The most elevated residential tower in Palm Beach, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/corallo-palm-beach-5-palm-beach-avenue-palm-beach-qld-4221">Corallo</a>, has officially launched this week, however only a handful of buyers will have an opportunity to buy in to the 17-storey project.

The $200 million mixed-use project includes ground floor dining and retail and is considered so valuable its developer, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/changfa-group">Changfa Group</a>, will be staging its release of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and penthouses to the market.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112194 project_image_fid=806]

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/project-marketer/colliers">Colliers</a> International, Director, David Higgins, said the development’s location just metres from the beach on the corner of Palm Beach Avenue and the Gold Coast Highway influenced the sculptural design by the acclaimed Plus Architecture studio.

“<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/palm-beach-qld-4221">Palm Beach</a> locals understand the rare opportunity here at Corallo, particularly being the tallest building in the suburb and its proximity to the beach and local restaurants, and they’ve represented the bulk of pre-launch enquiries,” Higgins said.

“The orientation of the apartments captures views of the coastline from Surfers Paradise to Currumbin, and the diversity of floor plans and apartment types provide an exceptional level of choice.

“The first release includes just 59 one-, two and three-bedroom apartments and two half-floor penthouses, with flexible use designed to appeal to both owner-occupiers and investors."

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112194 project_image_fid=799]

In addition to the ground floor amenity, residents will also have access to a private dedicated wellness level offering 734 sqm of resort-style amenities including a pool, cold plunge, wet deck, steam room, sauna, gym, day bed, fire pit, barbecue area, dining area and yoga/stretch deck.

The project is located within walking distance of Tallebudgera Creek, Burleigh Heads village, Currumbin Alley and Palm Beach Currumbin High School. The Gold Coast Airport is under 10 minutes away.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112194 project_image_fid=814]

Higgins said Palm Beach remained a hotly contested suburb for home buyers, with prices doubling in the past five years.

“What makes Corallo so appealing to the local market is the diversity of apartment types and pricing, with one-bedroom apartments starting from $841,000 and two-bedroom apartments starting from $1.34 million,” he said.

“The ground floor retail and dining offering will further expand on Palm Beach’s village atmosphere and create a meeting place for locals, and those opportunities for connection are highly valued.”

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112194 project_image_fid=807]

The on-site sales display, which includes a fully fitted kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, will be open until early works commence in Q1 2026. Each residence at Corallo will feature premium finishes including natural stone, artisanal brickwork, and warm copper accents.

Changfa Group has a two-decade history of delivering premium developments in Australia and internationally, having recently completed its collection of premium townhomes at Lyra, Hope Island, as well as apartment projects in Leichhardt, Carlingford, and Chatswood in New South Wales.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=112194]

Joel Robinson

$200 million Corallo Palm Beach launches with limited apartment release

In a move that aligns with NSW's accelerated planning incentives for affordable housing, developer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/the-one-collection">One Collection</a> has revised its Hills District apartment plans, and taken it to the NSW Government, to secure approval.

The developer, which is currently delivering Horizon Hurstville, is seeking to add 80 more apartments to its <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/the-one-castle-hill-16-dawes-avenue-nsw-2154">Castle Hill development</a> near Castle Towers. They already have approval for 280 apartments across eight six-storey buildings.

<img alt="One Collection" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b3c298ba-1cc5-4db7-9872-607c75f8ceca" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-10-13%20at%2010.19.22%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=wN9KpFIu5ENSGZLLsaZgXQHrXcwEO3Vd" />

Now on the desks of the NSW Department of Planning is 360 apartments, 48 of which will be dedicated to affordable housing.&nbsp;Affordable housing is to be “fully integrated within the building and visually indistinguishable,” according to the planning submission.

The 15,697 sqm block, an amalgamation of 16 sites, spans across Dawes Avenue, Hughes Avenue, and Camdan Crescent, sits 550m from Hills Showground Metro Station.&nbsp;

"The existing context is quickly changing from free-standing homes into residential flat buildings in line with the Hills Showground Precinct planning framework," Place Studio noted.

<img alt="Castle Hill" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3ec24948-c185-48fa-af8b-ed25adf302bf" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-10-13%20at%2010.19.04%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=zNDX.IeRROX1RlDeYcS38xn8w_dqgU2t" />

They said the design was informed by the site's unique condition of having three street frontages and was developed to to respond sensitively to iots surrounding context.

"The design adopted a conventional perpendicular alignment to the primary street frontage. The massing of the development was carefully modulated to align with the evolving character of the neighbourhood. The design ensured that the scale was not excessive or out of context, but instead contributed to a cohesive urban form consistent with emerging developments in the area."

<img alt="Castle Hill" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f83ffdaa-f960-469d-b6fe-abcece57c9ef" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-10-13%20at%2010.19.09%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=4oKlCyfaKes7jLi1_EMoqa46w2h_YvDZ" />

The apartment mix will be 46 one-beds, 168 two-bed apartments, and 146 three-bedroom units, with 631 parking spaces proposed.

Along the street frontages, the building heights are four storeys with a 7.5 metre setback, and eight storeys with an 11.5 metre setback. It should cost about $150 million to build.

One Collection works hand-in-hand with the respected development and construction firm Masscon, which has built a reputation for leveraging its expertise in the built environment to take on developments others can't. That's what they're achieving at Horizon Hurstville, having taken over the project to deliver it.

First look: One Collection advances plans for Castle Hill apartments

At Yarra’s Edge, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/mirvac">Mirvac</a>’s newest tower under construction, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/trielle-at-yarra-s-edge-docklands-16-point-park-crescent-docklands-vic-3008">Trielle</a>, sets a new benchmark for elevated living. Rising 45 storeys, 12.5 metres from the Yarra River, the landmark building offers residents access to a private wellness retreat and spa, a resident-only golf simulator, and an elegant lounge, dining and bar complete with a self-playing piano, all without ever having to leave home.

Now, that sense of elevation has reached new heights with the Aerus Sub-Penthouses, a limited release of half-floor riverfront residences on the Collins St axis where the sought-after street meets the Yarra River.

Each Aerus Sub-Penthouse, located across levels 42 and 43, represents the most expansive offering within Trielle, aside from the yet-to-be-revealed crowning penthouses. Spanning between 269 and 301 sqm, these residences are designed to capture natural light and uninterrupted views of the city skyline, Yarra River, and Port Phillip Bay.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=114216 project_image_fid=3784]

Among the collection are three-bedroom sub penthouses, complemented by a media room, and expansive four-bedroom layouts. All include panoramic living areas and oversized master suites with luxury ensuites reminiscent of a five-star hotel, complemented by dedicated dressing rooms finished in timber and natural stone.

The interiors have been crafted by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/mirvac-design">Mirvac Design</a>, the developer’s award-winning in-house architecture and design team. Every material has been chosen for quality and longevity, from sculpted stone island benches with feature soft wash LED lighting to bespoke joinery and chevron timber oak flooring.

Kitchens are fitted with a BORA induction cooktop with integrated downdraft extractor, alongside Gaggenau appliances, including a fridge, freezer, and wine fridge. The adjoining butler’s pantry incorporates the exclusive Gaggenau Minimalistic Series including oven, steam oven, microwave, coffee machine and warming drawer, all concealed behind handleless glass panels for a clean, integrated presentation. Bathrooms feature custom Apaisar freestanding baths and basins and natural stone benchtops, continuing Mirvac’s design emphasis on tactile, timeless materials.&nbsp;

<img alt="Trielle at Yarra's Edge, Docklands" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c00be724-b0f1-47c0-afed-54f829870704" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Aerus%20sub-penthouse.png?VersionId=Uktd61kpLSqNjwJeDFs7IaZ3xgLlDQmu" />

Michael Wiener, Design Director at Mirvac, says The Aerus Sub-Penthouse embodies the apex of Mirvac’s design ethos.

“Moving through your home is like walking on air - a private sanctuary where the craftsmanship is refined, the proportions generous, and the flow so effortless, you feel completely at ease in the sky,” Wiener says.

“In Aerus, we wanted to create a sense of weightlessness - a home that feels suspended in the skyline, full of light, grounded in luxury.”

[smartcode_project:default project_id=114216 project_image_fid=3777]

The Aerus Sub-Penthouses are expected to attract a mix of local and international buyers seeking a long-term residence of scale and quality in a riverfront setting, from returning expats to established families and business owners who value privacy, craftsmanship, and convenience within walking distance of the CBD.

With an unmatched suite of amenities, Trielle is the most extensively appointed development Mirvac has created to date at Yarra’s Edge. Within the tower will be The Oasis, a 900 sqm podium rooftop wellness retreat designed in collaboration with spa expert Naomi Gregory. Located seven storeys above the Yarra River promenade, it features a 25-metre lap pool, spa and sauna, hot magnesium spa, biophilic gym, yoga and Pilates studio, cold-pail contrast treatment, and day spa treatment rooms. Further amenities include a piano lounge, bookable dining room, cinema room, golf simulator studio, games room, teppanyaki bar, dog wash bay, and two flexible work hubs, The Biblioteca library and Mills Place office space, catering to residents’ evolving lifestyle needs.

Construction of the $350 million tower is underway through Mirvac’s in-house construction arm, with completion anticipated for mid-2027.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=114216]

Sky-high sanctuaries: Mirvac unveils The Aerus sub-penthouses at Trielle

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/jwland-development">JWLand</a>’s De Burgh, the final residential release within the Northbourne Village precinct in Lyneham, is nearing completion just as the Federal Government’s Home Guarantee Scheme prepares for its most significant expansion to date.&nbsp;

From October 2025, the scheme will allow first home buyers to enter the market with just a five per cent deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), removing some of the most common barriers to ownership.

With <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/de-burgh-at-northbourne-village-40-de-burgh-street-lyneham-act-2602">De Burgh</a> on track for residents to move in by late spring 2025, the timing creates a strong opportunity for first home buyers seeking brand-new apartments in Canberra’s sought-after Inner North.&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139989 project_image_fid=212888]

The project delivers 350 residences across two buildings, with layouts ranging from compact studios through to one, two, and three-bedroom apartments.

JWLand has tailored the development for long-term liveability, integrating natural light, privacy and outdoor space into each home. Ground-floor residences feature private courtyards, while upper levels benefit from generous balconies.

Kitchens are fitted with Fisher &amp; Paykel appliances, and all apartments include ducted reverse-cycle air conditioning with smartphone app control for lighting and climate.&nbsp;

Shared resident facilities include a rooftop garden, gym, lounge and parcel lockers, alongside landscaped green space within the precinct.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=139989 project_image_fid=267376]

For buyers, the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme removes income caps and introduces unlimited places, making it more accessible than ever. With most De Burgh apartments priced under $1 million, they fall well within the updated eligibility thresholds.

The policy changes provide first home buyers with greater certainty and a smoother path to finance. Combined with the quality and location of De Burgh, the expanded scheme is expected to draw a new wave of buyers to Canberra’s Inner North.

Residents will benefit from the project’s central setting, just 600 metres from the light rail and three kilometres from Canberra’s CBD. The precinct is bordered by the <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/lyneham-act-2602">Lyneham</a> wetlands and sits within easy reach of cafes, restaurants, schools and the ANU.

With completion scheduled for late 2025, De Burgh is set to be among the first major apartment projects to meet the expanded scheme head-on, offering first-time buyers a realistic pathway to ownership in one of Canberra’s most connected neighbourhoods.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=139989]

JWLand’s De Burgh aligns with expanded Homebuyer Scheme, opening doors for first home buyers in Canberra’s Inner North

A subtropical pair of residential towers are in planning for a key South Brisbane site neighbouring the iconic Expo ’88 Skyneedle, with new documents revealing a vertically layered vision designed to respond to the precinct’s evolving high-density character.

The proposal has been lodged by&nbsp;Darveniza Group, which is also is behind the 400-apartment Station Quarter precinct in Alderley.

Darveniza Group, led by Jane Darveniza, the Brisbane-based investor and Queensland rich-lister and widow of the late property magnate Bojan Darveniza, is seeking approval for a mixed-use project encompassing 204 apartments, ground-level retail, food and drink tenancies, and office space across two architecturally integrated towers at 37–39 Manning Street.

Occupying an 1,822 sqm site, the proposed towers would rise above a sculptural podium base, with a recessed landscaped centre, rooftop communal areas, and a total of 220 car parks and 256 bicycle bays. The apartment mix spans one- to five-bedroom dwellings, with a design emphasis on generous balconies, cross-ventilation, and climate-responsive materials.

<img alt="First look: Twin towers proposed for Manning Street site beside Skyneedle" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="42c1f501-2afd-440b-af49-67c257123ea7" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Manning%20podium.png?VersionId=KFlksfWzmDRD.VIYxd_1q3VAel.nN3TH" />

“The development is conceived as two slender twin buildings that meet at a lushly landscaped central recess,” the Finegrain design report states. “The façade is highly articulated with the plan form stepping back and forth to reduce visual bulk and maximise internal occupants’ access to natural light and air”.

A hallmark of the proposal is its integration of greenery, both visually and functionally. Around 77 per cent of the site’s green plot ratio is delivered through vertical planting spines, a green podium wall, and rooftop amenity. Ground-level deep planting and landscaped communal zones aim to create a shaded, walkable interface along Manning Street.

“The stepped plan form introduces variation in balcony setbacks and enclosed apartment areas, enriching both the façade expression and the resident experience,” the design team notes. “At ground and podium levels, this stepping also enhances permeability, maximising pedestrian view lines to the neighbouring Skyneedle and reinforcing a strong sense of local identity”.

<img alt="First look: Twin towers proposed for Manning Street site beside Skyneedle" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b3f26dfc-6b93-465c-9ffb-0a2530372a23" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Manning%20site.png?VersionId=JflvKdqDxcaHTFbb9HL5TwoiRgeQ2LqA" />

The site directly adjoins the heritage-listed Skyneedle at 35 Manning Street, an enduring legacy of World Expo ’88. The accompanying heritage impact report by Pendergast Architects contends that the proposal has been carefully conceived to protect the cultural significance and landmark visibility of the structure.

“The design provides setbacks, tower separation and podium articulation to maintain the visibility and landmark role of the adjoining Skyneedle,” the report states. “The significance of the Skyneedle lies principally in its landmark visibility and cultural symbolism, rather than in detailed fabric or architectural setting”.

The proposal sits within the Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct, under Brisbane’s TLPI 02/2023, where revised planning controls support high-density, mixed-use development integrated with subtropical design and increased public realm contributions.

Finegrain’s design reflects this intent, drawing cues from the site's adjacency to Musgrave Park, the subtropical landscape of South Brisbane, and cultural landmarks such as QPAC and South Bank.

Twin green towers proposed for Manning Street, South Brisbane site beside Skyneedle

Shopfront

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A refurbished ground floor retail space in Sydney’s Potts Point is up for auction.
Lot 1 at 39 Elizabeth Bay Road is fully refurbished has potential for capital growth.
It could be an entry level investment for an investor or for an owner occupier.
The strata shop is surrounded by cafes, restaurants, fashion boutiques and residential dwellings.
The 71 sqm shop has street frontage and suits  a number of uses including retail, showroom, office, or creative studio.
The auction is on December 7 at Cooley Auction Centre in Sydney CBD, 1 Margaret Street (Dexus Place).
The listing agent is David Canelas Krulis Commercial. 
 
 
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jonathanchancellor-7SQnKwU6yx

Retail space in Sydney's Potts Point set to go under the hammer

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Women's clothing and accessories retailer Who Fish has taken a lease at Hawksburn Village in Melbourne’s inner east.
Who Fish have signed a five year lease with a five year option for The Shop 3, 537 Malvern Road. 
Teska Carson’s Luke Bisset and Fergus Evans brokered the deal. 
Mr Bisset said the tenant had sought a premises in a location which offered excellent exposure to a highly fashion conscious market and which was easily accessible for current clients including parking and public transport.
"After eight years Who Fish is relocating from just down the road to be in the heart of Hawksburn Village, one of the most popular retail strips in the inner-east and which offers strong growth potential,’’ he said.
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Retailer Who Fish takes Hawksburn lease

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A leased shopfront in Melbourne’s far east has been snapped up by a local investor for $750,000, highlighting the affordability of the city’s far eastern suburbs.
The <a href="https://www.realcommercial.com.au/property-retail-vic-croydon-502300130" target="_blank">71 Wicklow Avenue</a> property in Croydon is leased to Linear Hair Salon for one year, with another one-year option to renew.
The retail asset was sold in an off-market deal through Colliers International’s Jackie Hanna.
She said the $8,333 rate per sqm for the 90 sqm corner shop was a “great result” for a freehold under a short-term lease.
“We received significant local enquiry for this asset,” she said.
“Investors saw the upside potential given the property’s proximity to the local shops and train station.”
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Shopfront in Melbourne’s far eastern Croydon suburb sells for $750,000

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A shop front and a two-level apartment in Sydney’s Randwick recently sold for $1.7 million.
The property at <a href="https://www.realcommercial.com.au/property-retail-nsw-randwick-502092350" target="_blank">5 Canberra Street, Randwick</a> is close to Coogee Beach and the University of NSW. 
Built on a land area of 205 sqm, the property comprises a retail shop front and an apartment, which the description says is in “absolute original condition”.
The apartment has a separate entry and spans two-levels with living and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms plus a study upstairs.
The property offers scope for further improvements and redesign subject to council approval.
The deal was through Hugh Harrison and Theo Karangis of N G Farah Real Estate.
<img src="/images/2016/10/03/Randwick1.jpg" alt="">
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Shop and unit in Sydney's Randwick fetches $1.7 million

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A shop and apartment with independent leases in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Dulwich Hill will go under the hammer through Raine &amp; Horne on September 20.
The shop on the ground floor shop is leased to a dental practice, with its lease expiring late-2017.
The first floor comprises a two-bedroom unit and has a separate lease.
The total site area is nearly 202 sqm.
Zoned B2 Local Centre, the property is suited for a range of future uses or developments.
The site is surrounded by cafes, restaurants, banks and shops and close to transport. 
The selling agent is Luke Smith of Raine &amp; Horne Commercial.
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Shop and unit in Sydney's Dulwich Hill beckons investors at Raine & Horne auction

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Melbourne fashion designer and retailer Anna Hoffman has agreed terms on the lease of a new store in Armadale in Melbourne’s leafy inner eastern suburbs.
The deal for 1020 High Street was brokered by Teska Carson’s Tom Maule.  
The 80 square metre premises was let at $56,000 per annum net, a rate of $700 a square metre, on a three-year term with options. 
“Anna Hoffman required a spacious retail area in a location which offered first rate exposure in an appropriate location for fashion,” Maule said.
“This part of High Street is well stocked with boutique fashion and dining establishments attracting a high level of clientele from all over Melbourne.’’ 
The lessor is a Melbourne-based private investor. 
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Fashion house Anna Hoffman moves into Melbourne’s chic street

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/63758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
This National Bookshop Day, Australia’s one-time Minister for Small Business, Nick Sherry, will be remembered for his words, not his deeds.
A reader, bookbuyer and enthusiastic patron of terrestrial bookshops, in June 2011 Sherry told a conference on online business that,
"In five years, other than a few speciality bookshops in capital cities, you will not see a bookstore. They will cease to exist."
Booksellers were livid, and I don’t just mean standing behind their counters muttering impolite thoughts about the minister down into their cardigans. They got pretty shouty. And determined to prove him wrong.
Australia’s inaugural National Bookshop Day was held two months later. The sixth, on August 13, will be the first to fall beyond the minister’s five-year time period. And bricks-and-mortar booksellers have outlasted VCR manufacturers, Kodachrome and Nokia’s dominance of the phone industry to still be alive and kicking.
As it turned out, the minister was wrong – he extrapolated too far – but there were reasons at the time to have reservations about the industry’s prospects. The REDGroup – parent company of Borders and Angus &amp; Robertson – had just gone into receivership and there were concerns that much of its 20% share of the Australian book trade might simply be lost, with those dollars drifting away from books, or at least from Australian retailers.
Amazon had been on the rise since the 90s, and almost no one could price like it. It paid no high-street rents, it paid no counter staff, it had scale and much of the time it wasn’t even focused on profit, cutting prices even leaner to build its customer database and achieve market dominance.
When Sherry spoke, the GFC was still a recent memory, and books had started to look like discretionary purchases. Around the same time, the promise of e-reading was finally realised with the arrival of devices that people were actually happy to use, such as the Kindle and the iPad. US ebook sales had <a href="">risen 1,260%</a> between 2008 and 2010. The line on that graph goes to a crazy place pretty quickly, if you let it.
Factor in the time-sucking vortex of the internet – Facebook, YouTube, news, gossip, downloadable games, streaming video services, op-ed pieces like, um, this one – and its potential impact on book reading, and the environment looks extra tough. Charles Darwin, survival-of-the-fittest tough.
So in 2011, it was possible, if you stared wide-eyed and fearfully at nothing but recent statistics and an upended entertainment landscape, to envisage a contracted book industry comprising only ebooks and a single enormous warehouse that had paper books zipping along conveyor belts and packaged and mailed by robots in response to a customer’s click on the other side of the world.
In the short term, Sherry seemed dangerously close to the mark. In the year he made his prediction, Australian book sales ended up crashing 18 percent by value. That is, a billion-dollar industry saw sales slump by almost a fifth in a single year. The following year, the industry relied on Fifty Shades of Grey to mask another disastrous fall. Remove that trilogy from the stats and sales dropped a further 12.5 percent in 2012.
But it’s now 2016 and the scheduled apocalypse didn’t arrive. So, what happened?
Ebooks are here to stay, but paper books aren’t going away and, despite Amazon, neither is the astute neighbourhood bookseller – who realises that ebooks are not an enemy vanquished and that the landscape is not what it once was, but that the local bookshop has a place in it anyway. Recently, bookshop numbers have been rising rather than falling. <a href="">According to Joel Becker</a>, CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, “we’ve seen an increase over the past couple of years of about 5 percent.”
The ebook market will continue to evolve, and what ebooks are will continue to evolve too, but, in the absence of major drivers of new growth, sales are unlikely to grow at the rate they managed at the time of the Sherry prediction. The audiobook market will probably continue to expand.
While all panicked eyes were on ebooks, audio sales – now mostly digital downloads – were happily off to one side growing at double-digit speed year after year.
Meanwhile, back in the world of paper books, Amazon will not go away.
In fact, Amazon is opening bookshops of its own. Because maybe even it knows that “people who bought this also bought that” isn’t the same as browsing the shelves of a neighbourhood bookshop. It rates as an experience, and flicking through stamp-sized book cover images online really doesn’t.
Browsing in a bookshop feels like time well spent, while searching for a book online feel like squandered time – only the purchase counts.
A local bookshop is part of a community, working with schools and families and all nearby readers to link them with books they might come to love, connecting with its customers and bringing a human kind of expertise whenever it’s asked for. It is a hub for bookclubs and author events and the chance encounters that lead to the discovery of an unfamiliar writer who becomes a lifelong favourite. It remains far better than an algorithm when suggesting what book your eight-year-old niece or granddaughter might like for her birthday.
And, happy as I am to read ebooks or listen to audiobooks, the local bookshop’s product, paper books, rates as entertainment. The paper book is a value proposition. Twenty or thirty dollars buys you hours of deep, screen-free, distraction-free reading. Nothing pings, nothing beeps and your paper book doesn’t let you know about some random person’s Facebook update or a newly arrived spam email. In a world of multi-tasking and deliriously excessive inputs, reading a paper book is mono-tasking at its finest.
Paper books and the people in our neighbourhoods who sell them to us have not faded into the past and will not be going away any time soon. I’m sure Nick Sherry would be happy to be wrong about that, and will be as glad as any of us that we still have bookshops to celebrate at National Bookshop Day in 2016.
Nick Earls<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nick-earls-291096" rel="author"></a> is PhD Candidate in Creative Writing, The University of Queensland and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nick-earls-291096" target="_blank">here</a>.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

All hail the bookshop: survivor against the odds

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A South Melbourne commercial property leased to burger giant Grill’d has fetched $3.36 million at auction.
The Clarendon St premises sold on a yield of 3.4 percent after bidding from local and international investors.
Grill’d recently signed a new seven-year lease for the shop, with an option of a further seven years.
It was sold by Fitzroys agent Andrew Hewett.
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