REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday December 6, 2007

THE Gold Coast was riding a $66 billion wave of new development as the population continued to grow at the fastest rate of any other region.

Since 2000, the total value of new development underway or planned - including major apartment, residential, land, retirement, commercial, industrial, resort, hotel and infrastructure projects - had risen from $14 billion to $66 billion.

Since 2005, the value of infrastructure projects had doubled and the value of commercial and retail projects had trebled.

Research compiled by Colliers International’s Gold Coast office showed there had been a staggering development lift of 381 per cent since 2000.

The latest statistics was music to the ears of Regional Economic Development chairman John Witheriff, who fought for years to put the Gold Coast on the national corporate map as a serious place to do business.

Urban Development Institute of Australia Gold Coast president Col Dutton said the research showed the Gold Coast was undergoing extraordinary growth.

“I think these figures confirm that governments have underestimated the level of growth happening in this city,’’ he said.

“The infrastructure spending has doubled in the past two years, which suggests that governments are standing up and taking notice and starting to realise that the growth requires some sort of action.

“The challenge now is to take responsibility for managing that growth.’’