Perth Waterfront Masterplan Design Concept for the Revitalization of the Waterfront Real Estate

Swan Makeover - Your Perth Waterfront Real Estate Revitalization - Don't Miss the Boat

In 1829 when Captain James Stirling rounded the narrows, he realised the bank of the Swan River near Mounts Bay was the place for a new city. Long before that the Nyoongar also knew this was a special place. In the 20th century the city of Perth turned its back on the river and both the river and the city have suffered as a consequence. Today, by reshaping our city around Stirling’s landing place we are reconnecting our city with the Swan River, with its natural and cultural heritage. This is the revitalization of the Perth waterfront district along the Swan River. The vision is the design the Perth waterfront district and divide it into several distinct sections that includes the Esplanade Square. In the new esplanade precinct there are two major public places: Perth Waterfront Esplanade Square and Esplanade Circle. The Square enhances and captures the bustle of the big city. Lively arcades lead from the Esplanade Train Station and into St. George’s square. As bit as Melbourne’s Federation Square and with a huge cyber screen with crowds enjoying live performances and more, the Esplanade Square will become Perth’s focal community point along the waterfront district for large celebrations and more. Esplanade Circle in the vision of the new development Perth waterfront project is about the beauty of the river. It’s as if the design for the new Esplanade Circle has given the old city arms which reach out from the old Esplanade along Perth’s waterfront district and embraces the Swan River. These arms wrap around the large circular body of water and like no other place in Perth’s waterfront community, make a grand civic place as the gateway between Perth and the Swan River. Same size as Sydney’s circular quay, the Perth Esplanade Circle will have a promenade to shop, wine, dine, people watch, rest or play. There will be a five star hotel, public sky garden, museum and a spectacular bridge catering for everyone both day and night. The water will be choreographed with lighting effects too.

Perth Waterfront Esplanade Circle, Square, William Street, Gardens and Mounts Bay Condo Developments

The William Street district in Perth’s Waterfront district community project has been neglected for many years and is now little more than an on-ramp to the freeway. But through the revitalization of the real estate district along the waterfront community of Perth, William Street will have two new train stations on it and because of links to Northbridge, the CBC and the Swan River, it is becoming an important axis through Perth. The southern end of William Street will be revitalized and will have a pedestrian friendly streetscape with new iconic public building under water in addition to a new train and bus system as well as waterfront boat system. It will link to the Perth Convention Centre. The gardens: directly adjacent to the new Esplanade redevelopment area is the existing heritage precinct of Government House and the Supreme Court Gardens. Just as these gardens are a high quality example of 19th century parkland, the new Esplanade along Perth Waterfront district revitalization vision will be a high quality example of 21st century urbanism. The old and the new can live happily side by side, each enhancing each other. The Supreme Gardens will provide a large major concert and gathering place for people along the Perth waterfront community. A boardwalk and mooring area for boats will also be added. Mounts bay district in the waterfront Perth real estate revitalization project: the population of Perth is expected to double in the next 40 years and the city has already spawled a long way. Wherever possible, and in a manner compatible with existing communities, Perth waterfront has to achieve a high rate of residential infill real estate development if it is to become more sustainable. The Perth waterfront will have residential condo development along the Circle as well as the region around Mounts Bay. Sustainable housing along Perth waterfront district will also create a healthier Swan River and urban forest. A wide public boardwalk and a new public beach, cable car to Kings Park will be other developments in the Perth Waterfront vision. The major hub of all new presales condo homes and condominium residences will be built around the Kings Park district. Other Perth Australia real estate developments are located here.

Last week to have your say on the Perth Waterfront Real Estate Makeover by LandCorp

It certainly seems that the release of the Perth waterfront masterplan design concept for the State Government's Perth Waterfront project has created a community buzz! LandCorp has been inundated with feedback - most of it strongly in favour of plans to revitalise the Perth foreshore by developing a community hub that will be the pride of generations to come. To date there have been 32,500 visits to the website: www.perthwaterfront.com.au; with more than 19,000 of these recorded as first time visitors. It is through the Perth Waterfront website that most feedback has been submitted. With the closing date for public feedback on the design concept just around the corner - March 25 2008 - we invite you to forward this email to anyone who may be interested in having their say. Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated over the next couple of months to help LandCorp real estate developers refine and shape the development as the Waterfront Perth revitalization project moves into the next steps. Apart from the website, submissions can also be made by email or by post: Perth Waterfront Project, LandCorp, Locked Bag 5, Perth Business Centre, Perth, 6849, Western Australia. We will keep you informed of progress!

New thinking for a new generation at the Perth Waterfront Property Vision

We have some new postings on our waterfront real estate Perth website that discuss the Perth Waterfront masterplan in more detail. Do remember that the design concept for the Perth waterfront makeover vision and design is only to provide an idea of how the waterfront area could be best utilised - it is likely that the actual designs of the buildings will change. To see the design concept come to life view the computer generated fly-through of the project. Like to learn more about the thinking behind the Perth Waterfront design concept? View a presentation from the Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Western Australia, Richard Weller, a member of the Ashton Raggatt McDougall design consortium. Want to hear what other community and industry members have to say? Click here.

And finally ... allaying a taxpayer concern
A small number of emails have been received that suggest funding for the Perth Waterfront development would be better channeled into health, education or other areas. We thought we should take the opportunity to reiterate that the project is intended to be self-funding, with development costs for the project at the Perth Waterfront district supported through the sale of the development sites. So it's designed to be a win-win for WA!

Why this much real estate development along the beautiful Perth waterfront and why now?

There are several reasons why LandCorp has put together a proposal to revitalize the Perth waterfront district that includes: provide over 25,000 jobs during the construction and subsequent management of the waterfront community as well as injecting new pre-sales and preconstruction condo development for five thousand new residents around the district in addition to a five star hotel that can accommodate up to 1,000 guests, boosting tourism. The Perth Waterfront will ensure the future growth of the central city. In particular there is a lack of larger sites in the CBD to cater for the next generation of major office buildings beyond those currently planned. Businesses such as restaurants require a permanent year-round population to trade successfully, hence the need for residential and hotel accommodation along the newly revitalized Perth Waterfront community is essential as well as world class facilities to appeal to metro, regional, national and international audiences.

What are the main land uses?

The Perth waterfront district will be a mixed-use real estate development. The waterfront development will be a gathering place - a central hub - for the people of WA and of Perth. The ground level will be highly public and provide opportunities for active uses including retail, services, hospitality (restaurants, cafes, bars, and short stay/hotel accommodation), cultural, leisure and recreational pursuits. The project along the waterfront of Perth and the Swan River will encourage the development real estate of the next generation of office buildings through environmentally sustainable design. This will enable the central business area to grow in a way that includes office and business as a part of a rich activity mix rather than in separate zones. The proposed inner city living of the Perth waterfront condo presales development component would take the form of apartments presales in Perth, to boost the inner city residential population and help enliven the city. The Perth CBD is under-populated compared to other cities - this project would add 5,000 people to the current central population of 12,500.

What are the time frames for the Waterfront Perth development?

The timeline for this massive undertaking for the revitalization of the waterfront district of Perth includes: The statutory approval phase would likely take 36 months, however efforts will be made to shorten that timeframe. Stage 1A development real estate along Perth’s waterfront starts with the Esplanade area in mid 2011, together with an expanded Supreme Court Gardens. Stage 1B is the main waterfront circle at the waterfront of Perth and Swan River constructed between mid 2012 and mid2013. Stage 2 - Mounts Bay would be developed from 2016. A full build-out is expected to take 15 - 20 years depending upon economic conditions at the time.

Western Australia Real Estate | Still Opportunities in Perth Market

House price growth in the Perth real estate market has slowed but select locations will continue to rise and rents are set to increase 15 per cent or more, according to a property investment group. Written by Tracey Joynson for API Magazine, April 2007.

Hegney Property Group executive chairman Gavin Hegney says speculators in the real estate investment industry are being flushed out of the real estate market and the “buy anything” strategy will need to be replaced with careful choices.

“Price growth in the premium property sector in Perth should grow at 10 to 15 per cent whilst low price real estate property is predicted to move very selectively,” he says.

Real estate investors and Perth industry representatives at the launch of the 2007 Hegney Property Outlook Report were told that opportunities included the Scarborough beachfront and Claremont redevelopments, the new Port Coogee marina which will rub off on the nearby suburbs of South Beach, White Gum Valley, Beaconsfield, Spearwood and Munster and the Perth to Burnbury highway, known as the Peel deviation, which will revalue the strip from Halls Head to Port Bouvard.

Also, the planned Alkimos Eglinton real estate development, designed for 55,000 people, 40 km north of Perth will impact on that area while the extension of Marmion Avenue will benefit Yanchep and Two Rocks. Population growth, the resources boom and low unemployment continue in WA and the fundamentals of lack of supply, ongoing demand and growing returns remain – all pointing to continuing real estate Perth property price increases, Hegney says.

But risks include softening commodity prices, the flow-on effect from the drought, rising interest rates, delays to stamp duty reductions, and rising labour costs translating to increase infrastructure costs affecting the viability of some real estate projects which may stall WA’s growth and Perth’s and will impact on the housing market.

However, the long-term outlook for resource-rich states such as WA is strong, Hegney believes, because demand for Perth real estate from India will start to flow after demand from China begins to taper.

New Cycle | Rising Rents Lure Prospective Investors in Real Estate

Written for the Australian Investor Magazine for April 2007 on Page 7. Australian investors plan to plunge back into the residential property market during 2007 tot take advantage of a tightening rental real estate market, a survey suggests.

The number of Australians planning to buy an investment property in the next 12 months took a record 35 per cent leap from 577,000 in the September 2006 quarter to 779,000 in December 2006, the survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research showed.

Real estate investor sentiment in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory saw the greatest turnaround, with the number of intending rental real estate investors jumping 80 per cent from 169,000 to 308,000.

Wizard Home Loans chairman Mark Bouris, whose company sponsored research, said increasing rental returns were a major factor in drawing real estate rental investors back to the property market. “Our research indicated that borrowers are responding to and attempting to capitalise on increasing reports of limited supply of rental accommodations and predictions of sharp increases in rental yields,” Bouris said. “The appeal of high returns has helped lure borrowers in real estate property to the property investment market. However, adequate supply of property will be the critical issue affecting the vitality of the market in the next 12 months.”

Bouris said the research suggested 60 per cent of those keen to buy were first-time property investors, while workers in trade and related occupations accounted for almost half of the total increase in would-be investors.

“Australians in professional occupations remain the largest group of intending real estate investors but only just,” Bouris said. “The traditional so-called ‘blue collar workers’ are poised to make ground on the stronghold professional workers once held on property investments.”

“Those in trade and related occupations are capitalising on the skill shortgage and resources boom, and they’re making savvy financial choices and attempting to invest their higher wages into long-term investments such as property,” he said.

Real estate investor demand was up in all the mainland states except for South Australia and the Northern Territory, the survey showed.

Perth Real Estate Tests Home Buyers’ Limits

Housing affordability is stretching budgets in Perth – and the pressures aren’t about the disappear according to Tracey Joynson for the API Magazine in Australia – Feb ’07 edition.

Housing affordability in Perth has been declining amid soaring real estate home prices, rising interest rates and high government fees. While surging property home prices are driving the drop in affordability even further, according to Housing Industry Association (HIA) executive director of housing and economics Simon Tennent.

“Until the supply of new Perth housing catches up with the current shortage the outlook for real estate house prices, even in a higher interest rate environment, is for further increases thus putting Perth housing further out of reach of many families,” Tennent says.

Three years ago, Perth house prices were less than half of those in Sydney, Australian property Monitors says. The margin now is less than 6 per cent with Perth’s September quarter median house price at $491.587 and Sydney at $520,253.

HIA WA’s executive director, John Dastlik, says affordability deteriorated for the third consecutive quarter in September, sending it to a three year low and not far from the bad old days of the late 1990s when mortgage interest rates for real estate property in Perth reachd 17 per cent.

“The unacceptably low levels of housing affordability in Australia are restricting home ownership, constraining residential construction of real estate and exacerbating already very tight rental markets,” he says. “since the national housing cycle hits it speak it has been readily apparent that the triple whammy of spiralling land costs, excessive fees and charges and planning red tape was making a tangible recovery in real estate housing Perth Affordability virtually impossible.”

Macquarie Bank’s head of research Rod Cornish says Perth affordability will affect both first homebuyers and real estate investors. “There’s still quite a lot of investment into the real estate market, that’s what’s helping to drive the price growth,” Cornish says. “If you look at the proportion of investors in Perth in WA, its’ higher certainly than it is on the east coast now.”

Perth’s median house price has risen from $250,000 in June 2004 to be approaching $440,000 in the September 2006 quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA).

Perth Real Estate Investors Withdrawing?

REIWA president Rob Druitt says first homebuyers have hit the wall and are finding it difficult to get into the real estate market with the number of loans to first homebuyers falling in September. “We’re seeing a change in the real estate market in WA after the tremendous growth of the last, say, two years and it’s mostly affecting the lower and middle end of the market in Perth,” he says.

“The higher end of the real estate Perth market still seems to be travelling very well and that’s all about affordability. For investors in real estate here in WA, there’s been incredible capital growth over a relatively short period – that seems to be levelling out now but what hasn’t kept up with that growth is the rental real estate market.

“We’ve seen growth in Perth rentals for the September quarter – we saw around a $10 a week increase in the rents across the board. However, this is still not keeping up with the rapidly rising real estate property market so we’re looking at around a 3 per cent gross return on Perth property in WA at the moment which is clearly a yield below normal market conditions. Our yield in WA is normally 4 to 4.5 per cent.”

Anecdotally, because the yield isn’t that attractive, Druitt says some real estate investors in Perth are starting to look back to the east coast because relatively it seems like cheap real estate now and better value for money. ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake says investors in Perth may cause real estate house prices to fall depending on how significantly they’ve been contributing to the price rise.

“If Perth investors in real estate decide that there are more profitable places to park their money such as the share market or superannuation then their exiting of the real estate market, if they’ve been significant buyers, might cause prices to fall in Perth,” he says.

But Druitt is predicting a boom in rental prices because some catch-up is needed to make the yields realistic in relation to the real estate value of the properties and there’s also underlying demand – “particularly as people shift perhaps from buying to renting because they’ve been frozen out of the market price-wise”.

“They’ll be renting longer so that they can save more to get into the real estate market and that’s going to add some pressure on the market,” he says. “There’s probably been some drop-off in real estate Perth investors now just purely because of the price level and with a shortage of rental properties that’s going to push up rental prices quite significantly.”

The median rent for houses in the September quarter in Perth rose 4 per cent to $260 per week while the rent for units climbed 4.3 per cent to $240 a week, according to REIWA. Hegney Property Group chairman Gavin Hegney says rate rises can decrease real estate demand because home buyers can afford to borrow less and they also deter some buyers, particularly investors in Perth.

“If investors are deterred from the real estate market at all, then an already low rental vacancy rate will become lower which means the probability of rents rising further becomes far more likely,” he says. “The big difference with Perth is that these interest rate rises come during a strong growth period.

“What this means for owners in Perth who’ve bought real estate property as little as six month ago is that they’ve increased home equity which allows for refinancing to help smooth out their cash flow if they need it.

“For home owners in say Sydney, where their home values have been static or declining it means that there’s nowhere to turn if they’re already fully geared. This means the interest rate rise will be more easily absorbed in Perth.”