Within <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/candela-ivanhoe-40-upper-heidelberg-road-ivanhoe-vic-3079">Candela Ivanhoe</a>, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/salter-brothers">Salter Brothers</a>&nbsp;takes a different approach to larger residences, moving away from the constraints of a single level.

In Grand Residence 3.05, known as the Lustre, plays out across two levels, with a mezzanine configuration that is uncommon in apartment living.

Lustre is a four-bathroom residence where the layout creates a clear distinction between shared and private zones, with uninterrupted views toward the Dandenong Ranges extending the sense of openness from the main living areas.

Entry is to the primary living level, where the kitchen, dining, and living areas are arranged as one continuous space. Timber flooring runs throughout, with a fireplace set within the living zone. Full-height glazing brings in natural light, supported by double glazing that improves thermal performance.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=342 project_image_fid=357506]

The kitchen is configured as both a working and social space. A large island bench provides seating, while a walk-in pantry extends storage beyond typical apartment expectations.

Gaggenau appliances, including a 900mm gas cooktop and 600mm oven, are integrated into a layout that connects directly to the adjacent dining and living areas, and outward to the terrace. This balcony includes a built-in BBQ, reinforcing the apartment’s capacity to accommodate larger gatherings without compromising internal space.

A dedicated laundry room, powder room, and a wine cellar area sit discreetly off the main living zone, ensuring that functional requirements are resolved without encroaching on primary living areas. The master suite is also located on this level, designed as a retreat with a walk-through wardrobe and an ensuite that includes double vanities, a bath, and a dedicated dressing table.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=342 project_image_fid=357508]

The mezzanine level introduces a second layer of living, rather than simply additional bedrooms. Two large bedrooms with built-in robes are positioned alongside a central bathroom, while a secondary lounge and study area create a self-contained zone suited to children, guests, or extended family. A large storage room further supports long-term usability, addressing a common shortfall in apartment design.

This separation of levels is central to how the residence functions day-to-day. It allows the lower level to operate as the primary entertaining and living space, while the upper level provides privacy and flexibility. The result is closer in feel to a townhouse or standalone home, but with the benefits of apartment living, security, and low maintenance.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=342 project_image_fid=364553]

Candela is close to 80 per cent complete, with Ironside delivering construction ahead of its expected October 2026 completion. The development comprises 58 residences, with a strong owner-occupier profile and a mix of one to four-bedroom apartments and loft-style townhouses.

Candela has exclusive access to private amenities, including a residential lounge and rooftop terrace. A charming café and a lifestyle wellness centre are located on the ground level, designed to foster community connection and extend the living experience beyond individual apartments without competing with the scale of homes like Lustre.

Candela, positioned in the heart of Ivanhoe Village, reinforces the practicality of the address. With a Walk Score of 90, residents are within immediate reach of cafés, retail, parklands, and Ivanhoe Station, while also benefiting from proximity to established schools and healthcare services.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=342]

Joel Robinson

Inside Lustre: Grand Residence 3.05 at Candela Ivanhoe

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/milieu-property">Milieu</a>’s <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/elsternwick-gardens-by-milieu-8-gordon-street-elsternwick-vic-3185">Elsternwick Gardens</a> is being shaped around a simple but increasingly rare premise in apartment development: that the built environment should actively support residents’ wellbeing.&nbsp;

Located on the former ABC Studios site on Gordon Street in Melbourne’s south-east, the new neighbourhood sits on an expansive 11,740 sqm site neighbouring the heritage-listed Rippon Lea Estate, whose gardens date back more than 140 years.

Rather than positioning wellness as an add-on amenity, the development integrates it into the physical planning of the site. Architecture by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/woods-bagot">Woods Bagot</a> is arranged across six low-rise buildings set within extensive landscaping designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/landscape-architect/oculus">OCULUS</a>, with more than 40 per cent of the land dedicated to gardens and green space. Walking trails, pocket gardens, and mature trees are threaded between buildings, creating a network of green corridors that encourage residents to move through the precinct on foot and spend more time outdoors.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=136535 project_image_fid=288420]

Milieu has intentionally framed these gardens as an extension of the neighbouring Rippon Lea Estate. More than 16,000 new plants will be introduced across the site, with species carefully selected to protect and complement the area’s ecological significance. The approach focuses on strengthening existing environmental conditions while establishing new habitats that support native wildlife, reinforcing the role of the landscape as both an active ecosystem and a defining element of daily life.

A private resident gate will provide direct access to the historic grounds during opening hours, allowing residents to move seamlessly between the development’s landscaped gardens and the estate’s expansive lawns, lakes, and mature trees. The project’s gardens will also be maintained by the same gardeners responsible for Rippon Lea, reinforcing the visual and ecological continuity between the two landscapes.

Complementing the landscape is a dedicated wellness hub designed to support everyday health and recovery. Residents will have access to a gym alongside yoga and Pilates studios, while mineral pools and infrared saunas provide spaces for relaxation and restorative wellbeing. Shared lounges, workshop spaces, and pet care facilities expand the concept of wellness beyond fitness, creating opportunities for social connection and community interaction within the precinct.

Environmental performance is another key component of the project’s wellbeing focus. Elsternwick Gardens will be entirely fossil-fuel-free, with homes designed to operate on renewable electricity rather than gas. Passive design strategies, including cross-flow ventilation, high-performance insulation, and thermally broken double glazing, are intended to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures while reducing energy demand. Solar photovoltaic systems will power common building services, while rainwater harvesting will help irrigate the extensive landscaping across the site.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=136535 project_image_fid=361030]

Milieu Founder and Managing Director Michael McCormack says the scale and setting of the project allowed the team to take a different approach to urban apartment living.

“This site represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build something truly special,” McCormack says.

“Through that process, we arrived at a design that centres on a fully realised natural landscape – a series of private, interconnected gardens that encircle the homes and extend seamlessly from Rippon Lea Estate.”

Elsternwick Gardens will comprise three residential offerings, Gordon Place, Ripponlea Terrace, and The Garden Pavilion, each designed for owner-occupiers and shaped around high-quality interior design by Woods Bagot, K.P.D.O., and Flack Studio. The first stage, Gordon Place, includes one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments designed with a strong focus on indoor-outdoor living and sustainability.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=136535 project_image_fid=288412]

Milieu recently appointed <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/builders/brady-constructions">Brady Constructions</a> to deliver the project, marking a key milestone for the development. The appointment follows the demolition of the former studio buildings on the Gordon Street site, with construction progressing toward the delivery of the nature-led community.

Situated between the established villages of Elsternwick and Ripponlea, the development balances its garden setting with strong urban connectivity. Residents will be within walking distance of cafés, restaurants, and local retail, while nearby train and tram connections provide quick access to Melbourne’s CBD and the beaches of Elwood and St Kilda.

With construction underway and the first residents expected to move in by early 2027, Elsternwick Gardens represents a growing shift in apartment development toward environments that prioritise wellbeing as much as density or location. By placing landscape, sustainability, and shared spaces at the centre of the design, Milieu is positioning the project as a residential neighbourhood where wellness is not just promoted, but built into the structure of everyday life.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=136535]

Elsternwick Gardens' wellness-first design strategy

Brisbane-based developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/red-co">Red &amp; Co</a> has made a striking debut on the Gold Coast, officially unveiling its $250 million COMO development in Varsity Lakes, a lifestyle-driven residential project anchored by an extensive rooftop wellness and activity precinct.

Having recently launched to market, construction has already been fast-tracked by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/builders/5point-projects">5Point Projects</a>, ensuring momentum continues on what is set to become a landmark residential address for the growing Varsity Lakes community.

Located at 22 Lake Street, Varsity Lakes, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/como-varsity-lakes-22-lake-street-varsity-lakes-qld-4227">COMO</a> will comprise 156 apartments across 16 levels, comprising one-, two- and three-bedroom residences designed for modern living. However, it is the project’s rooftop amenity offering that sets COMO apart.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135546 project_image_fid=363510]

Designed as a dedicated wellness and recreation hub, the rooftop will feature a 25-metre lap pool, fully equipped gymnasium, and multiple pickleball and paddleball courts - amenities rarely seen in boutique apartment projects.

Residents will also have access to a sauna and plunge baths, while landscaped gardens and relaxation zones will provide tranquil spaces overlooking sweeping panoramic views across the Gold Coast skyline.

The rooftop precinct has been designed to function as the social and wellness heart of the development, encouraging residents to embrace an active, balanced lifestyle within their own building.

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135546 project_image_fid=363512]

Red &amp; Co director David Laverty said the amenity offering was central to the project’s design from the outset.

“Amenities were at the forefront of our decisions,” Laverty said.

“Buyers today are looking for more than just an apartment - they want a lifestyle that promotes health, connection and balance.

“The rooftop at COMO has been designed to be the epicentre of that lifestyle, with a suite of wellness and recreation facilities that are quite unique for a boutique development of this scale.”

&nbsp;

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135546 project_image_fid=363514]

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/bda-architecture">BDA Architecture</a>, the residences prioritise liveability, featuring spacious layouts, 2.7-metre ceilings and high-quality finishes throughout.

The development sits beside Bond University, placing residents within walking distance of education, retail and dining options within the vibrant Varsity Lakes precinct, including Robina Town Centre, Varsity Lakes Train Station and a range of leading schools.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135546 project_image_fid=363511]

Laverty said the location was a key driver behind Red &amp; Co’s decision to bring the project to the Gold Coast.

“<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/varsity-lakes-qld-4227">Varsity Lakes</a> was a clear choice for us to invest in as it’s a lifestyle hub that seamlessly blends lakeside living with urbanity,” he said.&nbsp;

“Como will capitalize on this great location, delivering a project that not only creates premium homes, but a lifestyle defined by community, wellbeing, and connectivity.”

Red &amp; Co has delivered more than 500 apartments and townhouses across 26 projects in Brisbane in recent years, with COMO marking the company’s first major Gold Coast development.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=135546]

Red & Co unveils amenity-rich Como development in Varsity Lakes

Gold Coast developer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/big-projects">Big Projects</a> has secured approval for its second Mermaid Beach project.

The developer, currently selling <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/the-frederick-mermaid-beach-2265-gold-coast-highway-mermaid-beach-qld-4218">The Frederick in Nobby Beach</a>, has secured approval for its next project just 1.5 kilomnetres up the road.

The new development, dubbed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/glenelg-residences-2462-2472-gold-coast-highway-mermaid-beach-qld-4218">Glenelg Residences</a>, has been designed by BDA Architecture and&nbsp;will have just under 100 apartments across an 11-storey building&nbsp;at 2462–2472 Gold Coast Highway, on the corner of Glenelg Avenue just under 300m from the future Mermaid Beach Light Rail stop.

The apartments, a mix of two- and three-bedrooms, will sit above a retail-focused ground plane and under extensive rooftop resident amenities.

<img alt="Exclusive: Big Projects plot Mermaid Beach apartment development, Glenelg Residences" data-entity-type="" data-entity-uuid="" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/f_auto,c_limit,w_1440,q_75/https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/field/image/Screen%20Shot%202024-06-11%20at%209.55.04%20am.png?VersionId=z6NV4izeuvhBSSVlY6vK6TPO1LxrFeaG" />

BDA said in its planning submission that the project is intended to support the area’s transition toward higher-density, mixed-use living. “This project offers the opportunity to generate appropriate higher-intensity development within the future Light Rail corridor of <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/mermaid-beach-qld-4218">Mermaid Beach</a>,” the submission noted.

At ground level, Glenelg Residences will include eight retail tenancies designed to activate the street frontage, complemented by a basement bar offering an additional hospitality element. Above, residents will have access to a rooftop amenity deck featuring an infinity pool, hot and cold plunge spas, day beds, and barbecue facilities.

The architectural approach adopts a restrained material palette of brick, textured concrete, and integrated landscaping, with cantilevered concrete frames and cascading planting intended to soften the built form. BDA described the design as aiming to create “a memorable sculptural mid-rise mixed-use building” that responds to both its coastal setting and urban context.

<img alt="Exclusive: Big Projects plot Mermaid Beach apartment development, Glenelg Residences" data-entity-type="" data-entity-uuid="" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,dpr_2.0,q_auto:good/https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202024-06-11%20at%209.55.45%20am.png?VersionId=cpjIVBqcT_sujmo2UMWkVyLcQ7WGJHaQ" />

The approval comes as the City of Gold Coast continues to plan for significant population growth, with regional targets requiring more than 100,000 new high-density dwellings by 2046.

<section data-scroll-anchor="false" data-testid="conversation-turn-36" data-turn="assistant" data-turn-id="request-WEB:55d7c6ac-8e6d-4881-ad49-0ed9bf66d1cc-17" dir="auto">
Big Projects, led by Matthew and John Barrett, is part of a growing cohort of developers that deliver construction in-house, providing a high level of confidence to prospective purchasers.
</section>

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150260]

Big Projects secures approval for Glenelg Residences in Mermaid Beach

Sherpa Group is ramping up its investment in the southern Gold Coast by lodging a development application for <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/flourish-viver-87-griffith-street-coolangatta-qld-4225">Flourish Viveré</a>, a new $350 million project in Coolangatta.

The move comes after the group’s $27 million acquisition of the 2,029 sqm site on the corner of Griffith and Warner Street, last year.

They will develop 194 apartments across a 26-storey tower, which will become Sherpa’s largest project to date.

Viveré will be the next chapter in the Flourish story, following closely behind Amargo, Oasis, and the Avenues in Palm Beach, as well as Symphony in Brisbane, all designed to deliver affordable housing in lifestyle-rich locations, giving locals a real chance to secure a residence close to the beachfront.

The HAL Architect-designed project will offer a diverse range of residences, from one-, two, and three- bedroom apartments to the premium Canopy range to luxury penthouses.

<img alt="Vivere" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c85f5a7e-a22f-4745-8def-400adb3c0b35" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-04-15%20at%209.53.43%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=OY.chur3BPExn1exQ2q8clHqWnW_CaBi" />

“The Gold Coast is undergoing a period of immense growth, with more people drawn to the incredible 
lifestyle that’s available, leading to strong growth in property prices,” said Christie Leet, founder of Sherpa 
Group.

“Our goal at Sherpa is to ensure locals are not priced out of the market in prime locations, which is why we 
created the Flourish collection.

“Flourish Vivere will form the next chapter in our portfolio, and we are so excited to be lodging the DA, marking our first project in Coolangatta.”

A signature of the Flourish developments is the communal rooftop. Flourish Vivere will showcase a private resident’s lounge, outdoor dining with barbecues and pizza ovens, heated pool, fully-equipped gym, and a wellness centre with sauna and steam room.

<img alt="Vivere" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c09372cc-aae6-4458-af2e-f291bd19a5e5" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202026-04-15%20at%209.53.49%E2%80%AFAM.png?VersionId=Sc_RLXl5jiff.tnadogXjQJ_WIpDjf3p" />

The project is strategically located to offer a walkable lifestyle, with the Strand shopping centre, cafes, restaurants, shops and the beach, all just a short stroll away.

“We have meticulously planned Vivere to build on the Flourish legacy, creating a truly special project,”&nbsp;Leet added.

“Wellness, lifestyle and community are at the forefront of every decision we make, and that has not 
changed for Vivere.”

With the DA now lodged with the Gold Coast City Council, Sherpa has moved quickly to secure LPS Group as the builder, offering buyers a level of certainty that is rarely seen in today’s market.

Sherpa has delivered 16 residential projects over the past seven years with a pipeline of $1 billion, with more under construction.

Sherpa takes Flourish brand to Coolangatta, lays plans for Flourish Vivere 

Shopfront

<html><body>
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. 
 
 
</body></html>

jonathanchancellor-7SQnKwU6yx

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

<html><body>
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.
</body></html>

Retailer Who Fish takes Hawksburn lease

<html><body>
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.”
</body></html>

Shopfront in Melbourne’s far eastern Croydon suburb sells for $750,000

<html><body>
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="">
</body></html>

Shop and unit in Sydney's Randwick fetches $1.7 million

<html><body>
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.
</body></html>

Shop and unit in Sydney's Dulwich Hill beckons investors at Raine & Horne auction

<html><body>
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. 
</body></html>

Fashion house Anna Hoffman moves into Melbourne’s chic street

<html><body>
<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>.
</body></html>

jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

All hail the bookshop: survivor against the odds

<html><body>
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.
</body></html>

Shopfront

Editor's Picks

Have something to contribute?

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News

Shopfront

Editor's Picks

Receive the latest news stories to your inbox

Have something to contribute?

Developments

New apartments

New townhouses

News