<html><body>
Internal documents from the Reserve Bank of Australia show its economists modelled house price falls of as much as 15 per cent during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Economists working within the Reserve Bank of Australia also considered the merits of halting established home sales amid the market disruption caused by the pandemic.
Reserve Bank economists considered urging the Federal Government to shut down the real estate industry, "pausing" sales to avoid perceptions of a coronavirus-inspired housing market crash.
In April, economist Nick Garvin wrote to colleagues, warning them the RBA should stop discussing the housing market as if it were operating normally, and calling for a halt — as happens to stock market trading in emergencies. 
"I think it's dangerous for regulators to be reporting on housing prices as though the market is currently functioning," he wrote.
Garvin noted shutting down real estate sales would send a statement that "we're in a different category of situation" and that normal reporting of clearance rates and average prices was "misleading".
"It's become clear that there has been a big drop-off in demand for new housing," wrote assistant governor (economic), Luci Ellis, in notes which were obtained by theABC through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
A sharp fall in house prices was forecast in a note on April 18. 
"Housing prices are expected to decline by around 7 per cent over the next year. Prices are expected to remain around 10 per cent lower than at the February Statement over the forecast horizon," it read, putting most of this down to a loss of confidence.
It forecast the fall in house prices could be as little as 2 per cent in the best scenario, "in the downside [worst scenario] prices fall by 15 per cent".
 
</body></html>

j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

RBA economists modelled 15 percent house price falls amid market shutdown consideration

<html><body>
From tomorrow ING will be increasing its fixed rate home loans for owner occupiers by up to 0.20% and for investors by up to 0.40%.
ING is one of only three lenders on Canstar's 100+ lender database to increase fixed rates in June.
These changes will see ING’s former market leading 2-year Orange Advantage Residential fixed rate of 2.09% drop out of the top 3 lowest 2-year fixed rates, with the interest rate now sitting at 2.19% (comparison rate 3.79%).  <img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2020/6/18/ING%201.JPG" alt="">
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2020/6/18/ING%202.JPG" alt="">Canstar’s finance expert, Steve Mickenbecker said, "ING has surprised the home loan market by increasing its fixed housing loan rates from Friday."
"ING’s fixed rate increases come after recent fixed rate cuts from major banks that have been fueled by low wholesale funding costs."
"For owner occupiers the increases range from 0.05% to 0.20%, but for investors they are as high as 0.40%, suggesting the bank is reviewing its appetite for housing risk."
"ING’s 2-year fixed rate for owner occupiers remains amongst the market leaders, but they have relinquished their lowest price position."
"Fixed rates continue to be at the sharpest priced end of the market with rates as low as 2.09%."
</body></html>

ING goes against the grain increasing fixed interest rates

<html><body>
GUEST OBSERVATION
 
Australia’s energy market is outdated. It doesn’t encourage competition and that’s holding back the <a href="http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/39-4-6.pdf">transition</a> to renewable energy. Important reforms to modernise the market are on the way, but big energy companies are seeking to use the cover of COVID-19 to prevent the change.
This is bad for consumers, and for climate action. Reform would help create a modern grid <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://relp.lexxion.eu/article/RELP/2011/2/44">designed</a> around clean energy, pushing coal-fired generators to retire earlier. Over time, it would also bring down power costs for households and business.
Renewable energy is the cheapest form of new electricity. It’s far better for the environment than coal and gas, and can deliver reliable supplies when backed by batteries and other energy storage.
Instead of delaying reform, Australia should be advancing it.
What’s this all about?
Regulators and governments recognise the need to modernise the rules governing the National Electricity Market. That market, established in 1998, supplies all Australian jurisdictions except Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Reliable electricity requires that supply and demand be kept in balance. This balance is primarily provided by a system known as the <a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/sites/default/files/content//Five-Minute-Settlement-directions-paper-fact-sheet-FINAL.PDF">wholesale spot market</a>. Every five minutes, electricity generators bid into the spot market, specifying how much energy they will provide at a certain price.
An entire <a href="http://www.coagenergycouncil.gov.au/publications/post-2025-market-design-national-electricity-market-nem">redesign</a> of the market rules is scheduled for 2025. This should make the market work efficiently and reliably as coal retires and is replaced by renewable energy.
In the meantime, one important rule change is due to start in July next year, known as “<a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/five-minute-settlement">5-minute settlement</a>”.
Currently, electricity is sold and sent out from generators in 5-minute blocks. But the actual price paid for this electricity in the wholesale market is averaged every 30 minutes. This means there are six dispatch periods, each with their own price, which are then averaged out when the market is settled.
This strange design has enabled big electricity generators to <a href="https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0140988316301839">game the market</a>. One method involves placing high bids in the first interval, then placing low or even negative bids in the remaining five intervals. This ensures that electricity from the big generators is purchased, but that they and all other generators receive an artificially high average price for the whole 30-minute period.
In 2017, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) <a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/97d09813-a07c-49c3-9c55-288baf8936af/ERC0201-Five-Minute-Settlement-Final-Determination.PDF">decided</a> to replace 30-minute settlement with 5-minute settlement.
<a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/sites/default/files/content//Five-Minute-Settlement-directions-paper-fact-sheet-FINAL.PDF">The commission says</a> the current system was adopted more than 20 years ago due to technological barriers which have since been overcome. It argues moving to 5-minute settlement would better reflect the value to consumers of fast-response technologies, such as batteries storing renewable energy and so-called “demand response” (a concept we’ll explain later).
<a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/five-minute-settlement">According to</a> the AEMC, the rule change would lead to lower wholesale costs, cutting electricity prices for consumers.
But on March 19 this year, the Australian Energy Council, which represents most coal-fired power stations and the big three electricity retailers, sought to delay the reform. It wrote to federal energy minister Angus Taylor and his state counterparts, arguing the pandemic means energy companies must focus on “<a href="https://www.energycouncil.com.au/analysis/covid-19-brings-reform-challenges/">critical supply and reliabilty</a>” issues, rather than implementing the rule change.
But energy consumption has <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/content/national-energy-emissions-audit-april-2020">barely changed</a> during the pandemic, the Australia Institute’s national energy emissions audit shows. So delaying the reform to deal with supply and reliability issues appears unjustified.
Despite this, the Australian Energy Market Operator has proposed delaying the change for a year. Our <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/content/delaying-energy-market-reform-increase-costs-slow-transition-renewables-think-tank-industry">submission</a>, endorsed by energy and technology leaders, opposes the delay.
Moves by regulators to delay another <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/regulators-flag-delays-to-16-energy-reform-projects-as-fossil-fuel-interests-dig-in-15284/">16 market reforms</a> due to COVID-19 also seem to be afoot.
Change is possible
Last week, one big rule change to the National Electricity Market did proceed as planned. <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/customers-paid-for-reducing-electricity-demand-radical-change/12343790">It allows</a> “demand response” energy trading from 2021.
<a href="http://www.tai.org.au/content/finkel%E2%80%99s-forgotten-finding-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98negawatts%E2%80%99">Demand response</a> involves reducing energy consumption during peaks in demand, such as during heatwaves. Basically, the rule means big energy users, such as smelters and manufacturing plants, could power down in these periods, and be paid for doing so.
Technology pioneers such as battery entrepreneur <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/covid-19-may-delay-national-electricity-market-reform-20200419-p54l3s">Simon Hackett</a> and Atlassian chief <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ambitious-energy-reforms-set-to-cut-household-power-bills-20200611-p551rs">Mike Cannon-Brookes</a> have backed this change.
Australia has successfully used demand response to provide <a href="https://arena.gov.au/assets/2019/03/demand-response-rert-trial-year-1-report.pdf">emergency</a> electricity capacity and <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/demand-response-worth-half-a-liddell-to-energy-queensland-20180404-h0ybij">other</a> <a href="https://www.aemc.gov.au/rule-changes/demand-response-mechanism">benefits</a>. But it’s never been unleashed in the wholesale energy market.
The rule change doesn’t involve smaller users such as households. But it’s a promising start that creates new competition for fossil fuel generators and allows energy users to help make the grid more reliable.
Political warfare over climate policy has held back Australia, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8500.12328">and the electricity market</a>, for more than a decade. But energy reform that encourages greater market competition can readily be supported by political conservatives.
The demand-response rule change is a clear example: it has been <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/wholesale-demand-response-help-lower-costs-and-strengthen-energy">championed by Taylor</a> and his predecessors <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-13/negawatts-touted-as-solution-to-growing-energy/8707232">Josh Frydenberg</a> and <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/coalition-seeks-deal-to-cut-power-demand/news-story/5b7a3dd86ddf11c91d5f817405bb43a9">Greg Hunt</a>.
Getting future-ready
Once the health crisis is over and economic recovery has begun, Australia will need the economic and social benefits of electricity market reform even more than before.
Such reform “<a href="https://www.tai.org.au/content/energy-reform-after-covid-19">stimulus</a>” would help ready the grid for the inevitable retirement of coal-fired power stations, such as Liddell in 2023.
It would also align with state government investments in renewable energy, and boost private investment in new generation (which has <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/cec-calls-for-action-on-grid-issues-as-renewables-investment-cut-in-half-28289/">recently slumped</a>) and <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2020/05/26/coronavirus-manufacturing-industry/">large-scale batteries</a>.
Electricity remains Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-to-attend-climate-summit-empty-handed-despite-un-pleas-to-come-with-a-plan-123187">highest-polluting sector</a>. Around the world, electricity markets are planning the <a href="https://www.ren21.net/renewables-report-launch/">transition</a> from high to low emissions.
Delaying reform in Australia would be a major setback on the path to our essential energy transition.
Richie Merzian, Climate &amp; Energy Program Director at The Australia Institute, contributed to this piece.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/daniel-j-cass-909838">Daniel J Cass</a>, Research Affiliate, Sydney Business School, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/energy-giants-want-to-thwart-reforms-that-would-help-renewables-and-lower-power-bills-140640">original article</a>.
</body></html>

Energy giants want to thwart reforms that would help renewables and lower power bills

<html><body>
GUEST OBSERVATION
The government’s <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/homebuilder">HomeBuilder</a> scheme allows <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/homebuilder-renovations-where-are-most-owner-occupied-dwellings-below-15-million">certain</a> home owners to apply for a tax-free grant of A$25,000 if they are spending between $150,000 and $750,000 renovating a home or building a new home. Eligibility criteria are strict.
The scheme has boosted renovation talk in some circles (although, as CoreLogic has <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/vacuum-effect-and-its-implications-homebuilder-scheme">pointed</a> out, it may merely bring forward works that were already planned).
Here are some questions to ask yourself when trying to decide between renovating and moving – and how to add value to your existing home.
What adds value to a house?
Property market observers <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/advice/how-to-make-your-home-stand-out-when-selling-932031/">advise</a> updating or renewing bathrooms or kitchens – even small fixes such as replacing a cracked or dated splashback, replacing a bath or adding skylights can go a long way.
Think about easy repairs that create an invaluable good first impression – a fixed-up fence, a new carpet or resurfaced flooring or even good old decluttering.
But remember you’ll only qualify for HomeBuilder if you plan to spend at least $150,000 on an owner-occupied home worth no more than A$1.5 million (CoreLogic has <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/homebuilder-renovations-where-are-most-owner-occupied-dwellings-below-15-million">listed</a> which suburbs have the most owner-occupied properties under A$1.5 million).
Factors to consider if you’re thinking of renovating
How long till you retire? How secure is your employment? Thinking carefully about your earning potential between now and retirement will help you understand how what you can borrow and afford. If you are planning to stay, you will get the benefit and enjoyment of the renovations.
Do you need to stay close to school or work? If that’s a consideration, renovating may be worth more to you than buying further out.
Look closely at what your property is worth (there are plenty of online calculators) and keep track of how much similar local properties with one extra bedroom or bathroom sell for. That will give you a sense of the value-add to your home equity that a renovation might represent.
Be honest with yourself about the total cost of renovation. There are myriad expenses not always initially apparent. These may include:
<ul>
<li>
planning fees (the cost of getting a development assessed by council)
</li>
<li>
the cost of architectural drawings
</li>
<li>
consultants’ fees for environmental impact statements or arborists’ reports
</li>
<li>
extra costs due to a heritage listing
</li>
<li>
renting, if it’s not possible to live at home during renovation
</li>
<li>
the cost of protecting underground public assets such as water or sewerage pipes
</li>
<li>
extra costs caused by poor access or other limitations.
</li>
</ul>
Consider the possible long-term savings of retrofitting your home to be more energy-efficient. Proper insulation, secondary glazing, draught excluders and solar PV energy are expensive upfront but will save on long term running costs. It’s likely, as energy costs increase, homes that are at least partially off grid will be more attractive and valuable over time.
And remember that for some, even with help from HomeBuilder, renovation won’t stack up economically.
Some older people may eschew home renovation to put money aside to help children get a foot on the property ladder.
Others may decide potentially expensive renovation is worth it to hold onto a family home to which children return as they get older. It might sound sentimental but the idea of Christmas in the family homestead is worth it, for some.
Tax considerations
Find out what tax breaks, if any, you might be eligible for if you renovate to divide the family home into a smaller space (if you’re keen to downsize, or enhance the accessibility of your home, for example) and adding a self-contained granny flat.
However, if the granny flat is leased out, this section of the home would be considered income-producing. Your “main residence” is generally <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Capital-gains-tax/Your-home-and-other-real-estate/Your-main-residence/">exempt</a> from capital gains tax when it comes time to sell, but you may not qualify entirely for this exemption if a section of the property is income-producing.
You may also consider remodelling the family home into a duplex and, depending on council planning laws, convert the title into dual occupancy. However, these suggestions may complicate eligibility for the HomeBuilder grant (which seems to exclude property investors, although there’s no mention of partly converting the main place into a dual occupancy).
The best option here is to seek advice from a tax specialist.
Factors to consider if you’re thinking of selling up and buying elsewhere
Use a <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/home-loans/stamp-duty-calculator">stamp-duty calculator</a> and <a href="https://www.localagentfinder.com.au/selling-costs-calculator">cost-of-selling calculator</a> to get a rough idea of those costs.
How important is proximity to work? Particularly if the coronavirus pandemic has opened your (or your employer’s) eyes to working remotely, would you consider a move to a more remote area where you can afford a bigger house?
Chat with a range of real estate agents and get into the habit of reading market media coverage. Have a sense of what houses sell for that featured your desired attributes (such as more bedrooms or off-street parking).
As a chartered building surveyor, I’d advise would-be downsizers to be cautious when buying a brand new high-rise apartment, due to risks of potentially costly defects that might become apparent over time.
And remember, even if you do sell and buy a new place, very few are able to find the perfect home. You may decide to make renovations anyway.
There are no easy answers. It comes down to your individual circumstances, your attitude to risk and ensuring you have a good grasp of the relative costs of each option.
Talk to a financial adviser, tax accountant, real estate agents, builders, architects and others who have been through each process about what they’d do differently next time.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sara-wilkinson-14186">Sara Wilkinson</a>, Professor, School of the Built Environment, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hera-antoniades-229521">Hera Antoniades</a>, Associate Professor, School of the Built Environment, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-adds-value-to-your-house-how-to-decide-between-renovating-and-selling-140627">original article</a>.
</body></html>

What adds value to your house? How to decide between renovating and selling

<html><body>
As government restrictions are eased and Australian businesses prepare to reopen, employers, in accordance with the government’s ‘return to work’ roadmap, are beginning to ask their employees to return to the workplace. The question remains: what will the post-pandemic workplace look like and how will businesses and their respective employees adapt to a post-COVID office model?   
In light of this, global design and workplace strategy firm, <a href="https://www.unispace.com/projects" target="_blank">Unispace</a>, with a varied suite of clients including ANZ Bank, Optus, Coca Cola, EY and Deloitte, has recently surveyed 237 companies among their clientele to gather data and insights on the global impact of remote working and what the workplace future holds for these high-profile companies.  
The survey results shed light on what workplaces of the future will look like and emerging cultural and behavioural trends to be taken into consideration for future office design.  
As told by Unispace’s suite of clients:  
1.       The overall office footprint will shrink  
2.       Staff will work from home at least two to three days per week  
3.       Companies will send staff back in waves  
4.       Video conferencing will replace most audio conferencing, phone calls, and F2F external meetings 
5.       Employees will use more collaboration spaces within the office than before, and focus work will predominately be conducted at home  
<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/2020/6/12/9_Unispace.jpg" alt="" width="448" height="308">
Productivity 
Interestingly, 45 per cent of respondents have found themselves more productive while working remotely while 36 per cent have found it more difficult to maintain productivity as a result of ineffective setups and caregiving requirements. On top of this, 37 per cent have witnessed a decrease in productivity due to the increased need to communicate more regularly with colleagues. 
Internal/external changes  
The primary challenges from both an internal (63 per cent) and external (55 per cent) standpoint has been around connecting with peers and clients. Participants in the survey have seen challenges arising when talking to external parties with 42.7 per cent of respondents indicating some frustration with a mismatch of software and being unfamiliar with their client’s tools, which may have been better solved in a face-to-face office environment.   
Returning to the workplace  
Although respondents feel the office will go back to normal within three to six months (27 per cent), they also believe the overall office footprint will shrink (36 per cent) and staff will work from home at least 2-3 days per week (68 per cent).  
Remote working arrangements  
In line with higher in-office rates, 25 per cent of respondents in APAC have indicated that they don’t have a suitable home internet arrangement. While 70 per cent of organisations were prepared to work remotely, 30 per cent already had some teams working from home and were more equipped with this change to remote working. 
</body></html>

Global companies weigh in on remote working and office return

Savers squeezed again as ANZ cuts rates

<html><body>
The disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to real estate transaction numbers coming to a standstill across the globe, and had a significant impact on the industry, according to the latest study from Savills Research. 
Savills Research has carried out a sentiment survey of Savills global residential network to assess how Covid-19 is changing the residential property market. 
Across all respondents, 47% anticipate vendors keeping their properties on the market at current prices, though 48% anticipate some level of price reductions. 
Titled the Savills Residential Global Market Sentiment Survey, 50 experts from across the globe took part. 
90% of respondents stated that 30% or fewer of their buyers had stopped actively looking. 
Only 6% of vendors have or are considering removing their property from the market, according to the report.
30% of markets have reported legal changes to better facilitate business performance.
The survey also found that, on average, buyers felt that they were likely to priorities home offices, Wi-Fi, and green spaces in future properties.
In Australia, Paul Craig, CEO of Savills Australia &amp; New Zealand said it is predicted that a shortage of supply will continue for some time, due to the uncertainty in the market, however this last weekend marks an easement in home open restrictions which is a step in the right direction.
“If you are a qualified buyer, this is a great time to be on the lookout for a residential property, due to record low interest rates and attractive pricing,” Mr Craig said.
“Given the encouraging progress with limiting COVID-19 in our country, why wouldn’t you want to own a piece of Australia!”
According to Chris Orr, Director of Residential at Savills Australia, prices have the potential to rebound strongly. 
“Time will tell however, but the common belief amongst the industry is that we will see residential values rebound very strongly due to the lower volatility compared to other markets, lower borrowing costs for housing and the Government’s comments around the importance of both construction employment and the housing market” he said. 
Mr Orr said his team are seeing buyers looking to upsize while it is cheaper to do so as well as luxury assets with unique/timeless appeal and off-the-plan inquiry is increasing (with delayed settlements)        
Mr Orr believes that the rest of this year and into early next will see a rise in distressed sales (to what extent is unknown) however these will come to market in a staggered approach and likely not until the deferred payments offered by banks come due. 
“It will be interesting to see what the increase in supply will look like and the effect it has on pricing, however, I’d expect to see an upward trending run on the market” he concluded.
</body></html>

Covid-19 pandemic driving significant industry changes: Savills

<html><body>
GUEST OBSERVATION
 
As COVID-19 slows in developed countries, the virus’s spread is speeding up in the developing world. Three-quarters of new cases detected each day are now in <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/06/04/the-pandemic-is-still-gathering-pace-in-most-of-the-world">developing countries</a>. And as the pandemic spreads, governments face juggling the health consequences with economic ones as this shifts to becoming an economic crisis.
Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2020/834-4">research</a> shows that the poverty impact of the crisis will soon be felt in three key ways. There is likely to be more poverty. It is likely to become more severe. And as a consequence, the location of global poverty will also change.
Having looked at estimates from a range of sources – including the Asian Development Bank, Goldman Sachs, IMF and OECD – we considered <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2020-77.pdf#page=4">three possible economic scenarios</a> stemming from COVID-19, where global income and consumption contracted by 5%, 10% or 20%. We found that the economic shock of the worst-case scenario could result in up to 1.12 billion people worldwide living in extreme poverty – up from 727 million in 2018.
This confirms our earlier estimates that the coronavirus could push up to 400 million people into extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than US$1.90 per day – the average poverty line in low-income developing countries. This number rises to over 500 million if using the World Bank’s higher average poverty lines for lower middle-income (US$3.20) and upper middle-income (US$5.50) developing countries.
The potential increase is driven by millions of people living just above the poverty line. These people are likely to be badly affected because many of them work in the informal sector, where there is often little in the way of social security. Such a rise in extreme poverty would mark the first absolute increase in the global count since 1999 – and the first since 1990 in terms of the proportion of the global population living in poverty.
On the intensity of the poverty, the resources needed to lift the incomes of the poor to above the poverty line could increase by 60%, from US$446m a day in the absence of the crisis to above US$700m a day. For the existing extreme poor and those newly living in extreme poverty, their loss in income could amount to US$500m per day.
In terms of where poverty is located, it is likely to increase dramatically in middle-income developing countries in Asia, such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. This points to the fact that much of the previously poor population in these countries moved to just above the poverty line. In other words, these countries’ recent economic progress has been relatively fragile. We’ll also likely see new poverty in countries where it has remained relatively high over the last three decades, such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and the DRC.
How to respond to the poverty pandemic
COVID-19 poses a significant threat to developing countries, as their health systems tend to be weaker. More severe cases have also been linked to <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/41/22/2058/5851436">high blood pressure</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-diabetes-the-different-risks-for-people-with-type-1-and-type-2-139079">diabetes</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200427-how-air-pollution-exacerbates-covid-19">air pollution</a>, all of which are prevalent in developing countries. Meanwhile, there are suggestions that COVID-19 could hinder the treatment of other illnesses <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/197257/covid-19-pandemic-could-significantly-increase-hiv/">such as TB, HIV/AIDS and chronic malaria</a>.
But developing countries generally have a lower proportion of people at high risk from COVID-19 in terms of age (&gt;70 years). As such, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/31eb2686-a982-11ea-a766-7c300513fe47">economic shocks</a> may pose a greater relative risk to their populations. The question emerges as to whether <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/africa%E2%80%99s-lockdown-dilemma">lockdowns</a> are the best option to contain the virus in developing countries if they entail severe income losses. Estimates of the share of jobs that can be <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w26948">performed at home</a> is less than 25% for many developing countries – much lower than the ~40% recorded in, for example, the USA and Finland. It’s as low as ~5% in countries such as Madagascar and Mozambique.
Consequently, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/coronavirus-poverty-economic-crisis-imf-world-bank-g7-a9561161">there’s also a clear need</a> for a range of social safety-net policies. These already exist in many developing countries, but their coverage and funding needs to be expanded substantially. <a href="https://www.ugogentilini.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SP-COVID-responses_June-12.pdf">Such policies</a> include cash transfer programmes, universal one-off cash payments, in-kind food/vouchers, school feeding schemes and public works programmes. In middle-income developing countries, these are funded by the national government, whereas in low-income countries these are often co-funded by donors. Any set of policies should also incorporate “pay to stay home” or “pay to get tested” schemes.
The long crisis
Looking further ahead, the poverty impacts beyond 2020 are closely related to if or when an effective vaccine is developed. Even if we take the best-case scenario and a vaccine is discovered later this year, it’s uncertain how long it would take to reach the entire global population. It could take years.
There is no guarantee developing countries would get access to the vaccine at a reasonable cost, or if everyone in developing countries would get the vaccine for free. We could end up living in a new COVID-19 apartheid, with the vaccinated and non-vaccinated residing in separate areas and working in different labour markets. This is a startling but <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/coronavirus-vaccine-latest-cure-covid-19-oxford-university-trump-who-america-a9493966">very real possibility</a> that no one is talking about much yet.
While this might sound far off, there are already some countries – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-chile/chile-to-push-ahead-with-coronavirus-release-certificates-despite-who-warning-idUSKCN2280NW">such as Chile</a> – issuing “immunity passports”. Such passports might determine what work people can do by determining where they can go. This could leave the poorest without access to earning opportunities or only with lower-income opportunities if their movement is restricted.
The crisis is increasingly looking like a long crisis. If so, it will have repercussions on global poverty for years to come.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140662/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andy-sumner-1124293">Andy Sumner</a>, Professor of International Development, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christopher-hoy-1124330">Christopher Hoy</a>, Research and Policy Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eduardo-ortiz-juarez-1124325">Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez</a>, PhD Student, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-poverty-coronavirus-could-drive-it-up-for-the-first-time-since-the-1990s-140662">original article</a>.
</body></html>

Coronavirus could drive up global poverty for the first time since the 1990s

<html><body>
EXPERT OBSERVATION
Three years have passed since a cladding-fuelled fire claimed 72 lives in Grenfell Tower, London, on June 14 2017. The construction industry and its regulators around the world are still grappling with how to create effective regulations to ensure dwellings are built to keep their occupants safe.
The New South Wales Parliament passed two important bills last week: the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2020 and the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Bill 2020. This put in place two important pieces of the “jigsaw puzzle”, as NSW Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson put it.
The Residential Apartment Buildings Bill in particular could be a game changer and is the focus of this article. The law is expected to take effect on September 1 2020.
New powers to order serious defects be fixed
The centrepiece of the legislation is an ability for the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service to order the correction of “serious defects” in residential apartment buildings. In practice, the NSW building commissioner and his staff will apply these orders, according to the bill’s second reading speech. Developers can be ordered to rectify building work “if the secretary has a reasonable belief that building work was or is being carried out in a manner that could result in a serious defect”.
The “was” is significant here. These powers of intervention can be used up to ten years after an occupation certificate is issued.
And, to make sure defects are fixed before residents take possession of their apartment, the secretary can issue a “prohibition order” to delay an occupation certificate.
The definition of “serious defect” includes:
failure to comply with performance requirements of the Building Code of Australia
defects likely to deny habitability or use of the building for its intended purpose
use of banned building products.
Other states and territories have in place various provisions to order rectification. However, none of these are as extensive as the new regime in NSW.
In particular, the express power to order rectification after apartments are completed addresses the issue that frustrated the Victorian Building Authority’s 2017 attempt to have the builder rectify non-compliant cladding at the Lacrosse Building in Melbourne. So, the rectification powers are likely, along with the statutory duty of care in the Design and Building Practitioners Bill – also a NSW innovation – to attract interest across the country.
How much will the industry push back?
These measures to rectify defects go to the heart of the commercial drivers that underpin our largely privately delivered apartment stock in Australia. Without an occupation certificate, developers can’t settle the sale of the apartments (usually off-plan). Likewise, their building contractors will typically remain “on the hook” for a raft of obligations under their contracts.
By making defects correction a precondition for issuing the occupation certificate, the new law embraces the “prevention is better than cure” mantra that underpins reforms in Australia and beyond.
To what extent will the industry support this shift? Time will tell.
What can be said is that the reforms add a high level of intervention in the commercial drivers of apartment construction when the industry is already operating under the shadow of COVID-19 and its gathering recession. So it is something of a “wildcard” in an already fraught commercial landscape.
This means developers who do not have adequate measures in place to pass the costs of rectification and delayed occupation down the contractual chain are likely to resort to the extensive appeal measures in the legislation. Likewise, when contractors, subcontractors, consultants and suppliers do “carry the can” for such liability, they will look hard at the relief provisions in their contracts.
The disputes and delays that inevitably result can leave apartment owners and renters in limbo, despite the intent of the legislation to protect them.
Regulators need adequate resources
Another crucial “time will tell” aspect is whether the regulator will have enough resources to inspect buildings – and issue prohibition and rectification orders when needed – in a timely manner across the industry.
The legislation largely leaves it to the Department of Customer Service to appoint “authorised officers”. The minister has indicated these officers will be the building commissioner and his staff.
The commissioner was reported in February to be recruiting up to 60 construction professionals as “auditors” for a scheme that looks similar to what is now enshrined in legislation. They will need to move rapidly to have it ready for the extensive interventions that the legislation anticipates.
A game changer?
Ever since the Grenfell tragedy, politicians around the world have at least paid lip service to the aspiration that “occupants of buildings deserve to feel safe and secure within their walls”. In saying this to the NSW parliament last week, Anderson was able credibly to put forward the Residential Apartment Buildings Bill as a vital piece in the regulatory “puzzle” to achieve that goal.
The issues discussed here are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg as the industry absorbs the implications of the new law (and its forthcoming detail by way of regulations). But recent activity by NSW lawmakers suggests there is at last strong impetus to achieve meaningful and comprehensive reform.
Matthew Bell is a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of Studies for Construction Law at the University of Melbourne.
</body></html>

New NSW building law could be a game changer for apartment safety: Matthew Bell

<html><body>
EXPERT OBSERVATION 
There is no shortage of repugnant and dangerous ideas in the world. An age old question is whether free speech will see good ideas win out over bad.
The proposition that good ideas eventually triumph in “the marketplace for ideas” dates at least to 1644, when John Milton wrote in his anti-censorship tract Areopagitica:
Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?
But it was perhaps first explicitly stated by United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1919, in his dissent to a 7–2 ruling in the Abrams v United States case involving the first amendment right to freedom of speech.
Holmes wrote:
the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas – that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.
Old though this question may be, it is one that confronts us time and again. Is it more dangerous to stifle expression of a seemingly dangerous idea, or to let it be freely expressed?
It is central to the controversy over the New York Times publishing on June 3 an idea many found repugnant.
That idea was “an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers” as a response to widespread Black Lives Matter demonstrations and isolated outbreaks of violence and looting.
It was advocated in an op-ed piece by a US senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton.
Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned as part of the paper’s mea culpa. A champion of the “marketplace of ideas” might argue the New York Times did the right thing, or at least nothing wrong.
So what would an economist, whose job is to understand market behaviour, say?
Economists and markets
The most celebrated result in all of economics – the “First Welfare Theorem” formalised by Nobel laureates Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu – states that with the right conditions competitive markets will allocate resources with maximum efficiency.
Yet economists – especially and including Arrow and Debreu – are all too aware that markets don’t always function well in reality. Information is often “asymmetric”, such as a seller knowing more about a product’s quality than the buyer. There are “externalities”, costs incurred by third parties, such as environmental harms not factored into market prices. Plenty of markets are not sufficiently competitive.
The failure of markets for insurance, used cars and many other things has been well-documented.
Why, then, why should we have faith in the marketplace for ideas?
Ideas are not products
Over the past two decades economists have been developing formal models that can speak to competition in ideas.
The stepping-off point is to note the nature of competition in an ideas market is fundamentally different from competition in a product market.
With products, sellers compete for customers by setting the price for their products. As the economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro put it:
Two firms compete [in the product market] if their products are substitutes from the perspective of consumers. A change in the price of one affects the purchasing behaviour of the other’s customers. This kind of competition is important because it limits firms’ ability to raise price above marginal cost.
Ideas differ in the following way:
Two firms compete in [an information market] if 1) they cover the same events and 2) at least some consumers will learn the facts reported by both. A change in the set of facts one reports affects the information of the other’s customers. This kind of competition limits firms’ ability to control consumers’ beliefs.
A form of prisoner’s dilemma
The cleanest formal model of competition between parties trying to control people’s beliefs comes from a 2017 paper by Matthew Gentzkow and Emir Kamenica (a former classmate and University of Chicago colleague of mine).
The “marketplace for ideas” notion holds that when there are more senders of information, more information will be communicated to consumers.
Gentzkow and Kamenica showed this is not necessarily so. It all depends on the nature of the strategic interaction between the senders of information.
Senders might be caught in a kind of Prisoner’s Dilemma, the game theory concept made famous by the movie A Beautiful Mind. It would be socially productive for more information to be revealed, but the private incentives of the senders lead to less revelation.
For example, consider two pharmaceuticals makers with drugs only they know the effectiveness of. One half of their market is customers who will only buy pharmaceuticals they believe likely to work well. The other half wants their drugs to work too, but they’ll also buy if it might only partially work.
In this case each maker has an incentive to withhold information about the efficacy of their product, even though they and the consumers would be better off if they and the rival revealed more information. It’s just like the consequences of unilateral action as shown in A Beautiful Mind.
If strategic interaction in the marketplace for ideas takes this form then competition does not lead to good arguments winning out.
Gentzkow and Kamenica show the crucial condition for competition to lead to more information being revealed is this: each sender must be able to unilaterally deviate to some outcome more informative for consumers. In the drug example, this would be each maker disclosing the efficacy of their own drug and that of their competitor.
Whether this happens in practice depends on important details about the nature of the ideas being discussed, what types of information are permissible by law, and of course whether those receiving information are rational.
In short, the answer to whether the marketplace for ideas leads good ideas to win out is: it depends.
Open discussion is not enough
Just because the marketplace for ideas doesn’t always work doesn’t mean it never works. There are deeply important non-economic reasons to value freedom of speech that extend beyond how much information gets revealed.
But modern economics teaches us that competition in the marketplace for ideas is different than competition in the market for ordinary goods and services. We should not always conclude that odious ideas will be consigned to the dustbin of history simply through open discussion.
Richard Holden is a Professor of Economics at UNSW
</body></html>

Why ‘the marketplace for ideas’ can fail – from an economist’s perspective: Richard Holden

A luxury beachfront apartment at Rainbow Bay has more than doubled in value since it sold off the plan six years ago, setting a new local apartment record in the process.

The three-bedroom apartment in the Flow development on Petrie Street, the first of four new projects locally by Paul Gedoun's S&amp;S Projects, has sold for $7.4 million, after originally selling for $3.27 million when the project launched in 2020.

The seventh-floor apartment, comprising 187 sqm of internal living space and a 54 sqm balcony overlooking Froggies Beach and Snapper Rocks, was purchased by a local family.

The transaction was negotiated by Pezet Matheson director Kerry Pezet and equates to more than $30,000 per sqm.

Pezet said the sale reflected the limited opportunities to buy into the boutique beachfront development.

"The sale highlights the rarity of opportunities within the boutique beachfront development, where residences seldom become available," Pezet said.

"Flow is one of the Gold Coast's most tightly held buildings. Buyers from our database move quickly when residences become available, and achieving an off-market sale at $7.4 million demonstrates the depth of demand for property of this calibre."

<img alt="Flow" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c585b206-2130-4eee-a50c-3f27c51a7c70" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-07-06%20at%208.33.25%E2%80%AFPM.png?VersionId=m3pHRDV62Y3fvN.XQuQHq.52ilTWpRLf" />

Flow was the first of four luxury apartment developments delivered by Paul Gedoun's S&amp;S Projects at Rainbow Bay and was completed in 2023.

Positioned on the beachfront overlooking Snapper Rocks, the residence includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a powder room and views stretching north along the coastline towards Surfers Paradise.

Pezet Matheson Residential principal Mitchell Lambert said buyers continued to prioritise quality beachfront apartments in tightly held locations.

"Flow Residences offers a rare combination of elevated beachfront positioning, architectural excellence, comprehensive resident amenity and premium finishes, which is exactly what discerning purchasers are seeking," Lambert said.

"The transaction further reinforces Rainbow Bay's reputation as one of Australia's premier coastal lifestyle destinations, where limited supply and growing demand continue to support strong market performance."

Pezet Matheson originally marketed and sold out Flow off the plan, making the latest transaction a return to one of the project's original buyers.

Paul Gedoun is selling his third project, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/radia-rainbow-bay-271-boundary-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Radia Rainbow Bay</a>, after recently completing, and selling out, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/buildings/esprit-217-227-boundary-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Esprit</a>. He has plans for a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/qld/first-look-s-s-projects-proposes-88-apartment-wellness-tower-at-coolangattas-boundary-street">fourth building</a>, 88 apartments on <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/209-213-boundary-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Boundary Street</a>.

Joel Robinson

Rainbow Bay apartment doubles in price since off the plan sale during pandemic

The long-planned transformation of Brisbane's historic Shafston Estate has taken another major step, with Capella Hotel Group announced as the luxury hospitality partner behind what will become Brisbane's first branded residences.

The project, to be known as Capella Residences Brisbane, is being delivered by Verso Projects at the landmark Kangaroo Point riverfront estate, with completion targeted for 2029.

The announcement follows a series of planning changes to the project over recent years. The site was originally approved in 2023 for a 15-level, 37-apartment development designed by Rothelowman for Burgundy Group before Verso Projects took over the 10,070 sqm riverfront holding and lodged revised plans with Kerry Hill Architects to increase the development to a 25-level tower with 51 apartments.

The latest announcement confirms Capella Hotel Group will bring its branded residential offering to the project, marking just the second Capella Residences development globally after Seoul, and the group's first branded residential project in Australia.

The <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/23-castlebar-street-kangaroo-point-qld-4169">Castlebar Street development</a> will centre around the restoration of the heritage-listed Shafston House, one of Brisbane's oldest residences, originally constructed in 1851 by Reverend Robert Creyke as a single-storey cottage known as Ravenscott.

<img alt="Capella" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b9f4ce5-638f-4d6b-8082-3ca7e4b75fca" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-07-09%20at%207.20.41%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=f7aeqsW_DzOJI4FymWb3lD8NptSfsP7q" />

Capella said the project aligns with its focus on heritage-led developments, with the Brisbane estate combining the restored historic residence with a new luxury apartment tower and hospitality-inspired resident amenities.

Residents will have access to the Capella Living Room, a concierge-led communal space inspired by the group's luxury hotels, alongside landscaped gardens, six swimming pools, wellness and recreation facilities.

The broader estate will also include two riverfront homes, a six-berth private marina, porte cochère arrival experience, secure basement parking and a new section of public riverwalk along the Brisbane River frontage.

The heritage Postal Depot Building will also be retained and repurposed as a guest house, in line with the revised development plans.

The project represents another evolution for the site, which Kerry Hill Architects previously described as a rare opportunity to restore one of Brisbane's most significant heritage estates while creating a new benchmark for apartment living.

"The Shafston Estate provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore one of Brisbane's finest heritage precincts and to reinstate residential use as a unique site perched on the edge of Kangaroo Point," Kerry Hill Architects said in its Urban Context Report accompanying the planning submission.

"The project will celebrate excellence in sub-tropical residential design, setting a new benchmark for vertical living in Brisbane."

Verso Projects, which now has an $8.5 billion development pipeline spanning more than 6,000 dwellings across apartments, townhouses, retail and commercial projects, said the partnership with Capella would elevate the development beyond a traditional residential project.

"We feel honoured to be restoring Shafston Estate to its former glory, elevating it to new heights of luxury and excellence underpinned by Capella's distinctive service ethos and design philosophy, and making it a standout landmark in Brisbane," Verso Projects CEO Steve Laffey said.

"By partnering with Capella, globally recognised for its refined approach to luxury hospitality and deep respect for cultural and historical context, we will elevate this project beyond a residential offering into a world-class destination."

Capella Hotel Group President Roland Fasel said Brisbane's emergence as a global city made it the right location for the company's Australian residential debut.

"Brisbane is a city on the cusp of something remarkable, and Capella Residences is our commitment to being part of that story," Fasel said.

"The Capella residential experience is more than luxury. It is about a sense of belonging to a place with deep meaning."

Private appointments have now opened for the project, with a display suite expected to open in late 2026 ahead of the planned 2029 completion.

Capella to launch Brisbane's first branded residences at Shafston House, Kangaroo Point

Lewis Land's latest apartment release within its <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/harbour-shores-biggera-waters-564-oxley-drive-biggera-waters-qld-4216">Harbour Shores</a> masterplan is targeting one of the Gold Coast's fastest-growing buyer groups, with almost a third of apartments at Solis priced below $1 million.

The seven-storey building at Biggera Waters will comprise 91 apartments, including 24 one-bedroom residences starting from $778,000, a price point Lewis Land says is aimed squarely at first home buyers struggling to enter the Gold Coast market.

<img alt="Harbour Shires" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e7486e37-22f6-4c92-b212-9b0622070b8f" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-07-08%20at%209.09.34%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=W8MJwJUCf6HkIyl_EVSksnd.QI6MZryY" />

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/lewis-land-group">Lewis Land</a> Head of Development Michael Long said the developer deliberately allocated a significant proportion of the project to more affordable apartment types.

"First home buyers have been priced out of many parts of the Gold Coast, and we saw a clear opportunity to address this and play our part in a longer-term housing solution," Long said.

"That's why 24 of the 91 apartments being delivered at Solis have been designed and priced for the city's next generation of homeowners, quality one-bedroom apartments, half of which include an additional multipurpose room to maximise space and flexibility.

"This approach places 30 per cent of apartments in Solis under $1 million, and with close proximity to Harbour Town's future light rail extension connecting residents to the city's major employment and knowledge hubs, it's a win for buyers looking to secure their first property."

<img alt="Sores" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="550526d3-73ba-4710-9739-c5f4294a30ef" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-07-08%20at%209.09.29%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=cQQdXHt9wS0UXwZEm5Py5bH_3kAmzyhu" />

Designed by BDA Architecture, Solis will deliver a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, with residences ranging up to 232 sqm. Apartments feature generous balconies and contemporary finishes, while residents will have access to Harbour Shores' lagoon pool, clubhouse, tennis court, gym, yoga studio and sauna.

The focus on first home buyers resonated with purchaser Holly Humphreys, who said she and her boyfriend spent more than a year searching for their first property before shifting their attention from houses to apartments.

"We fell in love with the first house we bid on and got our hopes up, but after repeated knockbacks we learned not to get too attached," Humphreys said.

"We offered at the high end of price guides, but sales kept going even higher. That's where we really struggled and we needed to re-evaluate our budget and our expectations. Standalone houses were off the table, and we pivoted to apartments and townhouses."

Humphreys said it was encouraging to see developers recognising the growing demand from first home buyers.

"There's a growing number of young buyers looking to enter the market earlier because they understand that getting in now can make a real difference as prices continue to rise," she said.

"It's fantastic to see a developer recognise this and then actively take measures to deliver an apartment with us in mind."

Solis is the first development planned within the second stage of the Harbour Shores masterplan, with early works expected to commence in September 2026.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=113271]

Lewis Land targets first home buyers at latest Harbour Shores release, Solis

Luxury apartment developer Abadeen has recorded $19.25 million in apartment sales across two of its Lower North Shore developments in the lead-up to the end of the financial year, headlined by the sale of a $6.75 million penthouse at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/buildings/koyo-crows-nest-5-rodborough-avenue-crows-nest-nsw-2065">KOYO in Crows Nest.</a>

The transactions also included the sale of a newly completed three-bedroom apartment at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/buildings/park-residences-cremorne-2-sutherland-street-cremorne-nsw-2090">Park Residences in Cremorne</a> for $6.35 million, with the residence selling shortly after the project's first public inspections following completion.

The sales come as completed, owner-occupier-focused apartments continue to attract strong demand across Sydney's Lower North Shore, particularly from buyers looking for certainty and immediate occupancy.

The penthouse at KOYO spans 491 sqm across a single level and was designed by architect Koichi Takada. The development is one of Abadeen's flagship boutique projects in Crows Nest.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=108800 project_image_fid=370093]

Abadeen Executive Chairman and Founder Justin Brown said buyer activity lifted noticeably in the lead-up to the end of the financial year.

"We saw a clear increase in enquiry levels, inspection numbers and buyer engagement across our completed projects leading into the end of the financial year," Brown said.

"Buyers have become far more decisive over the past six months. The combination of improving confidence, limited supply and the ability to physically inspect completed residences is creating strong competition for premium apartments in the best locations."

Brown says the&nbsp;response to Park Residences following completion has been particularly strong.

"Buyers want certainty and are responding positively to the opportunity to walk through a finished product, inspect the quality firsthand and move in immediately," Brown suggested.

"Projects such as Park Residences and KOYO demonstrate that when the product is exceptional and the location is irreplaceable, buyers are prepared to act quickly."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=114246 project_image_fid=370116]

Abadeen CEO Joe Tack said quality continued to differentiate projects in the current market.

"Today's buyers are incredibly discerning," Tack said.

"They are seeking larger floorplans, premium finishes, walkability, lifestyle amenity and confidence in the developer delivering the project. Well-designed boutique developments continue to outperform because they offer something genuinely difficult to replace.

"The enquiry we are seeing across our completed and recently completed Lower North Shore portfolio is very encouraging, and we expect this momentum to continue into spring."

The sales follow increased enquiry across Abadeen's Lower North Shore portfolio which also includes <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/buildings/northcote-collective-naremburn-2-northcote-street-naremburn-nsw-2065">Northcote Collective in Naremburn</a> which also completed recently.

KOYO penthouse headlines Abadeen's $19.25 million EOFY sales flurry

The City of Sydney has approved plans for <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/billbergia">Billbergia Group</a> and Metrics Credit Partners’ $3.5 billion Castlereagh Place project in the heart of the Sydney CBD

The towers will be among the tallest in <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/sydney-nsw-2000">Sydney</a>'s CBD, with more floors than any other residential tower in the city.&nbsp;

The 6,000 sqm site was acquired by the joint venture partners in 2024. It is the largest amalgamated land parcel in the Sydney CBD and comprises eight individual sites fronting Castlereagh, Pitt and Liverpool Streets.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/castlereagh-place-sydney-324-348-pitt-street-sydney-nsw-2000">Castlereagh Place</a> will transform an underutilised city block into a landmark mixed-use destination, anchored by two 82-storey towers comprising 607 luxury residences above an 8-level podium housing a 209-room luxury hotel. A 1,000 square metre civic park on ground level features a curated mix of food, beverage and retail.

The plans have been refined over the past year to rebalance the residential and hotel offering, and reconfigure the retail footprint to create a stronger, more dynamic dining experience.

A three-level flagship building on the prominent corner of Pitt and Liverpool Streets will be the gateway to the Castlereagh Place lifestyle precinct. Set to become a Sydney icon, the building is capable of housing multiple hospitality venues.

“Castlereagh Place is designed to be the City's next great urban oasis - an energetic mixed-use precinct that pulses with life, day and night,"&nbsp;said Joseph Kinsella, Group Director of Billbergia.

"It will bring the vibrancy of places like Barangaroo and Darling Quarter into a more accessible, central destination at the very heart of Sydney."

Kinsella said the project will build on&nbsp;Sydney’s growing laneway culture with the City’s largest network of new activated lanes - an expanded, next-generation take on precincts like Angel Place, Palings Lane and Ash Street in Wynyard.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134477 project_image_fid=374401]

Castlereagh Place has been designed by architects <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/fjc-studio">fjcstudio</a> in collaboration with Trias Studio, Aileen Sage and Polly Harbison Design, joint winners of an international design competition in 2018.&nbsp;

Signature design elements from the original scheme remain unchanged, while the public domain has been significantly enhanced, delivering 60 per cent more open-to-sky space.

Pedestrian access will also be enhanced through new laneways linking Pitt, Liverpool and Castlereagh Streets, drawing people into a new civic park with outdoor seating, landscaping and integrated public art.

With activated laneways supported by strong hospitality offerings, Castlereagh Place is tipped to become a vibrant new dining destination in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.

It marks the largest undertaking to date for the Billbergia and Metrics Credit Partners partnership. Together they are developing other underutilised Sydney sites into mixed-use precincts, including the $2.2 billion Concord Central and the $1.3 billion Chatswood Grand Residences.

Metrics Managing Partner and Group CEO Andrew Lockhart said Castlereagh Place is a landmark project that will redefine Sydney’s skyline.

"As the tallest residential high-rise development, the revitalised site will offer panoramic views across the CBD and surrounds. We are excited to partner with Billbergia to reinvigorate an underutilised site and create a sophisticated and contemporary mixed-use offering situated in the heart of Sydney.”

Total apartments within the towers have increased to 607 dwellings, with a focus on larger floorplans. Aligned to growing market demand, Castlereagh Place now comprises 299 three-plus-bedroom apartments, 198 two-bedroom units and 110 one-bedroom configurations.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134477 project_image_fid=374402]

Resident amenities will include an exclusive residents club containing a gym, rooftop pool, dining rooms, co-working spaces, library, golf simulator, games room, cinema room, and access to an exclusive concierge service. There will be around 500 basement car spaces below the towers.

The development will also include a state-of-the-art wellness centre, set to feature a bathhouse with magnesium pools, hot/cold plunge pools and premium amenities.

&nbsp;

According to fjcstudio, the towers will feature distinctive yet elegant architectural design reflecting Sydney’s geometry and urban character, with a network of through-site links and intimate public spaces activating the streetscape.

"Castlereagh Place is a city-making project of significant scale and ambition," said Richard Francis-Jones, Design Director at fjcstudio.

"It will create a rich urban complex of public open spaces, landscaped gardens, and vibrant laneways. Defining these new public spaces and the important streetscape of Castlereagh Street is a sequence of fine-grained, diverse retail and hotel architecture designed in collaboration with Aileen Sage, Polly Harbison Design and Trias.

“Rising above the tree-lined, human-scale streetscape are two slender residential towers that will transform the city skyline and look towards the Harbour, Hyde Park, and the Royal Botanic Garden.”

Demolition and early construction works have commenced onsite at Castlereagh Place.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=134477]

Staff reporter

Editor's Picks

Have something to contribute?

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News