Today and tomorrow 700 delegates are travelling to Queensland for the 2016 Property Congress. I’m looking forward to spending time with members from across Australia for an event that sold out months ago.
Congress is always an opportunity to look at the issues we are facing as an industry as well as the innovations that are likely to shape it in the years ahead.
While all of the states and territories are reporting different levels of confidence and short term outlooks in the latest ANZ Property Council Survey, we know our major cities are facing similar medium to long term challenges.
Australia’s population is currently growing at about 325,000 people per year – that’s equivalent to the population of Newcastle. We also know that growth will continue to gravitate to our major cities where the greatest economic opportunities await.
So we are an industry dealing with growth – that’s a good thing when you consider the alternatives that occur when a population, market or economy starts to shrink!
Increasingly, we must develop the solutions to challenges such as congestion, affordability, sustainability and the funding of infrastructure. None of these are insurmountable, but they do require us to work more closely with government and communities in building solutions that work for all.
Our industry employs 1.1 million people and contributes one in every nine dollars in GDP and our success in meeting these challenges is vital to the economy.
If you are not attending Property Congress you can follow the highlights at #propertycongress and on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin