<html><body>
GUEST OBSERVER
We are not convinced that giving the largest banks in Australia $7.4 billion over the next ten years is good for the budget. – Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, leaders’ debate speech, May 29, 2016.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s line of attack during the leaders’ debate focused squarely on the Coalition’s long-term plan to cut the company tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent.
Twice during the debate Shorten said the proposed tax cuts equated to giving A$7.4 billion over ten years to Australia’s big four banks (National Australia Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac).
Is that right?
Checking the source
When asked for a source to support that assertion, a Labor spokeswoman referred The Conversation to modelling conducted by think-tank The Australia Institute.
The Labor spokeswoman said:
"Bill was emphasising the clear point of contrast in this election campaign, which is that Malcolm Turnbull wants to spend $50 billion giving huge companies a tax cut while Labor wants to invest in schools, Medicare and growing good jobs."
The Australia Institute modelling
In a press release, The Australia Institute said that for their economic modelling:
"The value of company tax provisions was derived from 2015 full year annual reports for the big four banks. That figure summed to $11,123 million. That figure was projected forward to 2026-27 to give the no-change scenario."
To arrive at the figure of $7.4 billion, The Australia Institute modelling assumed bank profit would increase in line with nominal Gross Domestic Product. Under this assumption, the amount of tax payable would also increase in line with nominal GDP. This would give nominal increases of:
<ul>
<li>2.5 percent in 2015-16;</li>
<li>4.25 percent in 2016-17; and</li>
<li>5 percent in 2017-18 and subsequent years.</li>
</ul>
As the think tank noted in its press release, the company tax cuts would not affect the big banks until 2024-25. That’s when the 30 percent company tax rate will fall to 27 percent for all companies with further reductions of 1 percent per year, hitting 25% in 2026-27.
The Australia Institute calculated the following results:
<a href="/images/2016/05/31/image-20160530-7713-8cr5ue.png" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="/images/2016/05/31/image-20160530-7713-8cr5ue.png" alt="">
A reasonable guesstimate – but not a fact
On these calculations, the “$7.4 billion over the next ten years” claim is not a fact. But it’s also not an unreasonable guesstimate – although it is, of course, really over the three years from 2024-25 through 2026-27. There is no advantage to the big banks over the first seven of the next ten years.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, the four big banks paid a total of $9.5 billion in company tax in the 2013-14 financial year.
The government has proposed increasing the turnover threshold below which the rate of company tax payable is 27.5 percent, from $10 million in 2016-17 to $1 billion in 2022-23.
The government’s proposed policy says that the company tax rate for all companies (including the four big banks) with turnover exceeding $1 billion will fall from 30 percent to 27 percent in 2024-25, and then by a further one percentage point in 2025-26 and another percentage point (to 25 percent) in 2026-27.
So, on that basis, The Australia Institute’s maths checks out.
A grain of salt
As with all economic modelling, this modelling and any claims based on it should be taken with a large grain of salt.
Any assumption about the banks’ profit growth over the next ten years is entirely arbitrary, and I have no idea whether it is at all justified. Only time will tell.
If the banks' profits grew by only 2 percent per annum over this period, then the benefit to them from the cut in the company tax rate proposed by the Coalition would be “only” $4.8 billion; if they grew by 10% per annum the benefit to them would be $12 billion (over the three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27).
Verdict
Shorten’s statement relies on modelling assumptions made by The Australia Institute think-tank about bank profit growth. It is not a statement of fact but rather a guesstimate. It is not an unreasonable guesstimate, but depends entirely on whether the think tank’s assumptions about bank profit growth come true or not.  
 <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/saul-eslake-665" rel="author">Saul Eslake</a> is vice-chancellor’s fellow, University of Tasmania and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/saul-eslake-665" target="_blank">here</a>.
</body></html>

jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Will Australia's largest banks get a $7.4 billion benefit from tax cuts over next decade? Saul Eslake 

<html><body>
McGrath has announced it has been appointed by Property NSW as the exclusive agent for the next phase of the Millers Point social housing selloff program. 
McGrath will market the sale of 175 dwellings with an estimated value in excess of $200 million.
The sales program is expected to commence in the second half of June.
This is the second tender won by McGrath for Property NSW. 
The marketing will be headed by Richard Shalhoub of McGrath Edgecliff.
In January 2016 the company won a tender for the sale of up to 50 terrace homes and so far 31 have been sold for a value of $86 million.
A further ten terrace properties will be auctioned June 9.
</body></html>

McGrath secure another batch of redundant NSW Government Millers Point terraces to sell

<html><body>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/57114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
This May, urbanists around the world have been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jane Jacobs.
The American-Canadian author and activist’s spirited defence of inner-city neighbourhoods inspired a generation of urban activists and place-makers. So what might Jacobs have to teach a new generation of urbanists and planners?
Much of Jacobs' legacy stems from the successful “David and Goliath” campaigns she led in the late 1950s and 1960s against the development plans of Manhattan’s “master builder” Robert Moses.
Her first battle, to prevent an extension of Fifth Avenue that would have torn apart her beloved Washington Square Park, was followed by a series of protracted community campaigns. These ultimately saved some of Manhattan’s most iconic neighbourhoods – Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy – from “slum clearance” and demolition. 
At this time, many Americans were retreating to the suburbs, and city planners – epitomised by Moses, then head of the powerful Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which managed vast tracts of land in New York City – imposed their “comprehensive city plans” on neighbourhoods, with scant input from local communities.
Working under the spell of Le Corbusier’s vision of the “Radiant City” (Ville Radieuse), planners like Moses saw themselves playing the heroic role of a city’s surgeon. They justified their radical urban plans through appeals to natural or scientific principle. For Le Corbusier, automobiles were machines of circulation, the “lifeblood of the 20th century”; cities needed them to avoid stagnation.
<h2>In love with the ‘sidewalk ballet’</h2>
Jacobs resisted this vision. In her first and most influential book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs attacked planners for ruining the cultures of cities. She saw the modernist vision of cities as:
"the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served."
Jacobs wrote:
When city designers try to find a design device that will express, in a clear and easy fashion, the ‘skeleton’ of city structure (expressways and promenades are current favourites for this purposes) they are on fundamentally the wrong track. A city’s very structure consists of a mixture of uses … We get close to its structural secrets when we deal with the conditions that generate diversity.
Instead of city spines and clean lines, she asked her readers to look more closely at what makes a street really work. She loved the “intricate sidewalk ballet”, a complex order that helped to maintain public safety and wellbeing through a “constant succession of eyes”.
The complexity of a place made it impossible to replicate.
The ballet of the good city never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place it is always replete with new observations.
Jacobs’ polemic against urban planning would become its orthodoxy. Death and Life has been required reading for students of urban planning for decades. Today they learn of the failed spaces created by modernist planners and the geographies of single-use enclaves and far-flung highways they spawned.
Jacobs' campaigning inspired urban activists around the world to stage protests in their own cities. This helped usher in a new era of citizen-centric planning frameworks.
As Saskia Sassen wrote recently, it was Jacobs who first urged the need to recognise the value of “place” when considering the implementation of urban policies.
<h2>Is Jane Jacobs still relevant or useful?</h2>
Although Jacobs is a profoundly influential figure in 20th-century urbanism, in many respects her radicalism can feel like it belongs to another era.
The Manhattan districts she fought to preserve represent some of the most expensive real estate in the world, so it’s hard to disagree that a city’s dense, historic core might be worth preserving. Economist Edward Glaeser talks about “Jacobs Spillovers” – the transfers of knowledge and activity that help to explain the generation of wealth in cities like New York and London.
Some might even ask: was Jacobs simply one of the first to fly the NIMBY flag against any developments taking place within the prized neighbourhoods they helped to gentrify?
But if we take a closer look at what Jacobs had to say – and how she said it– it becomes clear her ideas remain as radical and important as they were in the 1960s.
This is perhaps no more so than in relation to rise of the “smart city”.
<h2>Smart cities and the rise of a new urban science</h2>
Today’s smart cities are big business, powered by the potential for big data and the internet of things to improve the efficiencies of urban systems. Smart cities offer solutions to improve transport management, make better investment decisions, improve accountability and promote transparent decision-making.
The premise is that with so much data (big data) being produced, planners, governments and researchers can better understand cities as complex systems, and make better decisions about how they are planned and managed. 
This explosion of data in cities – from traffic data, through mobile communications data to sensor data capturing the behaviour of natural systems and the everyday uses of infrastructure assets – is giving rise to a new “urban science”.
This incorporates machine learning, predictive analytics and complexity science. Its champions – such as Mike Batty and Luis Bettencourt – argue that we are starting to see the emergence of Jacobs' “sidewalk ballet” in data-driven form.
But while the rise of big data and smart cities opens up possibilities for cities that were previously unthinkable, we should also be wary of the limitations.
<h2>The fine arts of urban observation</h2>
Jacobs wasn’t simply claiming that cities should be understood as complex systems.
At a perhaps deeper level, Jacobs was arguing against visions of the city over-determined by the technologies that produce them: for LeCorbusier, as for Moses, the view of the city enabled by the innovation of flight helped give rise to new urban utopias like the Radiant City.
In writing Death and Life, Jacobs was also resisting the dominance of expert knowledge about a city, in favour of a democracy of lived experiences and everyday insights. She once reflected that:
"learning and thinking about city streets and the trickiness of city parks launched me into an unexpected treasure hunt."
As a new generation of planners are taught of the possibilities of a data-driven urban science, we need to remember that Jacobs' love of the sidewalk ballet also gave voice to the multiple languages, meanings, experiences and knowledge systems that underpin a vibrant urban culture.
Not all of these can be rendered by data-driven systems. Hopefully, the best insights into a city’s infinite complexity won’t only be produced by those trained with the skills to generate insights from big data.
The “data exhaust” of our daily lives will increasingly shape the way cities are understood. Much work remains to be done to ensure a cities data infrastructure is valued as a fundamental public asset.
But I can hear Jacobs issuing a word of warning: don’t forget to keep taking unexpected treasure hunts through city parks and keep your eyes on the street (not on your phones!). And keep listening out for different lived experiences and ways of knowing a place – not only those that can be rendered real-time as the data flows of complex systems. 
Sarah Barns is Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University and author for The Conversation. She can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sarah-barns-110278" target="_blank">here</a>.
</body></html>

What might Jane Jacobs say about smart cities?

<html><body><div class="cq-article-content-paras section">
Australian wine-maker Brian Croser, founder of Petaluma wines, has sold Maylands Farm on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula.
The $6.9 million sale was a strong result for the 735 hectare highlands property near Parawa, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Set about an hour from Adelaide, the buyer is an Australian expat who comes from Adelaide who bought it on a walk-in, walk-out basis.
Selling agent Paul Clifford from Elders Real Estate had the offering with Bernard Booth Real Estate as co-agent. 
Maylands was bought in 2003 by the Croser family who bred lambs from a composite sheep known as TEFRom, which the Crosers introduced to Australia from New Zealand.
</div></body></html>

Brian Croser sells Fleurieu Peninsula farm

<html><body>
The Melton district property which was the home of underworld wife, Roberta Williams in the early 2000s, during the height of Melbourne’s gangland war, has been listed for sale.
<a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-hillside-122665654" target="_blank">With its notorious past</a> now behind it, 20 John Paul Drive, Hillside has been listed for sale as a family home.
The listing agents actually think its link to Ms Williams, the former wife of late crime figure Carl Williams, could give it a boost when it goes under the hammer next month.
It comes with price expectations of more than $590,000 through Barry Plant Taylors Lakes agent James Hatzimoisis.
The 47-year-old had Dhakota, her only child with convicted murderer and drug trafficker Carl, in 2001 while she owned the house. 
Carl Anthony Williams (13 October 1970 – 19 April 2010) was an Australian convicted murderer and drug trafficker.
The property sold for $280,000 in February 2000 and then to the current owners for $450,000 in October 2003.
The five-bedroom house is larger than most in the Hillside area.
</body></html>

Roberta Williams connection might help Hillside house price

<html><body><div class="cq-article-content-paras section">
Mirvac Group sold the landmark Como Centre in Melbourne, a mixed use asset in South Yarra, for $236.5 million.
Property syndicator Newmark Capital went into due diligence last month on the South Yarra property.
It is a two hectare site on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street.
The property includes 25,700 square metres of A-grade office accommodation,  6,650 square metres of retail, a 111-room hotel and a commercial car park.
It was reported last month the Como Centre in South Yarra attracted the attention of the boutique funds manager Newmark Capital, which is led by Chris Langford, the former star of AFL club Hawthorn.
The group secured the nearby Jam Factory for about $165 million last year from financial services company Challenger.
The Como is a two-hectare site with street frontage to Chapel Street, Toorak Road and River Street.
The property generates more than $14 million of net income from more than 25,000 sqm of office space and 6600 sqm of retail space.
There is a 113-room hotel operated by Accor on a lease expiring in June 2021, with a five-year option.
The centre has a car park for 614 vehicles.
Newmark Capital was founded in 2011.
</div></body></html>

Como Centre, South Yarra sold by Mirvac

<html><body>
AMP is reducing its mortgage lending to most non-resident borrowers.
AMP is blaming the tough policy on "changes to the market" without specifying their nature or extent.
"Our standards are continually reviewed with market developments to ensure we remain a prudent and responsible lender. Our criteria for overseas borrowers has recently been reviewed in line with this objective," AMP said in a statement obtained by the Australian Financial Review.
It follows complaints among other major lenders about fraudulent applications and fears of money laundering.
Major banks are believed to have only between 2 and 4 percent of their portfolios with overseas investors.
Under AMP's policy, revealed in confidential documents being circulated to major third party distributors, foreign currencies are split into Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories.
Under the new arrangements, 80 percent of income and expenses derived from a Tier 1 category is acceptable and 50 percent from a tier 2 when assessing a loan application.
Tier 1 category are Canadian dollars, Euros, British sterling, Hong Kong dollars, Japanese yen, New Zealand dollars, Singapore dollars and US dollars.  
Tier 2 is the Chinese yuan. Borrowers seeking a loan with Chinese yuan must also provide a 50 percent deposit. For borrowers with Tier 1 currencies the maximum deposit is 30 percent.
</body></html>

AMP to make lending to non-residents tougher

<html><body>
At Brighton a record price was paid for a bathing box on Dendy Beach.
The bidding for <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-brighton-122566182" target="_blank">bathing box 44</a> kicked off at $275,000, which was just $20,000 short of the prior record set in February.
Two competing locals saw bathing box 44 sell at $307,000, having last sold four decades ago. 
</body></html>

Brighton bathing box hits $307,000 record price

<html><body>
Sydney's finest Spanish mission-style trophy home, Boomerang is for sale with $60 million expectations.
Lindsay Fox, the Melbourne-based billionaire trucking magnate, has held the Elizabeth Bay landmark harbourfront home since 2005, mostly utilised by son Andrew, who heads Linfox's property division.
It was bought for $20 million.
The Billyard Avenue property has been offered quietly through the Ray White Double Bay office who seemingly don't value it as a record setting property anymore.
The Hollywood-style mansion has often been ranked as the most expensive house in the country.
It was the first property to crack the $20 million level.
It was also the first Sydney home to fetch more than $1 million when sold by the <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/visit/VisitItemImages.aspx?isAttraction=1&amp;ID=5045596#ad-image-0" target="_blank">original owners in the 1970s.</a>
The Fox family have preserved the home interiors, with the noticeable different outside, having commissioned landscape designer Myles Baldwin gardens on the 4200 sqm estate.
It was built at a cost of 60,000 pounds for music book publisher (Sir) Alexis Albert, who lived there until he died in 1962 with it then being vacant for more than a decade. 
Perth-based developer Warren Anderson owned it from the mid 1980s until 1993, when he was evicted by the Bank of New York and it was sold by the mortgagee to the now jailed fraudster Nati Stoliar for $6.6 million.
Then merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull was interested at the time, underbidding at its 1993 auction, for the home with its majestic Moorish porte cochère, arcaded loggias, oak panelled library with Tudor-style fireplace and its so-called peacock room conservatory.
Australia’s record house price was set last August at $70 million when James and Erica Packer sold their Vaucluse mansion, La Mer to Chinese-Australian businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing.
Victoria's priciest home remains the Spanish Mission Portsea clifftop home, Ilyuka which was sold to the Higgins family at $26 million in 2010 exchange by the former Computershare director Michele O'Halloran.
The 1930s Spanish Mission house, marketed by veteran agents Ross Savas and Gerald Delany, is a sprawling house built for American oil tycoon Harry Cornforth in 1929-30.
 
</body></html>

Boomerang, the $60 million Elizabeth Bay harbourfront offering

<html><body>
Actors Simon Baker and wife Rebecca Rigg are set to offload their North Bondi bolthole now that they own a $6.5 million Bronte home.
Their rooftop apartment is up for sale with expressions of interest with $3.5 million hopes through McGrath agent Ben Collier.
<a href="https://www.domain.com.au/8-206-hastings-parade-north-bondi-nsw-2026-2012833319" target="_blank">Their 250 sqm art deco penthouse</a> on the Ben Buckler headland was purchased in 2014 for $2.63 million.
They had a Will Dangar-designed garden installed on the 125 sqm rooftop terrace from where weekend inspectees saw a whale heading north.
The couple who first met in 1992 on the set of popular soap E Street were no shows when the apartment next door went to recent auction.
Raine &amp; Horne Double Bay selling agent Hannah Bouskali confirmed the buyers as a young married Australian couple who are living overseas.
They paid $2,016,037 for the two bedder with roof access too. 
This article was first published in the Sunday Telegraph.
</body></html>

Actor Simon Baker lists North Bondi beachside bolthole

The Victorian Government has secured the passage of the Building Legislation and Treasury Legislation (Tax Relief) Amendment Bill 2026, introducing a suite of reforms aimed at improving consumer protection and confidence in the apartment market.

Resilience Insurance, Australia’s leading Latent Defects Insurance (LDI) provider, has welcomed the move.

The LDI elements of the Bill passed with bipartisan support and now moves to the Legislative Council where debate and passage are expected later this month. It represents a significant milestone in the national shift toward stronger, longer-term protection for apartment buyers.&nbsp;

The reform would deliver practical benefits across the housing system. Apartment owners will have stronger protection if major defects emerge, developers and builders will have a clearer quality framework to work within, and the State will reduce the risk of serious building failures becoming a long-term financial and social burden for households, communities and government.&nbsp;

LDI helps support apartment delivery while providing stronger protection for buyers and encouraging better construction outcomes.&nbsp;

Resilience LDI provides apartment owners with 10 years of insurance-backed cover for major structural defects from completion, with direct claim access to the insurer. This means owners are not required to first pursue developers or builders through costly legal action before accessing protection.&nbsp;

Resilience Insurance has been operating in Australia since 2022 and has already insured hundreds of development projects covering many thousands of apartments across Australia.&nbsp;

At approximately 1.8 per cent of build cost, it is a cost-competitive alternative to the traditional two per cent Strata Bond, bond while delivering significantly broader and longer protection.&nbsp;

“The Victorian Lower House vote shows that reforms like this succeed when they are practical, evidence-based and supported by industry," says Corey Nugent, CEO of Resilience Insurance.

"Victoria is moving quickly on a reform that will make a real difference for apartment buyers, while supporting better building outcomes and greater confidence in apartment delivery.

“This is step one. We look forward to the Bill completing its passage through the Legislative Council and to working with government and industry to implement the framework effectively.”&nbsp;

Fast Facts: What is Resilience LDI?&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Resilience Latent Defects Insurance (LDI): Covers major structural defects for 10 years from completion.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Consumer-first: Direct claim access, no need for lengthy legal action.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Cost advantage: At approximately 1.8% of build cost, LDI is typically priced below the traditional 2% Strata Bond while offering broader protection.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Market leader: Resilience Insurance is the first approved LDI provider in NSW.</li>
</ul>

The Building Legislation and Treasury Legislation (Tax Relief) Amendment Bill 2026 has passed the Victorian Lower House, putting Victoria on track to become the first state to legislate an industry workable LDI framework as a formal alternative to the Strata Building bond. 

Joel Robinson

10-year Latent Defects Insurance for new apartment buyers set to land in Victoria

Just a few months after acquiring a prime Broadbeach site on the corner of First Avenue and Surf Parade, family-run developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/raptis">Raptis</a> has filed fresh plans for a new apartment development.

Raptis is seeking to deliver a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/17-19-first-avenue-broadbeach-qld-4217">29-storey tower with 73 apartments</a> on the 818 sqm site. It will be the developer's seventh project in the suburb, as they are approaching completion of The Sterling on George Avenue.

There will be a pool, barbecue and outdoor dining area, residents lounge and dining, sauna and steam room, gym, and a Yoga and Pilates studio.

<img alt="Raptis" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b554da3f-7344-49aa-b1c9-44cf459af0d7" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-05%20at%2010.41.45%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=zzjWu1iO1wnuYv4EV4fyOyf5nSXjGYut" />

Raptis Joint Managing Director, Evan Raptis, says they remain&nbsp;committed to developing quality infill sites across the Gold Coast in the lead-up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

"This project continues our long track record of delivery in Broadbeach, and we look forward to bringing another premium development to this thriving precinct."

The announcement follows strong delivery momentum for Raptis, with The Sterling Broadbeach nearing completion and construction well underway on the final stage of the Waterpoint community adjacent to Harbour Town. The developer's continued investment in the Gold Coast reflects confidence in the region's apartment market fundamentals, underpinned by sustained Southeast Queensland population growth.&nbsp;

The outlook for the region is further bolstered by infrastructure investment tied to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, which is expected to drive continued economic and population growth across the SEQ corridor.&nbsp;

Subject to a favourable response from Gold Coast City Council, construction on the new First Avenue tower is targeted to commence before the end of 2026.&nbsp;

Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/qld/it-s-all-in-the-family-four-decades-later-raptis-continues-to-shape-the-gold-coast-skyline">It’s all in the family: Four decades later, Raptis continues to shape the Gold Coast skyline</a>

Read more: <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/qld/raptis-secures-prime-surf-parade-site-for-next-broadbeach-apartment-development">Raptis secures prime Surf Parade site for next Broadbeach apartment development</a> 
&nbsp;

Gold Coast developer brings seventh Broadbeach project to market, targeting construction commencement before year end

First look: Raptis lodges plans for new 29-storey Broadbeach tower 

Brisbane development veteran Kevin Seymour's Seymour Group is set to deepen its presence on one of Brisbane's most tightly held riverfront addresses, lodging revised plans for a luxury apartment development on Oxlade, just a few doors down from The Oxlade, which it completed in 2024.

The <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/70-72-oxlade-drive-new-farm-qld-4005">new project at 70-72 Oxlade Drive</a>, directly north of The Oxlade, will have 27 apartments across a seven-storey building&nbsp;overlooking the Brisbane River and Merthyr Park. It's a revision from a 2021-approved design.

Designed by bureau^proberts, the project has evolved from the previously approved 26-apartment scheme, introducing an additional penthouse level while maintaining a low-density, boutique character. The development will comprise 26 three-bedroom apartments and a single four-bedroom penthouse, supported by two basement levels with 86 car spaces and 34 bicycle spaces.

The architectural response is centred around two distinct building forms separated by a landscaped open-air atrium.&nbsp;"This dual composition captures and embraces Brisbane’s subtropical environment whilst breaking down built form and scale," the submission to the Brisbane City Council noted.

<img alt="First look: Seymour Group returns to Oxlade Drive with revised riverfront apartment plans in New Farm" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c12d84d0-bc11-4067-b46f-5bd2d786a34d" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/new%20farm%20landscape.png?VersionId=YEPc2k5CAdh6aAPlu4uVpgZadh4MEfRd" />

A defining feature of the design is a deep landscaped void running through the centre of the building, creating what bureau^proberts describes as a "natural ravine" that enhances airflow, daylight penetration and resident amenity. The design report notes that the separation of the two building volumes is intended to maximise natural light, cross-ventilation and outlook while strengthening connections to the surrounding riverfront setting.

Curved balcony edges, integrated planting and extensive landscaping throughout the façade reinforce the subtropical design approach. The building's façade is softened by elevated gardens and planter beds, creating a green edge that complements the established landscape character of Oxlade Drive and neighbouring Merthyr Park.

New Farm has become one of Brisbane's most sought-after suburbs for developers delivering premium downsizer-focused apartments.

GRAYA has been particularly active in the precinct, completing both Chalk and York in recent years, while construction of Moray House, being delivered for Spyre, is now nearing completion. Architect-turned-developer Joe Adsett recently launched <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/arcilla-new-farm-by-joe-adsett-28-maxwell-street-new-farm-qld-4005">Arcilla on Maxwell Street</a>, an exclusive collection of just nine apartments.

First look: Seymour Group returns to New Farm's Oxlade Drive with riverfront apartment plans

A new residential tower will be the first piece of a broader mixed-use precinct set to reshape a prominent Newcastle West site, with local developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/gwh">GWH</a> bringing its <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/cambridge-quarter-newcastle-west-12-denison-street-newcastle-west-nsw-2302">Cambridge Quarter</a> vision to market.

The first release, Tempo, will introduce 87 apartments across a 24-storey tower, marking Stage 1 of the residential component of a larger urban regeneration project planned for the western end of Newcastle's city centre, encompassing the former Cambridge Hotel site.

Positioned on Denison Street, Tempo has been designed as the inaugural building within Cambridge Quarter, a precinct that will ultimately combine apartments, retail activation and revitalised public spaces including the revamping of the Cambridge Hotel.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135876 project_image_fid=368853]

The tower will comprise a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, including layouts with multipurpose rooms, catering to a broad cross-section of owner-occupiers. Apartment sizes range from around 60 sqm to 192 sqm, with a number of residences oriented to capture views across Newcastle Harbour, the city skyline and coastline.

GWH has emphasised liveability in the design, with open-plan layouts extending to generous balconies and terraces. Residents will have a choice of two interior palettes, while specifications include engineered stone benchtops, SMEG appliances, full-height bathroom tiling and secure building access. Premium upgrade packages will also be available.

Multiple rooftop resident retreats will provide communal outdoor space overlooking the harbour and city, offering an elevated amenity layer above the activity of the precinct below.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135876 project_image_fid=368851]

The broader Cambridge Quarter vision extends beyond the residential tower itself. Ground-level retail activation and landscaped public areas are planned throughout the precinct, creating a walkable neighbourhood environment connected to the surrounding renewal of Newcastle West. The Cambridge Hotel is also earmarked for future redevelopment into a family-friendly hospitality venue integrated with the new precinct.

The project is strategically positioned within walking distance of Newcastle Interchange, providing access to light rail, regional rail services and direct connections to Sydney. Residents will also be close to Honeysuckle, Newcastle Harbour and the city's beaches and coastal walkways.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135876 project_image_fid=368852]

For GWH, Cambridge Quarter represents one of its most significant Newcastle developments to date. The locally based developer, which has operated in the Hunter region since 1995, describes the project as a new chapter in the ongoing transformation of Newcastle West.

GWH Executive Director Jonathan Craig said the project had been shaped by a focus on creating lasting community connections.

"We take pride in creating places that last. Spaces where people feel connected, comfortable and a genuine sense of belonging," Craig said.

"Cambridge Quarter is something we are truly proud of, a place shaped by local knowledge, built with care and designed to be part of Newcastle's next chapter."

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=135876]

GWH unveils first release at landmark Cambridge Quarter precinct in Newcastle West

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/ss-projects">S&amp;S Projects</a>,&nbsp;Rainbow Bay's busiest developer,&nbsp;has officially lodged plans for the largest development in its booming local portfolio, seeking approval for a further 88 apartments on Boundary Street.

The proposal&nbsp;at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/209-213-boundary-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">209–213 Boundary Street, Coolangatta</a>,&nbsp;marks the next chapter in the developer's transformation of the southern Gold Coast beachside precinct. It will be its fifth in the area, having already delivered Flow, Awaken and Esprit, while construction continues on the 38-apartment Radia. The new project would rise 57 metres above a consolidated 1,518 sqm site, on the same street as Radia and Esprit.

&nbsp;

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/cottee-parker-architects">Cottee Parker</a>, the proposed development comprises 88 two and three-bedroom apartments across a contemporary podium-and-tower form that integrates extensive landscaping from street level through to the rooftop.

The tower would be delivered above a basement and multi-level podium accommodating resident and visitor parking, with the residential component commencing from level three. The design incorporates cascading planting throughout the façade, landscaped podium edges, and deep planting zones along the Boundary Street frontage.

<img alt="First look: S&amp;S Projects lodges plans for 88-apartment wellness tower at Coolangatta's Boundary Street" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="677e6615-b5c0-4b6c-b4f9-efb14fcde1a6" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/ss%20da%20pers.png?VersionId=YOnPKQm7IFXv0M5H326djEpxk80500Hi" />

A key feature of the development is its expansive rooftop wellness and recreation precinct. Plans reveal a resort-style pool deck, gymnasium, sauna, steam room, hot and cold plunge pools, rooftop terraces, barbecue areas and landscaped relaxation spaces positioned to capture views across the southern Gold Coast coastline.

The rooftop wellness focus builds on the vision S&amp;S Projects first outlined when it acquired the site for $20.25 million last year.

"We are taking every advantage to create a truly unique rooftop wellness experience with a natural feel for residents, offering stone features throughout and an underlying theme that emulates a botanical garden," S&amp;S Projects founder and director Paul Gedoun said at the time.

The proposal seeks a 57-metre building height, representing a 50 per cent uplift on the site's mapped 38-metre height limit. Planning documents argue the additional height is consistent with recently approved and emerging towers in the immediate Boundary Street and Rainbow Bay precinct.

Urbis, acting as planning consultant, said the development would provide "88 dwellings, comprising a mix of two and three-bedroom apartments, contributing to housing choice and supply within an established medium to high-rise coastal urban neighbourhood."

The scheme has undergone extensive pre-lodgement consultation with the City of Gold Coast, with the design refined following feedback relating to architectural expression, landscaping, traffic access and podium treatment.

<img alt="S&amp;S" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0a2d70fd-62ac-4b83-97c6-b798fc1243dd" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-06-05%20at%209.16.31%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=yHmghUwKM3IVGpBktQU1mE.0Lpf3WimG" />

The architectural team is led by Brisbane-based Cottee Parker, one of Australia's most active residential design studios, with landscape architecture by Dunn + Moran. The consultant team also includes ADG Engineers, Windtech and Acoustic Works.

S&amp;S Projects has become one of the most influential private developers operating on the southern Gold Coast. Since entering Rainbow Bay in 2022, the company has assembled a portfolio exceeding $1 billion in end value, establishing itself as a key player in the area's evolution into a premium apartment destination. Pezet Matheson will again handle the sales for S&amp;S.

Coolangatta is entering another wave of apartment development, following the delivery of several prominent residential projects in recent years.

John Kearney's Immerse Projects will launch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/kaiya-kirra-beach-5-haig-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Kaiya on Haig Street</a>&nbsp;soon, meanwhile, Palm Beach-based Sherpa Property Group is preparing to bring its debut Coolangatta development, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/flourish-viver-87-griffith-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Flourish Viveré</a>, to market later this year, subject to approvals.

Jonathan Chancellor

Editor's Picks

Have something to contribute?

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News