|
|
 MELBOURNE’s Southern Cross rail station (pictured) – formerly known as the Spencer Street Station – could get a $2 billion upgrade, as part of plans to build a high-speed rail link to Sydney. The rail tunnel, proposed within a federal government study last week, could cost between $61 billion and $108 billion. The trip between Australia’s two most populated cities could take three hours, with the train reaching speeds of 350 km/h (outside of the capitals, where they’ll travel about 200 km/h). This compares to about an hour, by plane, or about nine hours by road. [...]
 GOVERNMENT human resource officers take note – another private development company is about to prove Treasury missed a chance to substantially boost its coffers. MAB Corporation is slicing, dicing and readying to profit from a 3.1 hectare Port Melbourne facility it bought from the state government for a low $12.65 million six months ago (in a deal it didn’t have to pay stamp duty for). The 12-62 Cook Street site was for years the toll collection facility for the West Gate Bridge. The easternmost boundary of the site offers 500 metres of exposure to an offramp of the West Gate Freeway, where 160,000 vehicles pass per day. [...]
HOUSE sales are down but prices are up, a State Government report into property sales across Victoria has found. According to the Victorian Property Sales Report, the median house price in metropolitan Melbourne jumped 4.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2010. However, the number of houses sold dropped 6.1 per cent from the September quarter and slumped a massive 23.3 per cent from the same period in 2009. Just eight locations across Melbourne recorded more than 100 sales in the December quarter, with Berwick (181), Frankston (167) and Pakenham (158) leading the charge. Million-dollar suburb Caulfield recorded just five sales for the quarter. The most affordable suburb was Melton , which had a median house price of $254,300 – a drop of 2.2 per cent from the previous quarter, but a rise of 13 per cent from the previous year. At the other end of the scale, Toorak had the highest median price of $2.971 million – an increase of 27.2 per cent from the September quarter, but a drop of 1 per cent from the previous year. Highest growth areas were in the million-dollar suburbs of Armadale , up to $1.32 million, a 39.3 per cent rise on the previous quarter, and South Yarra ($1.34 million) a rise of 38 per cent. The biggest losers were new western suburb Williams Landing , the median dropping 27 per cent from the previous quarter to $407,500, and Carlton , which dropped 22.5 per cent (from $1.05 million in September 2010 to $814,000 in December 2010). [...]
AS PLANNERS continue to approve major new housing estates in Melbourne’s (until-recently-forgotten) western suburbs, a powerful state motoring body has called on the new state government to build a new major road thoroughfare, for what will be an imminent surge in car traffic. The RACV forecasts 20,000 extra car trips will be travelled based on residential development at one new western suburb proposal alone, recently announced by Lend Lease (refer link below). [...]
AFTER shelving plans to redevelop the prominent site three years ago, the Queensland government is offering a Gold Coast property to the public again. The property is known as the Gold Coast Marine Development site, and is between tourist meccas Seaworld, and the Palazzo Versace Hotel. It has been earmarked to become a tourist attraction, however attempts to tender the site was met with lukewarm reaction in 2007, and formally shelved in June 2010. [...]
THE new Victorian state government has significantly discounted liquor license renewal fees. The move, affecting 10,500 small businesses and community hubs, is part of a liquor licensing revamp that includes automatic suspension of licenses at problem venues, and discounts for pubs and clubs with good records. Under the previous Labor government, led by Steve Bracks and then John Brumby, liquor license fees rose steeply. That government was also criticised for not supporting venues like sports club which were low risk when it came to alcohol-linked violence. [...]
IT’s the kind of development you’d expect to see approved in King Street, in the city. But instead, in downtown Bendigo, plans are afoot to build a multi-level, 420-bay car park and office building at one of the city’s busier intersections. The City of Greater Bendigo council this week approved a $15 million redevelopment of what is currently an open-air car park bound by Edward, Queen and King streets. The redevelopment will include a 1500 square metre office, pre-committed to government agency State Trustees, which also has naming rights. [...]
CHINA based builder Sunnyland Investment Group has paid about $40 million for a major St Kilda Road development site which has the potential to yield at least two major apartment skyscrapers, and a ground floor shopping centre. The purchase continues a trend of Asia-based investors swooping on inner-city sites and exploiting the state government’s problematic Melbourne @ 5 Million planning policy which encourages higher density redevelopment around existing roads and public transport – a strategy that hasn’t gone unnoticed to stressed drivers, bus and rail commuters in this election campaign. Sunnyland’s latest acquisition is of the Clemenger BBDO House office at 472 – 474 St Kilda Road, on the south-west corner of Leopold Street. [...]
PRIVATE developer Clement Lee has paid an as-yet-undisclosed sum for a prominent riverside piece of Melbourne’s central business district. Months after paying the state government $40 million for the former convention centre, Mr Lee has acquired control of a 12,386 square metre block known as North Wharf. The block is opposite the South Wharf project, near the Seafarers Mission building and several other office investments Mr Lee owns. [...]
MELBOURNE’s next public housing tower – a 10-level, 98-unit complex opposite Doncaster Shoppingtown – has reached its full height. A “topping” ceremony will be held this Thursday to celebrate the suburb’s new landmark – with Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness (and Sport and Indigenous Employment and Economic Development) Mark Arbib likely to attend. State government representatives, and the developer, Bendigo-based not-for-profit group Loddon Mallee Housing Services will also be there. The 95 – 99 Tram Road affordable housing complex is being funded using money from the Commonwealth Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus which aims to deliver 4500 new rental homes for low income earning Victorians. [...]
|
|
|
