UDIA in Action
While many of our members take the opportunity for some family time this school holidays, UDIA is using the rare downtime to prepare for several exciting activities that we have coming up.
First up, we are excited to host the latest intake of our in-house professional development course that is starting next Monday. This course has been running twice annually for several years and never fails to attract a diverse range of participants seeking to extend their knowledge of how the development industry operates in WA from project conception to delivery. Each module is hosted by carefully selected industry professionals who have a huge amount of technical expertise and experience.
We are also finalising the nomination criteria for the 2021 UDIA WA Awards for Excellence, set for launch at the beginning of May. We are fine tuning selection criteria and look forward to welcoming project nominations as well as individual award nominations over the coming months. Nominated projects are always a fantastic representation of what is happening across the board in urban development in Perth and the regions.
The communications team is also busy putting together the upcoming edition of our popular member magazine, The Urbanist. The theme this quarter explores international case studies and will bring examples of exciting projects, concepts and initiatives from around the world to WA so that we can learn from them.
We welcome any ideas for projects happening around the world that you think would be useful to include in this edition. Send relevant suggestions through to Gemma: gosiejak@udiawa.com.au . Advertising opportunities are also available in the magazine if you would like to feature your business in the leading publication for the development industry in WA.
UDIA National Finalists
We are just a few short weeks away from the UDIA National Summit, which will once again be held virtually this year. During the National Summit the 2021 UDIA National Award Winners will be announced with a number of Western Australian projects appearing as finalists.
All of the UDIA WA 2020 Awards for Excellence category winners have been named as a finalist including Amberton Beach Coastal Precinct which not only won the Social and Community Infrastructure Award but also the Russel Perry Award for Urban Development Excellence.
To view all the finalists, click here and for an in-depth look at all of the winners from the UDIA WA 2020 Awards for Excellence, read the Special Awards edition of The Urbanist here.
National winners will be announced during the UDIA National Awards for Excellence Virtual Summit on Thursday 29 April 2021. The Summit commences at 11.30am (AWST) with the awards announcements kicking off at 2.30pm.
The National Summit provides an excellent opportunity to hear a detailed economic outlook plus granular analysis on the forward prospects for the nation’s housing and greenfield markets from some of Australia’s preeminent experts, including The Hon. Michael Sukkar MP; Colin Keane, Director, Research4; Bill Evans Chief Economist, Westpac Banking Corporation; Eliza Owen, Head of Residential Research Australian, CoreLogic.
To book your place at this year’s virtual Summit, click here. UDIA WA Members, enter the code UDIAWA to receive member rates.
PD Course
The UDIA WA Professional Development Course kicks off next Monday 12th April. The program is specifically designed for the Western Australian context and introduces participants to the various areas of knowledge required to operate effectively in our local residential development industry.
Participants will learn to define and manage projects, while becoming familiar with terminology from the broad range of disciplines and concepts involved in property development.
The six modules in the April intake are as follows:
Monday April 12 – Module 1: Basic Skills and the Planning Framework
Monday April 19 – Module 2: Project Planning and Marketing
Monday May 3 – Module 3: Environment and Sustainability
Monday May 10 – Module 4: Project Management
Monday May 17 – Module 5: Building the Development
Monday May 24 – Module 6: Practical Application
There is the option to enrol for the full course or for any of the above specific modules, however spaces are limited.
For more information, click here or email events@udiawa.com.au to secure your place.
UDIA Policy role closes tomorrow
Applications for UDIA WA’s new full time Policy Officer role close at 5pm Friday 9 April. To find out more and apply, click here.
This new role will be responsible for supporting the Director of Policy and Research in achieving the objectives of the Institute’s policy and research agenda, and the coordination of the EnviroDevelopment program in Western Australia.
UDIA WA partners with Home in WA
UDIA WA is pleased to announce a new media partnership with the long running Home in WA television series. The new partnership provides an important opportunity for UDIA to showcase the fantastic work that the urban development industry does in creating new and regenerating existing communities to a wide audience on Channel 7. We will also be able to highlight the importance of the industry to the broader economy and jobs growth and foster greater engagement with residents and new home buyers.
As part of the media partnership Ron (DINGO) Reddingius is pleased to offer all UDIA WA members a very special discount rate for video content on the 2021 TV series. Filming is set to start in mid-May and we are excited to provide this opportunity to our members.
If you would like to showcase your company, business, project or estate on the CH7 & GWN7 TV series, state-wide, give ‘Dingo’ a call on 0417279103 or email him on dingoistalent@bigpond.com
May Land Report opportunities
The next edition of the Land Report liftout produced by The West Australian newspaper in partnership with UDIA WA is due for publication on Saturday 15 May.
The Land Report features the latest land market data from UDIA’s Urban Development index along with a range of editorial articles aimed at letting consumers know what is happening in the land market currently, tips for buyers and information about new growth areas and communities.
If you would like to take up an advertising opportunity in the lift out that reaches an audience of over 360,000 readers, contact Maddisen Booth at Maddisen.booth@wanews.com.au
More information about the lift out including rates can be found here.
RBA Board maintains current monetary policy settings
At the April Monetary Policy Meeting, the RBA board confirmed it will maintain the current monetary policy settings, as expected.
As part of the statement announcing the decision RBA Governor Dr Philip Lowe said the economic recovery in Australia is well under way and is stronger than had been expected. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in February and the number of people with a job has returned to the pre-pandemic level.
“Nevertheless, wage and price pressures are subdued and are expected to remain so for some years,” he said. “The economy is operating with considerable spare capacity and unemployment is still too high. It will take some time to reduce this spare capacity and for the labour market to be tight enough to generate wage increases that are consistent with achieving the inflation target.
“The Board remains committed to the 3-year government bond yield target of 10 basis points. Later in the year it will consider whether to retain the April 2024 bond as the target bond or to shift to the next maturity.
“The Board is committed to maintaining highly supportive monetary conditions until its goals are achieved. The Board will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 per cent target range. For this to occur, wages growth will have to be materially higher than it is currently. This will require significant gains in employment and a return to a tight labour market. The Board does not expect these conditions to be met until 2024 at the earliest.”
For more information and to read the statement in full, click here.
House Prices set to soar
With interest rates set to remain low, economists are predicting house prices to rise across the country with Perth set to benefit most with a 19% gain this year.
Prices in Sydney are also set to jump 19%, with prices in Hobart expected to lift by 18%, Melbourne and Brisbane 16% and Adelaide 13%.
Research from the RBA has also indicated a permanent cut to rates of one percentage point could push house prices up 30% over three years.
Despite this, the RBA has maintained its view that it will only lift interest rates when inflation is sustainably within the 2-3% band.
International Monetary Fund upgrades Australia’s economic outlook
This week the International Monetary Fund released an updated World Economic Outlook, wherein they upgraded Australia’s economic outlook after the IMF confirmed the Australian economy is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis faster and stronger than previously expected.
Australia’s economy is forecast to grow by 4.5% in 2021, one percentage point higher than the IMF’s interim outlook in January. The IMF then expects economic growth to reach 2.8% in 2022, broadly consistent with its earlier projection.
In upgrading its outlook, the IMF notes that the “Australian economy continues to show a strong recovery momentum” and that a “favourable labour market recovery continues to support a strong rebound in private consumption, added by wealth effects from rising house prices”.
Australia’s GDP is “projected to reach the pre-COVID level by the March quarter 2021, limiting scarring effects of the pandemic” and compares favorably internationally with GDP remaining “significantly below pre-pandemic trends in most countries”.
Australia also continues to compare remarkably well to other nations, with the IMF forecasting Japan’s economy to grow by 3.3%, Germany by 3.6% and Italy by 4.2%.
Encouragingly, global growth has also been revised up by 0.5 percentage points to 6.0 per cent in 2021 and by 0.2 percentage points to 4.4% in 2022.
The Switch coming to Perth
A new rental concept for younger generations called The Switch is set to launch in Perth in 2022.
The innovative $500 million housing concept will see properties specially designed to suit the lifestyle needs of young renters accommodate a mix of students, young professionals, creatives, life learners, entrepreneurs and others at different life stages under one roof for the first time.
It fills a gap in the market for share accommodation that brings the outside world in and allows young people to connect with a broad community of like-minded individuals, while providing uncommon living experiences that allow them to untap their creativity and maximise their potential.
The Switch property in Perth will provide 483 beds – a mix of private studios through to seven-bed shared apartments – and will be located at 553-561 Wellington St in Perth CBD, ensuring safety, security and easy access to transport.
All basic services, full rental administration and a wide range of lifestyle options will be incorporated into affordably packaged pricing, including:
- Classes, workshops and pop-up events hosted in lively and dynamic communal spaces;
- Speaker events featuring entrepreneurs and educators, health experts and local businesses;
- Co-working spaces fostering collaboration and innovation;
- Rooftop bars and lounges, community gardens, and honesty kitchens with convenient, locally sourced food and beverages; and
- Integrated mobile technology managing door locks, safety apps such as Sonder, bill payments, room bookings, 24/7 health and wellbeing services, parcel lockers and more.
For more information, click here.