Why Invest in Ipswich

IPSWICH"S pride shone like a beacon from the Growth Summit after the city was crowned champion of Queensland’s population growth.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show Ipswich has the state’s fastest-growing population over the past year with 5 per cent.

That equates to an extra 7700 people calling Ipswich home,

“With two universities and the Amberley RAAF Base’s $ 770 million expansion and the 350 hectare 1 Billion Dollar Citiswich Business Park development going on.

Ipswich is a town to be reckoned with and now with the Ipswich Motorway’s
3 Billion dollar upgrade well and truly under way there is no impediment to the growth of this town.

There will be nearly 3000 people moving to work at the Amberley RAAF Base as the expansion nears completion in 2010 and 2011.

The Queensland Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan projects Ipswich’s population will grow to 318000 by 2026 the population stands at approx a little bit over 150,000 so the future for this city is very strong.

The Investment in the over all region is continuing to grow with the Gatton prison being the latest project to get under way.

Late last year the State Government revealed the farming community would host Queensland’s newest prison, a $500 million state-of-the-art high-security facility.The total investment in this project is thought to be upwards of $ 2 billion dollars

Stage One will be complete by 2010 and Premier Anna Bligh said the chosen site could eventually house up to five correctional facilities and 3000 inmates by 2016 and will see employment of up 1800 people.

Hot Spot Growth Corridor

Coomera population to triple by 2015

The new Massive Super Shopping centre for Coomera and Upper Coomera marking the start of the northern growth corridor, which extends to the outskirts of Brisbane it is no wonder it is one of the strongest growth suburbs in the Gold Coast region and is expected to continue to develop from mainly rural to urban in the future.

With the area offering a relaxed country lifestyle yet having three of Australia’s major theme parks, Dreamworld, Movie World and Wet n Wild and a major marine industry precinct already established on the banks of the Coomera river to be enjoyed.

The Gold Coast property market having enjoyed unprecedented capitol growth in recent years the growth and demand for rentals in great news for all investors as vacancies are at a low and will continue to stay that way due to the dramatic increases in the Gold Coast population occurring year round.

Current trends indicate that the Gold Cost population will double to one million by 2040.
Coomera will be a big part of that increase.

Property Hot Spot Upper Coomera

New community planned for Willow Vale.

A former horse stud in Willow Vale once owned by the late Russ Hinze a former Queensland polition is being transformed into a $160 million masterplannes community by Devine Communities.
A development application has been lodged with the Gold Coast City Council for the proposed new residential estate, Waverly Park.
The estate will be built on two parcels of land which is currently in the process of being aquired by Devine Communities for 22 million dollars.
338 residential lots will be featured with a mix of terraced and detached housing.
Terrace house lots will range from 200sq m and residential lots up to 700sq m.
A large park will be fronting Hotham Creek.
A range of environmentally sustainable features will be included with extensive landscaping and revegitation planned for the natural waterways from Waverlerly park one end down to Hotham Creek.
Devine Communities is obviously excited with this new development at Waverly Park as this will enhance the local neigbourhood with residents enjoying the landscaped parks barbeque and playgroumds as well as paths for pedestrians and bikeways.
Being only 7 kilometres from Commera Railway Station and close to the planned Pimpama Station.
Waverly Park is an exciting new development for the area. 

The next mining boom
Located approximately 550km north of Brisbane and 100km south of Rockhampton in

the mid-north coast of Queensland,Gladstone. According to Flynn De Freitas, principal of

Omega Investments, G is fast becoming Australia’s top mining boom town.Massive plans

and committed infrastructure projects at various stages of commencement are attributing

to this success.
A summary published in the December 2009 Your Investment Property magazine is set

out below:

Infrastructure spotting

Investors and developers are infrastructure spotting when they ‘deliberately invest’ in a

small town with an impending billion-dollar or larger local infrastructure project. In Australia,

these projects are fuelled by the demand for commodities by the booming Chinese and

Asian economies and linked to Australia’s status as one of the world’s leading suppliers of

natural resources. Mining and energy companies involved in these projects are committed

to extract, transport, refine and ship an ever increasing volume of resources within these

small towns. As a result, these energy companies are committed to build new mines or

gas platforms, railways or pipelines, refineries and ports to fulfil these investment

commitments. The common threads among all these large infrastructure projects are:

Massive cash investments by mining and energy companies into the local economy of the

small towns;
Thousands of new workers with $100,000 plus wages being deployed to these projects;
A shortage of local housing to accommodate this sudden surge in housing demand;
Experienced investors who have done their research on previous property boom as a

result of large infrastructure projects and are looking to invest in impending boom towns

before others realise the opportunities and eventual benefits of the projects.

From the chart above, it is obvious that Gladstone’s main natural resource in the future

would be concentrated on Liquefied Natural Gas  (LNG). Out of the total of A$66.4 billion

dollars worth of infrastructure projects, $51.8 billion or 78% of the projects are LNG

related. By far the largest project involves a joint-venture between the third largest

integrated energy company in the US, Conocco Phillips withOrigin Energy in the A$35 billion

Australian Pacific LNG project.

The 3 biggest infrastructure projects are all LNG related which involve some of Australia’s

largest energy and resources organisations such as BG Group, Origin Energy and Santos.

The A$7.7 billion Gladstone LNG project is a joint-venture between Santos and Malaysian

petroleum giant Petronas.

de Freitas believes there are 4 important criteria which identifies booming infrastructure

towns in Australia:

1. Population of less than 30,000

Infrastructure towns have to small with a population of less than 30,000. This dynamic

ensures the project will fundamentally and permanently change the demographic and

economic conditions. Larger towns do not feel the impact of the project on residential

housing demand as much as smaller ones. As a result, rental yields and capital growth may

be less significant. Gladstone’s population is approximately 30,000 and the migration of

new workers as a result of the projects will satisfy this criteria.

2. Project value of A$1 billion or more

Large projects of A$1 billion or more are required to create the impact on local housing

yields and value. Gladstone’s planned and committed projects have a total value of more

than A$66 billion as shown above.

3. Large peak workforce

The projects’ peak workforce needs to be between 5 – 10% of the town’s normal

population to create an impact on rents as the workers move into town. In this case, the

peak workforce of the planned and committed projects of Gladstone is 21,400 compared

to its population of 30,000, ie a peal workforce on population ratio of 71%.

4. Approved project status

The projects must have achieved ‘approved’ status formally granted by the State and

Federal governments. This occurs in the last phase of the ‘feasibility stage’ of the

infrastructure spotting cycle. When all the environmental and government approvals are

granted, the final endorsement is by the Financial Investment Decision (FID) where the

project is then classified as ‘confirmed’. This is the stage where house prices can surge

between 10 – 20% as a result of investors jumping onto the bandwagon. Five of

Gladstone’s infrastructure projects have received full approvals or entered into the

‘confirmed’ or ‘commenced’ phase while numerous other projects have also submitted

their Environmental Impact Statements and are now awaiting government approvals, so

they can proceed to FID endorsement.

Gladstone currently has 15 infrastructure projects totalling A$66 billion at various stages of

approval and commencement.