EVENT RECAP

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The Property Council hosted our first face to face events for the year with the Retail and Gold Coast Market Outlooks and the Townsville Reactivating Regional CBDs Lunch.

RETAIL MARKET OUTLOOK

On 8 March, the Property Council held its Retail Market Outlook Breakfast at the Hilton Hotel, Brisbane with Ian Shimmin from Urbis as the keynote speaker. Ian gave his unique insights on Queensland’s retail sector, from the impacts of COVID-19 to the emerging trends as we return to a “new normal”.

Ian outlined the resilience of the Queensland economy, with signs it is recovering strongly from the pandemic, seeing growth well above the 20-year average, but that city centres have continued to struggle with a slower recovery.

Ian joined a lively panel discussion with Leah Mineart from ISPT, Natalie Myatt from Brisbane Airport Corporation, Karyn O’Brien from Setting Up Shop, expertly moderated by John Nicolas from Gadens.

The panel explored key themes in Ian’s keynote speech, sharing their wealth of knowledge on what it will take to grow Queensland’s retail sector. Despite a turbulent few years, the future looks bright for retail in Queensland.

Events like this would not be possible without the support of our corporate partners, and event sponsors Mainbrace Constructions and Hames Sharley

TOWNSVILLE REACTIVATING REGIONAL CBDS LUNCH

On Wednesday 16th March, Townsville played host to the Property Council’s Reactivating Regional CBDs lunch. Guest speaker Cr Marnie Doyle from Ipswich City Council shared the story of Ipswich’s successful efforts to revitalise their city centre after years of stagnation.

Cr Doyle then joined Moderator Jen Williams from the Property Council and local panellists Claudia Brumme-Smith from Townsville Enterprise, Jamie Fitzpatrick from FGH Group, and Martin Locke, from Flinders Lane for a discussion about what can be done to breathe new life into Townsville’s own city centre.

The panellists explored a range of subjects from the need to have people ‘live, work and play’ in the city, to the changing role city centres play in the life of their communities. It was clear that there is a strong desire from the Townsville business community to get their city centre moving again!

The event was made possible by the Property Council’s corporate partner, RCP.

Gold Coast Market Outlook

The Property Council welcomed over 1 attendees to the Gold Coast Market Outlook Lunch at the STAR to look ahead to what is sure to be another busy year for the local property sector.

David Wilcox – Director at Urbis provided the keynote presentation which highlighted that despite record levels of activity for the Gold Coast it was a complex operating environment with residential land supply and the rising cost of materials key issues for the industry to navigate in 2022.

Following David’s presentation, he was joined by Damian Winterburn – Manager Director of Boulder Capital, Lisa Murdoch – Director Valuations and Advisory Investment Property at JLL and Tim Keenan – Director at Keenan & Co. The conversation was moderated by Matt Schneider -Director at Urbis and Chair of the Property Council’s Gold Coast Committee.

The conversation expanded on many of the key themes that David had highlighted in his presentation. While there was significant demand in the local industry and a strong appetite from interstate investors there were key challenges that businesses operating in the industry needed to be aware of. This included the potential impact of amendments to the local planning scheme, the lack of industrial and residential supply and the rapidly escalating cost of materials.

Despite this, the panellists agreed that the Gold Coast’s strong fundamentals and the high level of demand from investors leading up to the Olympics would provide a strong buffer to help the region manage these supply side challenges.

The event also provided an opportunity for attendees to donate to the flood appeal and the Property Council is delighted to announce that over $3000 was raised for people and businesses impacted by the floods.