Coast ‘will be flooded by influx’
THE Gold Coast will become the “final frontier of the world” – and Australia’s and the planet’s favoured destination to live and work, one of the city’s most prominent developers tips.
Sunland boss Soheil Abedian, whose Gold Coast credits include icons the Q1 supertower in Surfers Paradise and Palazzo Versace hotel in Main Beach, has joined several industry peers to tip what the next five years holds for the Gold Coast in a post COVID-19 pandemic environment.
Mr Abedian, who has survived and prospered through four downturns in his near-40 years as a developer, said the Gold Coast was a relatively safe location from both the virus and the turmoil engulfing some of the world’s most powerful nations.
The Gold Coast had significant advantages over both NSW and Victoria, he said.
“The Gold Coast is in a far better position than Brisbane because we are a relatively smaller city which is a tourist destination, we have unparalleled shopping centres, massive investment in our movie industry. Most of all, the dynamic DNA of our city is based on construction and tourism,” he said. It is my prediction the Gold Coast will be the final frontier in the world once COVID passes.
“I have no doubt in my mind once the world’s borders reopen we will be flooded with people from all over the country and planet who will want to work and live on the Gold Coast.”
Another bullish pitch for the future comes from Meriton boss “high-rise” Harry Triguboff, who is currently building his 76-storey Ocean supertower in Surfers Paradise.
Mr Triguboff said he believed the Gold Coast would prosper in the years to come.
“The Gold Coast will survive today’s problems because it is the tourist centre of Australia,” he said. “It is quite well established and we have a vibrant market always here. We are consistently improving our developments. No other place in Australia can come anywhere near us here.”
Their bold predictions come after it was revealed on Saturday more than $20 billion worth of development linked to Asian developers had either stalled or been canned in five years. For that story, Mayor Tom Tate pointed out while recent “political pointscoring” between Australia and China had not helped he would do his best “to mend bridges”.
But less sure of the future is veteran developer Norm Rix who tips a dramatic slowdown of the property market in coming months, warning the city was in for “a very tough time”.
He called on the Gold Coast City Council, state and federal governments to introduce greater incentives for developers to avoid a downturn and keep contractors employed.
In 2013-14 the council’s “Construction Kickstart” incentive scheme slashed infrastructure charges for “shovelready” projects.
It 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.
But Cr Tate has ruled out any incentives, arguing it was unnecessary and that ratepayer money was better spent diversifying the economy.
“Back in 2012 there were two cranes in the sky – the city was in an economic coma. We had to shock the system.
“This time there is funding support coming from federal and state governments on a number of fronts and there is a still a demand with Development Applications flowing in.
“So at this time we are committing our funding resources to broaden our economy on things like education, IT and film.”