Property leaders spoke to Kathryn House on the CBRE Talking Property podcast about some of the key discussions that came out of the Property Council’s recent 2025 Property Leaders’ Summit – the premier gathering of the nation’s top property minds.
The summit at Parliament House in Canberra featured economists, demographers and investors from both Australia and abroad, offering a broad perspective on Australia’s economic standing.
Charter Hall Office CEO and President of the Property Council Carmel Hourigan said the first day began by setting the global economic and political scene and where Australia sits in relation.
“We really started the first day with really setting that scene for where Australia is now on a relative basis versus the rest of the world.
“We talked about standing back from everything. If you just look at Australia at the moment and where population growth is and the way that we are aging and so on, we are set for significant growth to continue.
“And I think that put a real positive spin on the day that we will live through this uncertainty. And we’ve got a lot to take advantage of as an industry.”
Ms Hourigan said a key takeout from the Summit was that Australia is well-positioned to attract global investment.
“Australia is likely to see incrementally more capital flow on a relative basis compared to the rest of the world,” she said.
Ms Hourigan also highlighted discussions at the Summit on the office market.
“There was a few people on stage who were actually saying actually office has reached that point where we are going to see things pick up and it’s starting to look attractive.
“Particularly the Australian office market, international investors as well, are believing and can see that Australia is different.”
She said there was a focus on discussions around creating appropriate tax settings and investment settings and boosting productivity in the property sector.
“What are the appropriate tax settings that need to be put in place in Australia so that we can get more international capital to fund the things that we need to be doing and how housing is a key component of that.
“We talked about productivity. A lot of talk and it’s a bit of a throwaway line and everyone’s using it but what does it mean? How do we get moving on this?”
You can listen to the full episode here: CBRE Talking Property