anyone on the Glitter Strip, said a new incentives program was necessary to revive interest after increased uncertainty.

“The other issue is red tape. If council wants to get more developments going, they need to get back to what they were doing with Kickstart,” he said.

“We need incentives to create the jobs necessary to continue building the Gold Coast and keeping our tradies working here. I feel strongly about this because our tradies should not have to be leaving home at 4am to get to work so far away.

“The fact there has been such a tremendous reduction in approvals shows we have to move fast on this one. We cannot gloss over this.”

MORE than $2 billion of construction work is under way across the Gold Coast, with several developers moving forward with major projects.

Among the most bullish is

Sunland Group, the developer behind the iconic Q1 supertower and Palazzo Versace.

Construction is now moving rapidly on its $1.3 billion The Lakes mini-city at Clear Island Waters. This project will ultimately feature four mid-rise towers and a shopping centre.

The developer’s 45-storey, $250 million luxury Hedges Ave tower is also coming out of the ground and is expected to be completed in 2022.

(See graphic left for biggest projects in the pipeline.)

PUBLIC WORKS

WORK on major public infrastructure projects is starting this year, creating much-needed jobs.

Construction will begin before Christmas on the Gold Coast light rail’s Stage 3A, extending the tram line from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads.

It is expected to create more than 760 jobs while the 7.6km, $709 million link is built, with the State Government giving it a 2023 launch date.

Meanwhile, the $1 billion M1 widening between Varsity Lakes and the border is under way and surveyors are scoping out the proposed Coomera Connector, a major arterial road to run from Carrara to Stapylton as an M1 alternative.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

SEVERAL major developments carrying multi-billion price tags are still in the pipeline but are yet to be given a start date.

In the city’s west, the $1 billion Pacific View Estate megadevelopment has shown some signs of life nearly a decade after it was first proposed.

Planned for a Worongary site, it will eventually be home to up to 12,000 people.

It was called in by the State Government in 2015 and given preliminary approval for its magnitude. The Bulletin understands the project could begin within the next two years.

In Southport, Azzura Group has put forward plans for its Imperial Square project, which would become home to the southern hemisphere’s tallest building – at 108 storeys. Proposed in 2014, it is understood the first stage might be put to the market later this year.