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GUEST OBSERVER
The Federal Budget salary sacrifice scheme FHB savings will provide some benefit but needs to be kept in perspective.
The reality is most first home buyers and low to mid income earners earn generally relatively low marginal tax rates. Nonetheless, it does provide an incentive to save for a home deposit, which is great. It provides some structure and discipline which FHBs need.
The ghost house tax scheme doesn't really have an impact on new home builds at all. The quantum of the tax will need to be very substantial to have any real impact.
The reality is the foreign investors engaging in these practices are wealthy Chinese trying to get money out of China into a safe haven. The houses purchased by foreigners are often very high value homes (blue chip areas), so any impact the penalty has will only help renters at the higher end, not first home buyers. It will simply be seen by most foreigners as a tax on getting their money out of China.
It's a shame not more is being done around first home buyer's grants, as it's simple and effective.
The minister is concerned about grants ending up in the pockets of medium density developers and already wealthy home owners, and that's fair enough. Government should consider either doubling FHB grants for new build homes only, or scrap the grant completely for FHB of established, to push demand into new housing.
Reality is when the FHB grant is used in the established property market it only fuels prices and the problem (and gets partly recycled to the states in stamp duty). However, with new builds it creates real jobs and pushes demand away from inner suburbs alleviating constant price pressure.
Another scheme could be to incentivise land developers to sell a certain percentage of projects to FHB's at discounted rates. The incentive could be a lower corp tax rate if the percentage threshold is met each year, encouraging developers to push down prices to FHB's to hit the quota each year.
Government should also be looking at the development of its own land with some projects exclusively dedicated to FHB's, with appropriate pricing set which in turns keeps other developers in the surrounding areas sharp in terms of their own pricing."
Housing affordability has become a significant issue over recent years, driven by exponential growth in median house prices and relatively low levels of wage growth.
While being the most popular cities in which to own a home, Sydney and Melbourne clearly face the most stress when it comes to housing affordability given the lack of new supply to meet growing demand. In addition to this, the growth seen in median housing prices is pushing first home ownership out of reach for many.
First home buyers grants are simple and well understood, whereas new schemes such as access to super or a shared equity scheme are complicated and diminish longer term value and benefits for home buyers.
Creating incentives for first home buyers to buy a new home in outer suburbs or even regional areas (as recently announced by the Victorian state government) are terrific initiatives. Not only do they help get more people into their first home, they also drive demand away from existing properties (mainly in the inner suburbs) which over time will help alleviate pressure on housing prices across the board.
The latest housing affordability report by iBuildNew, the leading online listing site of homebuilders and land developers, reveals the majority (63 percent) of Australian first home buyers (FHBs) believe an affordable house costs less than $450,000, and for 85 percent of FHBs, it means less than $600,000.
The national findings revealed:
<ul>
<li>63 percent of first home buyers believe an affordable house costs less than $450,000 (median prices in Sydney are $1,152,000, thus 250% disparity)</li>
<li>64 percent of first home buyers are only prepared to look at properties within their suburb of choice or surrounding suburbs</li>
<li>76 percent of first home buyers can't get into the property market because they can't save the deposit or secure a loan</li>
<li>Only 22 percent of first home buyers are considering a new home build while 60 per cent are focused on buying an established home or townhouse</li>
<li>55 percent of survey respondents did not think using their superannuation savings would help them secure their first home</li>
</ul>
Daniel Peterson is a CEO at iBuildNew. He can be contacted <a href="https://www.ibuildnew.com.au/" target="_blank">here</a>.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Government should consider doubling FHB grants for new build homes only: Daniel Peterson

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SPONSORED POST
Leading Sydney developer, Crown Group presents Waterfall, the company’s most ambitious project to date.
It draws its inspiration from the 7 storey waterfall that cascades spectacularly down one of the building’s four elemental buildings.
The vision for Waterfall by Crown Group is to bring a green revolution into Sydney’s architecture.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/05/08/Screen%20Shot%202017-05-09%20at%208.09.36%20AM.png" alt="" width="644" height="441">
‘Waterfall by Crown Group is a testament to our continual push to create contextually appropriate, innovative residential developments which are relevant to today’s society’’ Chairman and Group CEO, Iwan Sunito
Designed by award winning architects, SJB and featuring a specially commissioned public artwork by Mika Utzon Popov (grandson of Sydney Opera House architect Jorn Utzon).
Waterfall harnesses the power of one’s natural surroundings, providing an alternative environment to combat the stresses and strains of modern life.
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/05/08/Screen%20Shot%202017-05-09%20at%208.08.32%20AM.png" alt="" width="604" height="391">
The $395 million project will be located at 18 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo. It boasts 331 apartments, a rooftop infinity pool, a cantilevered gym that overlooks the city, a sky garden and terrace, a function room and six onsite retail outlets.
The luxury apartments will be released for sales at a grand launch on 17th June 2017.
Crown Group is now accepting registrations of interest at <a href="https://waterfallbycrowngroup.com.au" target="_blank">waterfallbycrowngroup.com.au</a>.
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Waterfall – breaking new ground

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/77104/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
The purpose of the “agile” working style is to help businesses adapt to turbulent markets by adopting a fast and flexible approach to work.
In one sense, it should come as no surprise that ANZ’s chief executive Shayne Elliot recently announced that ANZ will be shifting parts of its workforce to this style.
With the bank’s recent withdrawal from Asia and subsequent lower than expected revenues, this is part of ANZ refocus on its core business. In fact, each of Australia’s big four banks might be looking to become more efficient and responsive in the face of a tightly regulated market and slowly building retail banking competition from newer financial technology companies.
In another sense though, it’s surprising that one of Australia’s largest banks should signal such a profound change in work style. Finance is certainly not where agile got its start.
The origins of agile
The forerunners of agile stretch back as far as the Plan-Do-Study-Act method developed by Walter Shewart at Bell Labs in the 1930s and the Toyota Production System, based, in part, on the quality and systems thinking of Shewart’s student, William Edwards Deming.
However, agile as we understand it today is seen as emerging from software programming communities. It crystallised when 17 software developers gathered at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah in 2001 to share and refine their approaches to software development.
One of the participants had been reading a book on major companies coping with turbulent markets, called Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations: Strategies for Enriching the Customer. Drawn to the agile’s connotations of speed and responsiveness, the group eventually adopted it as the moniker for their movement.
They published their views in The Manifesto for Agile Software Development, intending to help accelerate developers’ efforts to reliably produce software of the highest quality. Agile has since spread beyond the confines of IT to the other types of work and other organisations.
How to work in an agile style
As academics Rigby, Sutherland, and Takeuchi explain, agile now covers a broad range of methods, each varying according to their guiding principles and work rules. The three most well-known methods are scrum, lean, and kanban.
Scrum focuses on structuring teams to work across functions in a business, using creative and adaptive teamwork, daily stand-up meetings, and project reviews to quickly invent solutions and improve team performance.
Lean focuses on eliminating waste in systems and does not prescribe work rules to achieve this in the same way as scrum.
Kanban aims to shorten the time between the initiation and completion of work by visualising workflows, restricting the work being done at each stage in development, and measuring work cycle times to detect improvement.
ANZ seems to be most interested in the scrum method. ANZ’s Head of Product Katherine Bray stated:
There are vestiges of roles that we recognise, but with the underpinnings of hierarchy totally blown apart…[A scrum coach] is not your boss, that’s a coach, who is a peer. That product owner is not your boss, they’re a product owner who defines the how, and you galvanise around that.
Going back to the origins of agile and system thinking, it seems clear the agile approach is most likely to succeed where the organisation adopting it possesses structural modularity. Modularity proposes that organisations structure themselves in a way that allows teams to produce work that is layered, discrete, and testable.
This is what Bray is talking about - a radically new approach to roles and work styles at ANZ.
We might dismiss this whole reorganisation as marketing theatre, but intensifying competition and rapid change are all too real. This means many Australian businesses will have to come to terms with agile approaches if they are to remain responsive and competitive.
By taking up agile’s shift from top-down management to teams that organise themselves, and from a focus on compliance to a focus on innovation, ANZ is making its intent clear. It wants to achieve different results by doing things differently – surely a sane approach to change.
Yet this idea challenges the conventional structure and ethos of banks and similarly run businesses. These organisations are built to be secure and centralised in service of efficiency; modularity pushes them to be integrated and decentralised in service of innovation.
Modularity and agility are not easy to achieve. But they are fast becoming necessary if large companies, like ANZ, are to move with the times and adapt well to market turbulence.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/massimo-garbuio-369039" target="_blank"></a>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/massimo-garbuio-369039" target="_blank">Massimo Garbuio</a> is senior lecturer, University of Sydney.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/massimo-garbuio-369039" target="_blank"></a>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dreu-harrison-369349" target="_blank">Dreu Harrison</a> is research assistant, University of Sydney.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/massimo-garbuio-369039" target="_blank"></a>
Both are authors for The Conversation.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/massimo-garbuio-369039" target="_blank"> </a>
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The agile working style started in tech but it could work for banks

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GUEST OBSERVER
Uber has shaken up the taxi industry and is trying to put driverless cars on our roads. Now the company aims to have flying ride-sharing vehicles in our skies by 2020.
Uber is not alone in working towards flying cars. But is this realistic, or just marketing hype?
To many of us, the concept of flying cars is synonymous with the future, just like silver jumpsuits and gourmet food in the form of a pill. Those dreams have not yet materialised so what about flying cars?
How is this a car?
The classic idea of a flying car was just that: a car that could somehow fly.
A Flying Car
Filmed in the 1940s in Italy, a propeller driven automobile that flies makes its first test flight.
In fiction, the author Ian Fleming was a fan of flying cars, writing his novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang around the concept in 1963. He also included a flying car in his James Bond novel (1964) and subsequent film, The Man with The Golden Gun. These concepts are based on a car with wheels that can drive on the road but is also capable of flying when required.
Science fiction writers and directors have often dispensed with the need to have future vehicles ever drive on the road. Instead, the “cars” are simply small aircraft such as the one Anakin Skywalker used in the Star Wars film Attack of the Clones.
The recent flying car announcements vary in type from single-seat, multi-copter drone-type aircraft, to road-style cars that turn into light aircraft and small flying boats that hover above the water.
It would appear that almost any small flying vehicle capable of transporting a person is now referred to as a flying car. But clearly they are really just a kind of small aircraft.
How safe?
Any potential passenger will want to know: “How safe is this contraption?”
The likely answer right now is “not very safe”, as with all early-stage technology. Companies are working feverishly to make their aircraft “safe enough” in the hope of convincing regulators and governments that the vehicles can be entrusted with human lives.
But there are incredible safety challenges. One of the biggest is what to do when things go badly wrong.
With a normal car, you can often just slow to a halt and stop. But a flying car might fall out of the sky, killing not only its occupants but potentially bystanders too. 
Drone Taxi Dubai
Ehang’s flying taxi for Dubai.
The Chinese company Ehang is proposing to equip its flying car service in Dubai with a parachute. This service will apparently take a single occupant from the roof of one Dubai skyscraper to the roof of another.
Should the parachute deploy, it is not clear whether the vehicle will have any way to control where it lands, or how safely.
In the existing aviation industry, much of the mechanics of flying is automated. Given the challenges of a person flying compared to driving a car, and the efforts to reduce human error in aviation, there is even more likelihood of flying cars becoming automated so that no human pilot is needed.
But there will be differences between existing aviation practice and flying cars. Passenger jet air travel owes much of its impressive safety record to improvements in aircraft maintenance procedures and our understanding of failures. It is unlikely that the business case for small flying cars will allow for such rigorous practices.
Instead, flying cars will be less complex than modern jets, and the latest demonstrators show exactly that.
The use of large numbers of small electric motors, such as in the Lilium all-electric aircraft, reduces the maintenance complexity drastically. It also provides an inbuilt measure of redundancy in case one motor fails. 
The Lilium Jet – The world's first all-electric VTOL jet
The Lilium electric aircraft.
How fast, how far?
Wouldn’t it be great to avoid the traffic and public transport congestion of our major cities? We think so.
For example, it currently takes 23 minutes to drive the 19km from our offices in Brisbane to the domestic airport, when traffic is freely flowing.
If we could fly from our office roof (and there is a pad on our roof that is ideally suited to deploying a flying car), the trip would only take 8 minutes.
We’d get a double boost, first from flying at an average speed of (say) 100kmh, and second by taking the straightest path, a mere 13km.
This example journey is well within the capabilities of the flying cars being demonstrated today.
Of course it may be that authorities mandate that we stick to flight corridors reserved for flying cars, so a direct route is not always an option. These corridors may be strategically located over low-risk areas of land that have minimal population.
How easy?
There are lots of things about flying cars that are hard, but some problems may become easier.
There is a lot more space available for cars when you when you have access to three dimensions for travel, as long as the navigation challenges are solved.
Using the several hundred metres of space above the ground means you can potentially have a lot less traffic congestion. You also don’t need to build and maintain expensive road infrastructure.
For self-driving flying cars, moving into the sky actually makes some aspects of planning and traffic control easier.
How much?
It is too early to know how the economics of flying cars will work.
Given the huge regulatory hurdles, the safety issues to overcome, and the lack of special infrastructure to support flying cars (such as take-off and landing areas and charging points for the all-electric aircraft), it is difficult to estimate what a trip should cost.
The current non-flying car ride-sharing companies such as Uber appear to be operating at a massive loss.
The price paid by the consumer in an Uber vehicle is reported to be on average less than half the actual cost of the trip, but the company is hoping to recoup some of these costs by implementing driverless cars. Given that there’s even more chance that flying cars will be driverless, maybe the economics will be favourable.
What would a consumer be willing to pay to possibly get to their destination in half the time? There’s at least one famous historical example in Concorde that posed that same question, and had safety issues. Sadly, its supersonic passenger flights are not available any more.
How long the before I can fly to work?
There is still so much to do before flying cars can become common. The technology has come a long way, mainly due to the rapid development of drones. But the technology of the flying machine itself is just one part of a very complex system.
Like ground-based self-driving cars, it’s likely that if they ever happen, flying cars will occur in certain priority areas first.
Imagine a cheaper but still expensive option for high-level executives, such as the Dubai proposal.
For the rest of us, we may already be walking around in silver jumpsuits and eating meals in a pill before we get to ride in a flying car.
Jonathan Roberts<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-roberts-94843"> </a>professor in Robotics, Queensland University of Technology and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-roberts-94843" target="_blank">here</a>.
Michael Milford is associate professor, Queensland University of Technology and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-milford-271854" target="_blank">here</a>.
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The future of flying cars: science fact or science fiction?

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GUEST OBSERVER
Australians are concerned about housing affordability, so much so that 45.4 percent say they would be willing to see the value of their home stop growing to improve the situation, only 31.8 percent of those polled wouldn’t. 
An ANU poll shows 51.7 percent of Australians are also in favour of removing tax concessions like negative gearing.
The poll surveyed 2,513 people (representative of the population) and found 63.6 percent were willing to see an increase in supply of public housing. Only 32.3 percent are opposed to relaxing planning restrictions. 
With these numbers in mind, it is perhaps surprising that state and federal governments have done so little of any substance in housing policy for decades, if anything they’ve contributed to the problem rather than improved the situation.
Potential policy changes that many believe will improve housing affordability, including removing or reducing tax incentives such as the capital gains tax discount or removing supply impediments, have all been considered too politically difficult by the current government.
The government has justified this by playing to the fear that the value of people’s home may decline or that more liberal planning arrangements may mean that new buildings may spoil the look and feel of local neighbourhoods. 
The latest ANUpoll shows Australians are very concerned that future generations may be locked out of home ownership. Three quarters believe home ownership is part of the Australian way of life.
In terms of their own investments we found that nearly 68 percent of homeowners cite emotional security, stability and belonging as a reason for becoming a homeowner. In terms of security factors, 51 percent cite financial security, 42 percent refer to “renting is dead money” and 41 percent cite security of tenure and being able to “bang nails in the wall”. 
Of those families who have an investment property (17 percent in this poll) the primary motivation for the investment was a “secure place to store money” (27.4 percent) closely followed by rental income (24.3 percent). Only 11.9 percent cited negative gearing as the primary motivator and 13.7 percent were motivated primarily by the capital gains discount. 
Housing remains easily the most popular investment vehicle, with 30 percent saying their preferred investment for spare cash would be an investment property, followed by 18.5 percent preferring to upgrade their own home. Only 12.6 percent preferred shares as an investment. 
In spite of recent talk of a housing bubble the general population is not particularly concerned with immediate price drops, with 85 percent expecting house prices to rise over the coming five years. Only 5.4 percent expect prices to fall and just 1.7 percent expect prices to decrease a lot.
If interest rates were to increase by 2 percentage points, 6.4 percent of mortgage holders expected to be in “a lot” of financial difficulty and 16.7 percent in “quite a bit”. Only 27.9 percent would be in no difficulty. While financial difficulty does not mean default, in mortgage markets it may not take a large share of loans to default to cause financial problems for an economy.
As pointed out earlier negative gearing was the least cited reason for property investment which suggests removing the incentive would at least not make a dramatic difference to the level of housing investment in Australia.
The ANUpoll shows that the public are concerned about housing affordability and where policy is directed at improving affordability they are likely to be supportive. The policy options, be they demand side - reducing tax incentives, or supply side - building more dwellings and/or relaxing planning restrictions, are available, but greater political nerve may be required to undertake such options.
Ben Phillips is associate professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM), Australian National University and author for The Conversation.
He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ben-phillips-98866" target="_blank">here</a>.
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Government out of touch on housing policies ahead of budget: poll

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/76931/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
Encouraging senior Australians to downsize their homes is one of the more popular ideas to make housing more affordable.
The trouble is, incentives for downsizing would hit the budget, but make little difference to housing affordability.
It sounds good: new incentives would encourage seniors to move to housing that better suits their needs, while freeing up equity for their retirement and larger homes for younger families. 
But the reality is different. Research shows most seniors are emotionally attached to their home and neighbourhood and don’t want to downsize. 
When people do downsize, financial incentives are generally not the big things on their minds. And so most of the budget’s financial incentives will go to those who were going to downsize anyway.
Financial barriers to downsizing
There are three financial hurdles to downsizing. Downsizers risk losing some or all of their Age Pension, because the family home is exempt from the pension assets test, but any home equity unlocked by downsizing is not. 
Downsizers also have to stump up the stamp duty on any new home they buy. For a senior purchasing the median-priced home in Sydney that’s now A$32,000. Finally earnings from the cash released are taxed, whereas capital gains on the home are not.
The Turnbull government has flagged the possibility of financial incentives in next week’s federal budget for superannuants and pensioners to downsize their home. 
One proposal would exempt downsizers from the A$1.6 million cap on super balances eligible for tax-free earnings in retirement, or from the A$100,000 annual cap on post-tax contributions. But this would benefit only the very wealthiest retirees – just 60,000 retirees have super fund balances exceeding A$1.6 million. 
More seniors would benefit from a proposal to exempt them from stamp duty when purchasing a smaller home. And many would benefit from a Property Council proposal to quarantine some portion of the proceeds from the pension assets test for up to a decade. 
The trouble with all these proposals is that they would hit the budget – because everyone who downsized would get the benefits – but they would not encourage many more seniors to downsize. 
Staying - or downsizing – is seldom about the money
Research shows that for two-thirds of older Australians, the desire to “age in place” is the most important reason for not selling the family home. Often they stay put because they can’t find suitable housing in the same local area.
In established suburbs where many seniors live, there are relatively few smaller dwellings because planning laws restrict subdivision. And even if the new house is next door, there’s an emotional cost to leaving a long-standing home, and to packing and moving. 
And so, few older Australians downsize their home. According to the Productivity Commission, about 20% aged 60 or over have sold their home and purchased a less expensive one since turning 50. Another 15% have “strong intentions” to do so in the future. 
When older Australians do downsize, their decision is dominated by non-financial considerations, such as a preference for a different style of house and living, a concern that it is getting too hard to maintain the house and garden, or the loss of a partner.
These emotional factors typically dwarf financial considerations. According to surveys, no more than 15% of downsizers are motivated by financial gain. Stamp duty costs were a barrier for only about 5% of those thinking of downsizing. Only 1% of seniors listed the impact on their pension as their main reason for not downsizing.
There are better and cheaper ways to encourage seniors to downsize
If governments do want to use financial incentives to encourage downsizing, budget sticks would be cheaper and fairer than budget carrots. Even if they have little effect on downsizing rates, at least they would contribute to much-needed budget repair and economic growth.
The federal government should include the value of the family home above some threshold – such as A$500,000 – in the Age Pension assets test. This would encourage a few more seniors to downsize. More importantly, it would make pension arrangements fairer, and contribute up to A$7 billion a year to the budget. 
Asset-rich, income-poor retirees could continue to receive a full pension by borrowing against the value of the home until the house is sold. The federal government would then recover the cost from the proceeds of the sale. If well designed, this scheme would have almost no effect on retirees – instead it would primarily reduce inheritances.
State governments should abolish stamp duties on property, and replace them with a general property tax, as the ACT Government is doing. This would encourage downsizing, although only at the margins. 
But the real policy justification is that it would help working age households to take a better job that’s only accessible by moving house, and so improve economic growth. It’s a big prize: a national shift from stamp duties to broad-based property taxes could add up to A$9 billion a yearto the economy. 
In short, the downsizing debate is a prime example of how governments prefer politically easy options with cosmetic appeal, but little real effect, on housing affordability. If they’re serious about making it easier for young Australians to buy a home, they will have to make tougher policy choices.
Brendan Coates<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brendan-coates-154644" rel="author"> </a>is fellow, Grattan Institute and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brendan-coates-154644" target="_blank">here</a>.
John Daley is Chief Executive Officer, Grattan Institute and can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-daley-1870" target="_blank">here</a>.
Both are authors for The Conversation.
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Why older Australians don’t downsize and the limits to what the government can do about it

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GUEST OBSERVER
As natural disasters become more intense, it's time for insurance companies to help communities adapt to climate change.
As communities recover from the havoc wreaked by Cyclone Debbie, it’s time to accept that disasters will become more intense due to climate change and the cost of insurance will continue to rise.
Insurers have a unique insight into the risk and costs associated with climate change. If insurers better informed households about the terms and conditions of insurance and the potential costs of what’s not covered, consumers could help mitigate the risks themselves.
Insurers could also share data with government on how building and changes to infrastructure affects premiums. This would avoid surprises after a disaster hits.
Where insurance products are unaffordable, or cover unavailable, it’s often governments left to foot the bill. Since 2009, this has amounted to more than A$12 billion.
When governments can no longer afford the exorbitant clean up costs, the homeowner (or residents, in the case of renters) will be left with little recourse.
Rising premiums
The insurance industry is expecting premiums to be equal to 38% of annual income by the year 2100 for affected households. We are also starting to see a huge disparity in the cost of insurance between high and low risk areas.
Insurance premiums in Northern Queensland are already more than double that of Brisbane due to climate risk, for instance. Exorbitant costs of insurance may result in consumers being unable to afford cover.
To reduce these premiums, more adaptation and mitigation measures are critical.
One example of this is the partnership between insurer Suncorp and James Cook University to analyse data on insurance claims and to beef up cyclone protection by retrofitting homes. This partnership has reduced the cost of some insurance premiums.
The Productivity Commission inquiry into climate change adaption supported “market led adaptation”. This is in part premised on the insurance sector providing “price signals” - noting the costs via year to year for insurance premiums for various risks, so that consumers can adapt.
It would also be easier for consumers to adapt if the information about their coverage, beyond prices, was clearer. As noted in the Queensland Flood Inquiry report commissioned after the catastrophic flooding in 2011, insurers can help by using plain language in their insurance products. This includes in Product Disclosure Statements, particularly on what types of “flood” are covered.
Data to protect home owners
If there was a centralised, and freely available, source of climate risk data it would be easier to ensure consumers, government and insurers were all working on the same assumptions.
There is already some spatial data freely available, including by the CSIRO, via CoastAdapt, and even with local councils such as Lake Macquarie.
There is perhaps potential for the current Productivity Commission inquiry into data sharing to specifically consider data relating to climate risk. For example, the spatial data in the National Interest Dataset could be used to provide consistent, reliable and free data to consumers prior to their decision to live or to build in high risk locations.
This data is important for risk forecasting and planning by the public and private sector (including insurers) in order to avoid up to US$100billion of uninsured losses, due to natural disasters worldwide.
Land use and development
How we develop or build on land is critical for how insurers will price premiums.
Australians have a history of, and perhaps an affinity for, building in high risk locations, and then rebuilding there when disaster strikes. While some insurers are recognising the economic benefits of acting early by installing flood levies in some Queensland towns, relying on wall building might not produce the results the community expects.
It can result in communities feeling protected by a wall that may not withstand future climate risk. A better approach is to implement climate adaptation measures early.
Law courts have been tasked with considering the impact of climate risk into administrative decision making for close to a decade. Cases in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland demonstrate the importance of a relevant decision maker properly factoring climate risk into development and land use planning decisions.
There are some instances where land use planning properly factors in climate risk. For example, in New South Wales previous land use decisions have allowed people to build close to at risk shorelines, or to place temporary works to protect homes during severe events. Now these are undergoing reform to include new laws which take into account expected future sea levels.
Getting reading for future events
As observed in the Productivity Commission inquiry into natural disaster mitigation, insurers can and need to do more to inform households on their policies, the natural hazards they face, and the indicative costs of rebuilding.
A wider availability of spatial data that quantifies risks to properties would assist home owners to be better prepared, but some of the responsibility lies with government as well.
It’s for local and state governments to determine whether, and where, rebuilding ought to occur.
Some of groundwork to improving all of these problems has already been set. The Federal Government setup a taskforce into insurance risks in Northern Australia, and the Productivity Commission has examined both barriers to climate change adaptation and mitigating the impact of natural disasters.
Governments need to play a central role. They must recognise the critical importance of a robust climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and then act on it. Only then will insurers get the signal for the need for change.
Tayanah O'Donnell is a Research Fellow with CURF at the University of Canberra and author for The Conversation. She can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tayanah-odonnell-122914" target="_blank">here</a>.
 
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How insurers can get better at responding to natural disasters: Tayanah O'Donnell

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/75780/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
ABS figures show that Australia's appetite for faster broadband is growing apace.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest figures on internet activity in Australia show a huge jump in the number of people with advertised speeds of greater than 24 Mbps (that’s megabits per second, a measure of data transfer speed).
That trend is significant because it suggests that Australia’s appetite for faster broadband is growing apace, and that the NBN may be helping to drive adoption of higher speed internet.
Starting from Dec 2014, the number of subscribers in Australia with internet advertised as being capable of 24 Mbps or greater rose from 2.3 million to 7.8 million. Or, expressed another way, from 19% of all internet subscribers to 58 eprcent of all subscribers.
(It’s worth noting that the growth is in people who have signed up to packages that advertised internet speeds capable of reaching 24 Mbps. That’s not to say that speed is actually delivered all of the time; there is variation and one doesn’t always get the advertised speeds.)
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/04/13/Untitled-1.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2017/04/13/Untitled-1.jpg" width="700" height="471">
<div class="dw-chart-notes">ABS data show that by 2016, about 58% of all internet subscribers in Australia had internet advertised of being capable of 24 Mbps or higher. Dotted lines signify interpolation between values where data is missing.</div>
<div class="dw-chart-notes">Source: ABS Cat 8153.0 Internet Activity and NBN Co Strategic Review Report 2015</div>
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<div class="dw-chart-notes">
This increase is due, in part, to the roll-out of the national broadband network (NBN) and access to broadband at higher speeds – but that’s not the whole story.
True, the number of NBN subscribers over the same period rose rapidly from 322,000 to 1.7 million but that doesn’t explain the other 5.5 million subscribers who moved to faster broadband in that time.
Looking at the types of connection, there was an increase in the number of subscribers using internet delivered by fibre and fixed wireless. This tallies with what NBN data show.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/04/13/Untitled-2.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2017/04/13/Untitled-2.jpg" width="700" height="394">
The number of fibre connections increased to more than 1.4 million connections, which is an increase of 122% in the year between December 2015 and December 2016.
Source: ABS Cat 8153.0, Internet Activity,
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It’s likely that with the advent of the NBN and its standardised speed tiers, internet service providers started offering services that were on a par or better than those being offered on the NBN. Competition may be at work, and the technology itself is improving.
However, data reported by cloud computing services firm Akamai in their State of the Internet reports – frequently cited by the press – showed Australia’s broadband to be woefully behind most other developed countries.
Indeed, in the same time that Australia saw a huge increase in subscribers on internet speeds of 24 Mbps and above, Akamai was reporting that average internet download speeds had increased by a mere 27%, an increase to an underwhelming 10.1 Mbps. That puts Australia down the list in terms of average speeds.
With ABS data showing that 58% of the population is now on plans capable of delivering speeds of 24 Mbps and above, such a paltry rise in the average internet speed is somewhat surprising.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/04/13/Untitled-3.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2017/04/13/Untitled-3.jpg" width="700" height="437">
Dotted lines signify interpolation between values where data is missing.
Source: Akamai State of the Internet Report
It is, of course, possible that the advertised speeds of Australian internet plans are, too often, misrepresenting the true speeds available.
The way that Akamai calculates its figures is not spelled out in its report – it says that it “includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform”. So perhaps it would be wise to take claims about Australia’s rank in the world on internet speeds with a hefty grain of salt. Things may be better than we are being told.
More data is needed to make sense of the impact of the shift of subscribers to higher speed internet. Projects like the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s plan to “test and report on the typical speed and performance of broadband plans provided over the NBN” will help build a more accurate picture.
 
David Glance is the Director of the UWA Centre for Software Practice, a UWA research and development centre and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-glance-148" target="_blank">here.</a>
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Three charts on Australia’s growing appetite for fast broadband: David Glance

Shelter, the future and the problems in between: Briohny Doyle

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The billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze has again expanded his NSW farming properties.
The 2,250 hectare farm in Boggabri recently cost Hintze $7,935,000, which took his spend mostly in rural NSW to over $80 million over the past decade or so.
His prior acquisition was Deltroit, the Gundagai district 2573 hectare Mundarlo property.
Sir Michael, with a fortune estimated at $1.3 billion, is the founder of London-headquartered $12 billion global fund manager CQS.
His MH Premium Farms owns 20 rural properties in Australia spanning more than 70,000 hectares across Australia from North Queensland sugar farms to Victoria.
He started near Goulburn in 2007 with a $12.5 million purchase of the 3,300 hectare grazing property Little Wollogorang.
The expatriate veteran hedge fund trader - who grew up in Sydney - doesn't have a home in the NSW capital.
He deemed his farming portfolio as an investment not just looking for capital gain from the properties but also seeking solid returns on production.
Hintze recently spent more than $10 million on the historic Cheviot Hills, his first Victorian farming property.
He's not the only London based expat buying up the bush.
Ivan Ritossa and wife Marina have spent $5.4 million on Bogolara, nearly 1,700 hectares an hour north of Canberra.
They've bought with Cootamundra born David Carr, the former Yellow Brick Road owner. 
Ivan was one of the most influential figures in foreign exchange over the past few decades.
In 2008 Ivan and Marina paid $45 million for Coolong, the 4,100 sqm Vaucluse waterfront trophy of the late Allco founder David Coe.
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.
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Sir Michael Hintze buys Boggabri farm

Sydney developer Hyecorp's roots on the Lower North Shore stretch back three generations, and that deep understanding of the market continues to shape where and how it develops today.

From high-rise towers to boutique apartment projects, the family-run developer has built its reputation by focusing on a part of Sydney it knows intimately. Founded by Michael Abolakian in the early 1990s, Hyecorp is now led by his sons Stephen, Troy and Patrick.

Stephen Abolakian, joint managing director alongside Troy, has spent more than two decades in the business, overseeing development, planning, finance, marketing and sales.

Abolakian says the developer's disciplined focus on where it chooses to operate has been, and continues to be, one of Hyecorp's greatest strengths.

“We know the buyer profile exceptionally well,” Abolakian says.

“The demographics between places like Willoughby, Chatswood, St Leonards and Roseville are very similar. There are nuances between suburbs and projects, but culturally and from a buyer perspective, there’s a strong overlap.”

That buyer has historically been overwhelmingly owner-occupier driven.

Unlike many Sydney apartment developers that have traditionally relied heavily on investor demand, Hyecorp’s projects have typically attracted downsizers, upsizers, rightsizers and family owner-occupiers seeking long-term homes rather than short-term investments.

“Historically, investors have been a much smaller portion of our demand profile,” Abolakian says.

“We design for owner-occupiers. We don’t design for yield, we design for comfort, amenity, family living and long-term usability.”

That philosophy extends well beyond apartment layouts.

From landscaping and communal gardens to shared amenities and circulation spaces, Hyecorp’s developments are designed around how people actually live, something Abolakian believes has become increasingly important in Sydney’s apartment market.

“There was probably a period where having an approved project in market was enough,” he says.

“There wasn’t as much competition and if you built it, buyers would come. That’s no longer the case.”

“There’s more supply in the pipeline now, particularly with TOD precincts and low and mid-rise reforms opening up opportunities across Sydney. Buyers have more choice, so if you get the product wrong, they’ll simply go elsewhere.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=110379 project_image_fid=311393]

The shift has forced developers to become more sophisticated in how they approach apartment design, particularly as owner-occupier expectations continue to rise.

For Hyecorp, that means thinking beyond who the buyer is today and designing for who they may become in five or 10 years' time.

“People buying now often aren’t moving in for several years,” Abolakian says.

“You might have a young couple buying today, but by the time they move in they may have children, older children, or changing lifestyle needs. You’ve got to think about how families evolve.”

That thinking also shapes Hyecorp’s approach to amenity, which positions wellness at the forefront.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=149594 project_image_fid=362634]

While resort-style facilities have become increasingly common marketing tools across Sydney apartment developments, Abolakian says the challenge is ensuring amenities are genuinely usable and appropriate for the scale of the project.

“If amenities are done right, they can materially improve the living experience,” he says, adding however that if you&nbsp;overdo it or get it wrong, you can end up with facilities nobody uses that simply create ongoing strata costs.”

That balance is something Hyecorp is aiming to strike with projects like Roseville Avenue, one of the group's upcoming Lower North Shore developments, which Abolakian describes as bringing a resort-style living experience into a metropolitan setting.

“It’s about creating something that feels special without being excessive,” he says.

“Good gardens, quality apartments, thoughtful amenity. Creating that resort feeling in a metro location.”

<img alt="Hyecorp" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="13c4c0f3-b1b7-44cf-9344-0b3d1d07797a" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-02%20at%2012.14.57%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=9OLWjyj2bYkDV35F78WJnyMSPfc2bJ2z" />

The focus on owner-occupier product comes as Sydney’s apartment market continues to navigate a difficult development environment.&nbsp;For Hyecorp, maintaining an in-house operating model across construction, sales, marketing and development management has become increasingly important in navigating that environment.

“We’ve always believed in keeping a lot of the process in-house,” Abolakian says.

“It creates efficiencies, but it also creates quality control. You can make faster decisions and ensure the end product stays aligned with the original vision.”

Despite the challenges, Abolakian believes demand for quality owner-occupier apartments across Sydney remains strong beneath the surface, particularly across established Lower North Shore suburbs where downsizers continue to seek new housing options close to existing communities.

“There are definitely people waiting,” he says.

“Once some of the broader uncertainty settles, whether that’s the global environment or some of the local economic noise, I think the right projects will perform very strongly.”

Hyecorp currently has three residential developments on the market across Sydney’s Lower North Shore.&nbsp;Audrey, St Leonards, positioned opposite Newlands Park, is nearing completion and preparing to welcome its first residents, with the project now almost sold out.

Hyecorp has also recently launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/celine-chatswood-37-archer-street-chatswood-nsw-2067">Celine Chatswood</a>, an architectural tower, while continuing to deliver&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/juliet-roseville-64-pacific-highway-roseville-nsw-2069">Juliet Roseville</a>, a more boutique scale of development with just 34 apartments.

Joel Robinson

Why Hyecorp continues to back Sydney's Lower North Shore apartment market

South East Queensland’s apartment market is entering a new phase defined by rising prices, constrained affordability, and mounting pressure on the construction pipeline, according to RPM Group’s latest SEQ Apartments &amp; Townhomes Market Report.

The May 2026 report highlights a widening divide between what buyers can afford and what developers can viably deliver, with detached house prices continuing to push more buyers toward apartments across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast.

RPM says Brisbane’s median house price has reached around $1.5 million, accelerating the shift toward higher-density housing as buyers are increasingly priced out of the detached market.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135094 project_image_fid=356540]

Median unit prices rose across all three major SEQ markets in the March quarter. Brisbane City recorded the strongest annual growth, with median unit prices climbing 21 per cent to $862,000, while the Gold Coast reached the highest overall median at $950,000, up 17 per cent year-on-year. The Sunshine Coast followed at $870,000, representing annual growth of nine per cent.

RPM noted the affordability gap between houses and units remains significant, with detached homes commanding premiums of 67 per cent in Brisbane and 68 per cent on the Gold Coast relative to apartments.

The report suggests this price disparity is increasingly consolidating buyer demand within the apartment market, particularly among downsizers and owner-occupiers.

“Demand is real. Supply is moving. But they’re operating on different timelines and the gap between what’s being built and what buyers can afford is the defining tension in this market right now,” RPM Queensland and NSW Managing Directors Peter Neale and Clinton Trezise said in the report.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150787 project_image_fid=366230]

While approvals and commencements are strengthening, RPM argues the delivery pipeline remains constrained by construction costs, labour shortages, and extended build timelines.

Apartment approvals across Queensland increased 86 per cent over the year to February 2026, reaching 12,682 approvals, the highest level recorded since 2016. Brisbane overtook the Gold Coast as the state’s most active apartment approval market, with nearly 5,000 apartments approved over the past 12 months.

Unit commencements also strengthened considerably, rising 48 per cent year-on-year to 5,453 commencements in the December 2025 quarter, the highest level since 2018.

However, RPM’s research found apartment delivery timeframes have expanded sharply compared to the previous cycle. Projects are now averaging around 30 months from approval to completion, compared to roughly 20 months a decade ago.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=143932 project_image_fid=367515]

The number of units under construction has climbed to approximately 31,530 dwellings, nearing the previous 2016 peak, though projects are remaining in the pipeline for considerably longer.

Construction costs continue to weigh heavily on feasibility. RPM found the average apartment construction cost in Greater Brisbane reached $630,000 per dwelling in 2025, exceeding both Sydney and Melbourne. Coastal Queensland markets, including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, were even higher at an average of $817,418 per apartment due to the prevalence of larger premium product.

The report also points to increasing pressure from Olympic-related infrastructure spending ahead of Brisbane 2032, with labour competition expected to intensify over the next several years.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=370960]

ANZ Associate Director of Property Daniel Gradwell said the underlying demand drivers across South East Queensland remain strong, supported by interstate migration, downsizers, and population growth.

“The challenge is bringing enough supply to market to meet that demand, and nothing on the horizon makes that straightforward,” Gradwell said.

RPM’s analysis found the affordability challenge is becoming more pronounced in the new apartment market itself, with only three per cent of surveyed new apartments priced below $1 million.

Instead, the market is increasingly concentrated in higher price brackets, with the most common new apartment price band across SEQ sitting between $1.5 million and $1.75 million. Around half of all new apartment stock surveyed is priced below $2 million.

The report suggests developers are not necessarily avoiding lower price points by choice, but because current construction economics make delivering affordable apartments increasingly difficult at scale.

Rental conditions also remain tight across the region. Median rents for one-bedroom apartments rose 12 per cent in Brisbane over the past year to $580 per week, while Gold Coast one-bedroom rents increased nine per cent to $630.

Despite rising rents, RPM noted bond lodgements have generally trended downward over the past five years, indicating more apartments are being absorbed by owner-occupiers rather than retained as investor-held rental stock.

Looking ahead, RPM expects projects targeting the mid-market owner-occupier segment between $1.25 million and $2 million to remain the most viable part of the market, while premium projects in highly constrained coastal or riverfront locations continue to attract demand.

“Construction costs are rewriting the feasibility rulebook across Greater Brisbane, and with little relief in sight, only projects in the right price band, right location, and with presales secured early will make it through,” the report concludes.

SEQ apartment demand outpacing affordable supply as construction timelines stretch: RPM

Camberwell Junction has long been the epicentre of amenity in Melbourne’s Boroondara region.

For nearly a century, it has drawn both locals and visitors, anchored by the Camberwell Sunday Market, which first operated in 1929 and quickly became a fixture of the suburb’s identity. Over time, the Junction evolved into one of Melbourne’s most established retail and lifestyle precincts, now comprising more than 400 stores and over 300 commercial businesses.

Despite that depth of amenity, one thing has remained notably limited: the supply of new apartments.

In a suburb defined by its heritage streetscapes and tightly held residential stock, new development opportunities have been scarce, particularly within the core of the Junction itself. That lack of supply has left a gap in the market for larger, design-led apartments suited to downsizers and owner-occupiers wanting to remain in the area.

Boutique developer Above Zero identified that gap when it secured a prime site on Burke Road, in the heart of Camberwell Junction.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368543]

The site has a long planning history. Various proposals have been put forward over more than a decade, many of which were knocked back by the City of Boroondara, with initial applications dating back to 2015. Above Zero acquired the site in 2022 and returned with a revised scheme, refining both the building’s height and its ground-level interface to better align with Council expectations.

That process has culminated in approval for Camberwell House.

The Cera Stribley-designed development will deliver 57 residences on a 1,950 sqm site within the Camberwell Activity Centre, placing it directly within one of Melbourne’s most established retail and transport hubs.

It is expected to be one of the only new apartment developments to launch in the Junction in recent years, reinforcing the rarity of new supply in the precinct. Currently, there are just a handful of projects on the market in Camberwell, underscoring the significance of a development of this scale and positioning.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368544]

Camberwell House has been conceived with a clear focus on larger-format apartments. The project will offer a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom residences, alongside a limited number of penthouses, targeting owner-occupiers seeking scale rather than volume-driven product.

The building’s vertical presence will also set it apart.

Positioned on Burke Road, the development is set to become one of the taller buildings in its immediate context, allowing for elevated outlooks across Melbourne’s CBD skyline and toward the Dandenong Ranges. In a precinct characterised by lower-scale built form, that height provides a point of differentiation, particularly for buyers seeking outlook and natural light.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368568]

Architecture has been led by Cera Stribley, with interiors by GOLDEN and landscape design by Florian Wild. The design approach centres on material consistency and restraint, with residences oriented to maximise light, ventilation and connection to outdoor spaces.

Full-height glazing and generous terraces form a key part of that strategy, allowing apartments to extend beyond their internal footprint and engage with the surrounding environment.

Beyond the private residences, a significant component of the project is its amenity offering.

Above Zero has positioned Camberwell House as a “complete living environment”, incorporating a full floor dedicated to resident facilities. At the centre of that is a wellness zone, including a 12.5-metre lap pool, spa, sauna and treatment spaces, alongside a gym and recovery-focused amenities.

This level of amenity is more commonly associated with inner-city developments, rather than established middle-ring suburbs like Camberwell.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=4896 project_image_fid=368588]

Additional shared spaces include a private library lounge, dining and entertaining areas, and an indoor golf simulator. A self-contained guest suite has also been incorporated, allowing residents to accommodate visiting family or friends without impacting their primary living space.

The inclusion of these facilities reflects a broader shift in buyer expectations.

As more downsizers look to transition from larger family homes into apartments, there is increasing demand for developments that offer not just a residence, but a lifestyle. That includes access to wellness, social and entertaining spaces within the building itself, reducing the reliance on external amenity while still maintaining proximity to established precincts.

Camberwell House is positioned to benefit from both.

Its location places it within immediate walking distance of Camberwell Junction’s retail and dining offering, as well as public transport connections, including tram and train services. That combination of internal amenity and external convenience is central to its appeal.

<section data-scroll-anchor="false" data-testid="conversation-turn-150" data-turn="assistant" data-turn-id="request-WEB:55d7c6ac-8e6d-4881-ad49-0ed9bf66d1cc-74" dir="auto">
Jellis Craig Projects Director Stephen Bowtell is handling sales for the project and says Camberwell House offers a rare entry point into one of Melbourne’s most tightly held markets.

“Buyers are recognising that Camberwell House offers something they simply haven’t seen before in Boroondara,”&nbsp;Bowtell&nbsp;says.

“It combines a level of resident amenity and service typically associated with Melbourne’s premium inner-city developments, while being positioned right in the heart of Camberwell Junction.

“The response to the concierge offering has been particularly strong. Buyers appreciate not only the convenience, but also the sense of security and peace of mind that comes from having a dedicated presence in the building every day.

“When you combine that with the wellness facilities, the exceptional arrival experience, and panoramic views across both the CBD skyline and the Dandenong Ranges, it creates a lifestyle proposition that is genuinely unique within the local market.”
</section>

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=4896]

Above Zero launches Camberwell House in undersupplied Camberwell Junction precinct

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/consolidated-properties">Consolidated Properties Group</a> (CPG) is approaching the launch of its latest Brisbane riverfront development, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/castile-47-skyring-terrace-newstead-qld-4006">Castile</a>, on the dress circle Skyring Terrace in Newstead.

VIP buyers are now being engaged, with a full public sales launch coming later this year.

Positioned as the final opportunity to secure a new absolute riverfront residence on the East bank of Newstead, Teneriffe or New Farm, Castile at 47 Skyring Terrace has been designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/woods-bagot">Woods Bagot</a> as a timeless addition to the Brisbane skyline.&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150489 project_image_fid=371113]

The name Castile draws on themes of permanence, sophistication and legacy, reflecting a broader vision centred on enduring architecture and timelessness in the rarest of riverfront positions.&nbsp;

CPG Chairman and CEO Don O’Rorke said the project had been envisioned as a future Brisbane icon.&nbsp;

“With 47 metres of direct river frontage and never to be built out views, 47 Skyring Terrace is the definitive address on the Brisbane River,” O’Rorke said.&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150489 project_image_fid=371114]

“Rather than following trend-based apartment design, Castile draws inspiration from Brisbane’s great heritage buildings, reinterpreting classical architecture into a contemporary riverfront landmark designed to stand proudly for the next 100 years,” he said.&nbsp;

The approved development will comprise 227 apartments across a 25-storey tower alongside a boutique six-storey riverfront building of just 12 residences.&nbsp;

Construction is scheduled to commence in September 2026.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150489]

CPG unveils Castile Newstead ahead of upcoming sales launch

Australia’s online shopping habits have shifted dramatically over the last decade. As eCommerce volumes surged, so too did the frustrations that came with traditional parcel delivery: missed deliveries, long Post Office queues, parcel theft and the challenge of being home during business hours.

Australia Post’s Parcel Lockers emerged as one of the more practical responses to that changing consumer behaviour.

What started as a relatively niche delivery option has evolved into a nationwide network of more than 1,400 self-service Parcel Lockers positioned at train stations, shopping centres, supermarkets and Post Offices across the country. The system allows Australians to send, collect and return parcels 24 hours a day, fundamentally changing how many people interact with deliveries.

The appeal is relatively straightforward: flexibility.

Instead of waiting at home for a delivery driver or rushing to a Post Office before closing time, users can direct eligible parcels to a Parcel Locker location of their choice. Once the parcel arrives, Australia Post sends a notification with a collection code or QR access through the AusPost app, allowing customers to retrieve their package at any time within the collection window.

For apartment residents in particular, the system has become increasingly valuable.

Higher-density living has created logistical challenges around deliveries, especially in buildings without concierge services or secure parcel rooms. Missed deliveries are common, while parcel theft has become an increasing concern as online shopping volumes continue to rise.

Australia Post itself has repeatedly highlighted the growing issue of “porch pirates” during peak shopping periods, encouraging customers to use Parcel Lockers as a safer alternative to unattended home deliveries.

That security aspect is one of the key reasons the Australia Post Parcel Locker network has grown so rapidly.

Parcel Lockers are positioned as secure, monitored collection points that reduce the risk of theft while also improving delivery efficiency for Australia Post. Instead of multiple redelivery attempts, parcels can be consolidated into a single secure destination.

The Parcel Lockers themselves are free to use through a MyPost account and support a range of parcel sizes up to 16 kilograms and dimensions of approximately 35 x 44 x 61 centimetres.

Beyond receiving parcels, the system has increasingly become integrated into the broader eCommerce ecosystem.

Customers can now use Parcel Lockers to return online purchases, while retailers have embraced the model as a way to improve delivery success rates and reduce friction in the shopping process. Australia Post has actively expanded partnerships with major retailers and promoted Parcel Lockers as part of a broader out-of-home strategy.

The timing of that expansion aligns with broader changes in Australian shopping behaviour.

The acceleration of online retail during and after the pandemic placed enormous pressure on delivery infrastructure. Parcel volumes reached record highs, particularly during Black Friday and Christmas periods, with Australia Post delivering more than 100 million parcels during peak festive seasons.

That growth forced logistics providers to rethink the “last mile” of delivery, widely regarded as the most expensive and operationally difficult stage of the process.

Parcel Locker systems have increasingly been viewed as part of the long-term solution.

The concept itself is not unique to Australia. Parcel Locker networks have become common globally, particularly across Europe and Asia, where dense urban environments and apartment living create similar logistical challenges. But Australia’s geography and suburban sprawl made adoption slower initially.

Now, however, the convenience factor is driving mainstream usage.

For commuters, Parcel Lockers near train stations allow parcels to be collected on the way home from work. For apartment dwellers, they remove the uncertainty around access and missed deliveries.

The rise of the AusPost app has also streamlined the experience, centralising notifications, tracking and Parcel Locker access into a single platform. Australia Post has increasingly pushed customers toward app-based delivery management, partly as a way to combat phishing scams and fake delivery notifications, which have become more sophisticated in recent years.

The Parcel Locker model is also beginning to influence property development itself.

Parcel management has become a growing consideration in apartment building design, particularly as online shopping becomes embedded in everyday life. Many new residential developments are now incorporating dedicated parcel rooms or Parcel Locker systems into foyers and communal spaces.

For developers, parcel management is increasingly viewed as part of the broader resident amenity offering, alongside gyms, wellness spaces and communal work areas.

That reflects a wider evolution in how residential buildings are designed.

Apartment buyers are placing greater emphasis on convenience, security and operational functionality, particularly in higher-density urban environments. Parcel delivery, once considered a minor operational detail, has become an increasingly important part of that equation.

Australia Post’s Parcel Locker network sits at the centre of that behavioural shift.

What began as a simple alternative delivery option has evolved into a key piece of infrastructure supporting Australia’s growing eCommerce economy and changing urban lifestyles.

And as online shopping continues to expand, the role of Parcel Lockers is likely to become even more embedded in how Australians live, shop and receive goods.

Jonathan Chancellor

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