Brisbane City Council will make changes to the City Plan to make it easier for developers to include rooftop open space without adding an additional storey, announced the office of Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

The addition of rooftop gardens is a result of community feedback from the ‘Plan Your Brisbane’ initiative, with the creation and protection of green space a key message when over 100,000 residents had their say.

The changes will also enable Council to make developers include a rooftop/green space in their development plans.

“Council will also have the ability to ask developers to incorporate and maintain green spaces on the rooftops and walls of new apartment buildings, to support our vision of a clean, green and sustainable city,” said Mr Quirk.

“Our New World City’s Buildings that breathe design guide provides a unique vision for best-practice building design, showcasing examples of the type of development that we hope to enable as a result of Brisbane’s Future Blueprint,” he said.

Theurbandeveloper.com reports that developer, Aria Property Group, is behind the changes with Group Design Manager Simon White noting the move will enable developers to deliver “world class amenities for residents.” Currently, a fixed shade structure over a BBQ area or pool area is defined as an extra storey; under the new guidelines this wouldn’t be the case, allowing developers to create better useable space.

Hannah Schuhmann is confident this is an excellent move from Council with regards to livability in the CBD. Not only will this create excellent common space for residents, it will surely add to Brisbane morphing into an attractive World City. 

The new runway for Brisbane Airport has achieved a construction milestone with the first sections of the taxiways connecting the new runway system now completed, reports the Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC).

Gert-Jan de Graaff, BAC Chief Executive Officer says the new runway project is the largest aviation project in Australia and the planning behind the scenes is enormous.

“Brisbane’s new runway has been on Master Plan documents since the 1970s, so to be here where we can physically stand on taxiways and see the foundations of the runway being laid is a huge achievement for the thousands of people who have been involved with this project since its very early days,” said de Graaff.

This milestone is the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for what is to come in the next few months. The broader taxiway systems and the physical runway will now be the focus, with other major tasks including approach lighting systems, and the massive job of landscaping the 300-hectare site are all in the pipeline ahead of a scheduled mid-2020 opening.

Another key element within the infrastructure of the project is the Dryandra Road Underpass. Jim Frith, McConnell Dowell Managing Director said the structure is considered an ‘engineering feat’ which will withstand the full weight of a A380 plane (approx. 710 tonnes).

“To put the complexity of this project into perspective, the underpass is being constructed five metres below sea level, meaning that the dewatering system is required to remove the equivalent of the volume of two Olympic swimming pools in a single, 24-hour period, while the physical structure is comprised of approximately 20,000m3 of concrete, and 4000 tonne of reinforced steel,” said Firth.

The entire site of the new runway is around 2.5 times the size of Brisbane CBD, covering 360 hectares with the new runway being 3.3km long and 60m wide.

When the second runway is completed in mid-2020, an additional 1.3 million visitors annually are expected to visit our great city.

Brisbane Airport is already ranked 4^th in ‘Best Airports in the World (servicing 20-30 million passengers)’, and 16th in the ‘World’s Top 100 Airports’ list, up from 17/100 in 2016. 

For the 12 months up to the start of August this year, Brisbane commercial property sales have recorded a total of $1.98 billion –  an increase of $683.8 million on the previous year, reports CoreLogic in their latest Cityscope report.

A total of $882 million worth of sales were recorded in the three months to the start of August which included $354.4 million for commercial, $7.1 million for commercial strata, $23 million for retail strata and $497.4 million in the ‘other’ category. 

Key sales this quarter included

• M&G Asia Property Fund have bought a 50% interest in yet to be constructed 36-storey building fronting Ann & Turbot streets for $416 million. Mirvac group, who purchased the site for $79 million will be joint developers on this site.
• Firmus Capital, a Singapore-based investment management company purchased a 24-storey office building at 137 Creek Street for $129 million. The sale represented passing initial yield of 6.22% on passing income of $8,026,416 net.
• Charter Hall Group purchased A nine-storey office building at 231 George Street, three-story arcade on Queen Street, 11-story office building at 217-229 George Street for $93.96 million.

Commercialrealestate.com.au have reported that the Crown Group have purchased one of the last large remaining development sites in inner south Brisbane. The 1.25-hectare property is located at 117 Victoria Street, West End. The end value of the development is expected to be around $350 million.

Properties currently on the market include:

• 288 Edward Street – a 28-storey office building 
• 133 Mary Street – a 16-storey office building
• 420 George Street -  a 14-storey office building
• City Edge Brisbane Hotel in Turbot Street– a four-storey hotel

Hannah Schuhmann says strong activity in the commercial property market should translate to an upswing in residential property sales, particular in the Brisbane CBD.

“Turning point” is the phrase used by Urbis property economics and research director Paul Rigor to describe the current situation of the Brisbane apartment market, reports theurbandeveloper.com.

Urbis research has shown that in the second quarter of 2018, while quantity of sales dropped slightly, the average sale price reached a high of $767,000, which is an increase of $87,000.

Rental vacancy in inner Brisbane is classified as “very low.”

In regards to the future of the CBD apartment market, Mr Riga said the level of new apartments coming onto the market will soon ease, giving way for demand to catch up with supply. Next quarter there will be around 800 apartments released to the market. He isn’t expecting new apartment launches to increase in future quarters as the climate isn’t “getting any easier for developers.”

Corelogic data has shown that over the last 12 months Brisbane and Adelaide are the only two capital cities to register positive results in home values with 0.9% and 1.0% respectively. Sydney recorded -5.6%, Melbourne -1.6% and Perth -2.2%.

BIS Oxford Economics has forecasted Brisbane house price growth of 2-3% in 2019-20 with 6% in 2020-21, along with referring to the Brisbane property market as a “surprise performer.”

Hannah Schuhmann says while Brisbane is on track to transform into new world city, affordability is a key factor moving forward with a buyer able to purchase a one bed unit with car park for under $400,000, or a 2 bed unit with car park for under $500,000.

One of Brisbane’s signature sporting grounds, The Gabba, is in line to receive a facelift possibly by 2024, with funds to be raised from numerous sources, including a major sponsor who will be given the ability to rename the ground at a price, reports brisbanetimes.com.au.

One of the conditions in the pending naming rights deal that will raise money for the redevelopment is that the name ‘Gabba’ must stay in the name, says Sports Minister Mick de Brenni.

“It could mean the "Optus Gabba" or "Telstra Gabba" or "Suncorp Gabba", as an example said Mr de Brenni said.

The Gabba is home to the Brisbane Lions AFL team, Brisbane Heat & Queensland Bulls cricket teams.

In another announcement this week, Treasurer Jackie Trad announced a business case to the tune of $2 million to begin regarding the redevelopment of the “surrounding section” of the Gabba as a portion of the Cross River Rail Project.

Ms Trad estimates the total cost will be around $100 million, with Mr de Brenni confirming this amount is separate to the redevelopment of the Gabba itself.

Mr de Brennis said this is “an outstanding announcement and a great day for Queensland sport and for this community.”

It is unclear at this stage how much the Queensland Government will be contributing to the project if it goes ahead.

Theurbandeveloper.com.au reports the Gabba revitalisation project could potentially attract private investment of up to $1.5 million.

An artist impression of the surrounding area proposal for the Gabba can be viewed at  

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/gabba-name-up-for-sale-as-100-million-upgrade-plans-move-ahead-20180819-p4zyeo.html