The New South Australia

[Bulldozer]

400kg gorilla?

Did they actually say that or did the editor or an automated system automatically convert 800lb with a large amount of rounding? 400kg makes for an 880lb gorilla

[Ben]

From The Messenger:

City vacancies at all-time low

Chris Day

05Feb08

THE Adelaide CBD has recorded its lowest office vacancy rate on record, further underscoring the city's economic revival.

The Adelaide Core Zone bounded by Morphett St, North Tce, Pulteney St and Wakefield St had a 4.3 percent vacancy rate last month, according to the Property Council's annual Office Market Report.

It was the lowest vacancy rate since records began in 1990 and a drop of 2 percent compared with January 2006. The record high in 1997 saw more than one fifth of all core office space empty.

Last year's fall was despite an extra 45,000sqm of office space entering the market enough room for about 3000 workers and followed $1 billion in new development applications lodged with the City Council for the year.

Property Council SA executive director Nathan Paine put the tight market down to increased confidence in the city, the growth of existing city firms and new companies entering the CBD.

``The (office) vacancy rate is the fundamental indicator for white-collar employment ... and it shows absolute confidence in the strength of the SA economy.''

He said the low vacancy rate would put upward pressure on office rents.

However, that could be softened by the 70,000sqm of offices expected to be built in the city by 2009.

Older, D-grade buildings in the core zone recorded an 8 percent vacancy rate.

Mr Paine said some older offices could be turned into homes for the growing number of city workers.

He said the City Council and the State Government needed to start work on a new city plan to ensure it kept up with the growth.

``We actually need to have a plan for Adelaide in 2050. We have more workers, more residents and we're starting to enjoy economic times that we haven't seen in 50 years.''


Busy architects forced to move

AS WITH the city, Adelaide architects Hames Sharley are enjoying a boom time.

The firm this month moved from Hackney Rd to Grenfell St's former ANZ building after staff numbers more than doubled to 40 during the past year.

``We really just ran out of space,'' company director David Cooke (pictured) said.

The company recently finished work on Channel 7's new Port Rd studio and is working on designs for planned offices across Adelaide.

Mr Cooke said a city base put the company closer to its clients and offered more to staff.

``All of our staff enjoy the pubs and the restaurants it's certainly better than the servo. You have to be in the city to make your mark on the world.''

The company, which has offices in Perth and Sydney, expects its Adelaide staff to grow to 60 this year. ``Adelaide is starting to get back to where it once was as our head office.''

[frank1]

Let the good times roll. Now all we need is the currie street tower. Is the 70,000 sqm of office space by 2009 Aurora?

[bva]

just received this email from australia house

Dear fellow South Australian

Hopefully you will have seen our new UK migration campaign launched in London yesterday.

The controversial new advertising campaign takes an aggressive stance in promoting our State while publicly attacking everything everyone hates about the UK.

Staines, traffic, weather, house prices and London are all targets in the month-long campaign which broke in the Evening Standard yesterday. A series of five adverts have been commissioned including ‘Screw working in Staines’, ‘Stuff London traffic’, ‘Sod London house prices’ and ‘Bugger it, I'm off to Adelaide’. The tone portrayed in the ads reflects the dynamic and bold changing face of ‘Adelaide, South Australia’… a modern message for a modern state. It’s a stand off challenge for people to stick two fingers up to the UK and reach out for greater business prospects, better health care, higher quality education, warmer weather, lower house prices – overall a far superior quality of life.

The Mayor of Staines, Andrew Hirst, defended Staines as "an attractive riverside town with a lot more going for it than [South Australia’s] weak beer". The Mayor promptly received a case of Coopers Sparkling Ale with my compliments!

The BBC and ITV have also both picked up the story. GMTV this morning interviewed one of South Australia’s best-known UK migrants, the Hon Jane Lomax-Smith, Minister for Tourism.

The campaign continues for the rest of the month. To see all the up to date media releases and give your two bobs worth, join the debate at the “South Australians in Europe” Facebook group.

Bill Muirhead

Agent General for South Australia

P.S. Applications for this year's Royal Events will be posted on the South Australians on the Facebook group soon. So spread the word and get involved.



Michael Quinton
Business Development Manager

Government of South Australia
Office of the Agent General
The Australia Centre, Strand
London, WC2B 4LG
T: +44 (0) 20 7887 5159
F: +44 (0) 20 7887 5332
Email: [email protected]

Information contained in this email message may be confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional privilege or public interest immunity. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this document is unauthorised.

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

classic stuff and already causing a stir here - one of the free public transport newspapers run a survey if people would move to Adelaide and they got a pretty positive response!!

i believe the campaign will start soon and I will try and take a photo of an ad when i see one

[AtD]

The oldest advertising trick there is: Controversy!

[UrbanSG]

4.3% vacancy rate! That is fantastic news, especially considering all the new space that entered the market last year. I would say it also has a far bit to do with the SA government leasing a large part of Westpac and businesses from Perth expanding their offices here as the rents our out of control there coupled with no space at all. There was an article a while back saying how Adelaide was benefiting from the Perth shortage in office space as companies looked over here instead.

[crawf]

Churches gives way to day spas
Article from: The Advertiser

MARIA MOSCARITOLO, SOCIAL ISSUES EDITOR

February 07, 2008 12:10am

SOUTH Australians spent more time looking after their health and appearance over the past 20 years but increasingly neglected traditional community pillars.
If the Yellow Pages directory is anything to go by, we have become increasingly hungry for ways to relax and beautify ourselves. But this snapshot also highlights how time-pressured and selfish our lives have become.

The number of day spas, cosmetic clinics, tattoo parlours, naturopaths and masseuses listed in the Yellow Pages guide have soared since 1988, while church organisations, union branches and corner delis and butchers are now a dying breed.

The figures highlight how traditional churches have fallen out of favour in the 20 years since George Michael's Faith topped the music charts. The number of civil marriage celebrants for hire jumped to 112 this year from a mere 19 in 1998, coinciding with a tumbling of advertised church and other religious organisations in Adelaide, from 181 then to 54 today. During that time, demand for counselling also skyrocketed, with 238 services listed now, compared to just 38.

The one-stop convenience of supermarket chains and small 24-hour shops has pushed out specialist retailers; only 23 delis still advertise their wares compared to 828 delis two decades ago, and 174 butchers remain viable compared to 442 in 1998.

Meanwhile, there are now 28 advertised day spas where two decades ago there were none. The same applied to cosmetic clinics. People wanting to tweak, zap and inject their way into slightly better bodies have 37 businesses vying for their custom where in 1988 there were none to be found in the book.

Dianne Miles ran beauty clinics for the past 23 years but saw opportunity for expansion and set up Day Spa at Unley Road to take advantage of growing local demand for more indulgent and relaxing treatments. Police frontman Sting took a break from his tour while in Adelaide last week to soak up a treatment there. "The market is just huge," she said. "People want somewhere to escape – there's just so much stress in our society."

[Edgar]

We need more residential properties in the market in order to expect more migrants.

[Will]

From The Messenger:

City vacancies at all-time low

Chris Day

05Feb08

THE Adelaide CBD has recorded its lowest office vacancy rate on record, further underscoring the city's economic revival.

The Adelaide Core Zone bounded by Morphett St, North Tce, Pulteney St and Wakefield St had a 4.3 percent vacancy rate last month, according to the Property Council's annual Office Market Report.

It was the lowest vacancy rate since records began in 1990 and a drop of 2 percent compared with January 2006. The record high in 1997 saw more than one fifth of all core office space empty.

Last year's fall was despite an extra 45,000sqm of office space entering the market enough room for about 3000 workers and followed $1 billion in new development applications lodged with the City Council for the year.

Property Council SA executive director Nathan Paine put the tight market down to increased confidence in the city, the growth of existing city firms and new companies entering the CBD.

``The (office) vacancy rate is the fundamental indicator for white-collar employment ... and it shows absolute confidence in the strength of the SA economy.''

He said the low vacancy rate would put upward pressure on office rents.

However, that could be softened by the 70,000sqm of offices expected to be built in the city by 2009.

Older, D-grade buildings in the core zone recorded an 8 percent vacancy rate.

Mr Paine said some older offices could be turned into homes for the growing number of city workers.

He said the City Council and the State Government needed to start work on a new city plan to ensure it kept up with the growth.

``We actually need to have a plan for Adelaide in 2050. We have more workers, more residents and we're starting to enjoy economic times that we haven't seen in 50 years.''


Busy architects forced to move

AS WITH the city, Adelaide architects Hames Sharley are enjoying a boom time.

The firm this month moved from Hackney Rd to Grenfell St's former ANZ building after staff numbers more than doubled to 40 during the past year.

``We really just ran out of space,'' company director David Cooke (pictured) said.

The company recently finished work on Channel 7's new Port Rd studio and is working on designs for planned offices across Adelaide.

Mr Cooke said a city base put the company closer to its clients and offered more to staff.

``All of our staff enjoy the pubs and the restaurants it's certainly better than the servo. You have to be in the city to make your mark on the world.''

The company, which has offices in Perth and Sydney, expects its Adelaide staff to grow to 60 this year. ``Adelaide is starting to get back to where it once was as our head office.''

Thanks for posting that Ben!

The reality of the situation should crush any idea that we have no economic growth or that we are a backwater. Sure we are not as exciting as London, but I ask; would a backwater have such a low office vacancy rate? If we were a backwater we should have an office vacancy rate around the 20% mark!

[jk1237]

thats right Will, In some countries i believe the economic variations in different regions of the same country are huge, ie booming areas are booming, but some provinces/cities are in dire straights with cronic u/e, and no growth. Therefore its so amusing when the usual Perth wankers on SSC carry on about their city compared to ours, when the difference in economic conditions are really not all that different. Australia usually manages to spread economic conditions out evenly

[Ben]

City development boom continues at record pace

Development in the City of Adelaide continues to set a record-breaking pace, with close to $175 million worth of development applications lodged for planning consent with the Adelaide City Council during January.


The figure of $174.5 million is three times greater than the $57.5 million worth of development applications lodged with the Council in January last year.


And it comes soon after the Council ended 2007 on a high, with 1103 development applications – valued at a record $1.016 billion – lodged during the year.


Among the applications lodged during January were a $90 million proposal for a 17-level office building on Franklin Street, a $60 million plan for a 15-level office and retail building on King William Street, and a $13 million proposal for a 14-level office and retail building on Waymouth Street.


Lord Mayor Michael Harbison says the record pace of development in Adelaide is a sign of a strong local economy, and high levels of confidence in the future and direction of the City.


“The Adelaide City Council has been working hard for many years to encourage more and more individuals and companies to invest in our City, and the record value of development applications being lodged suggests the hard work is paying off,” he says.


“The strength of the State’s economy, the impending mining boom and the Adelaide City Council’s aim of building a sustainable City for the future are combining to help convince many companies to relocate to, or establish new offices in, the City.”


“The State Government’s extension of the tramline to North Terrace is also playing a significant role in City development investment, with the announcement by Hills Industries late last year of a $90 million office tower likely to spark greater interest in the City’s south.”


“Importantly, many of the new developments already under construction or being proposed feature environmentally sustainable initiatives, helping to maintain Adelaide’s record as having Australia’s highest level of green star rated office space,” says the Lord Mayor.

[Ben]

"PROPERTY REPORT - February 2008 - Consumer Reports" http://www.jenman.com.au/news_subscribe ... d=16&Secti...
6 of 13 22/02/2008 1:28 PM

Adelaide:
If you'd listened, you'd be 20-30% better off

Some analysts are brilliant at predicting the past. Currently there are hordes of market
commentators telling people to buy in Adelaide because it will be the next boom city.

The thing is, it already is. This report advised investors a year ago that Adelaide was set to
become "the next Perth" - by which we meant that Adelaide would be the next capital city to
have surging property values on the back of the resources boom.

Throughout 2007, Adelaide delivered. Now everyone is predicting it.
Adelaide wins my award as "Best performance by a market in a leading role". Here's why: the
median house price rose 22.4% in the year ending October 2007, while units rose 30.8%.
According to the RP Data Property Pulse report in December 2007, Adelaide "continues to
charge ahead as the city with the highest price growth rates".

RP Data national residential research director Tim Lawless says that even with such
impressive growth, Adelaide is still one of the most affordable markets for housing in the
nation.

Both Australian Property Monitors and Residex suggest Adelaide's growth isn't as high as the
RP Data figure, but still very strong. (It's one of those strange anomalies in property research
data which we discussed at length in the September quarterly report, whereby three sources
can produce three totally different growth figures for the same market).
APM does agree with RP Data that Adelaide has the highest growth in apartment prices
among the capital cities, but its median price growth figure is 14.4%, less than half RP Data's
number. Don't ask me for an explanation.

Whichever set of numbers you believe, it's been a good year for anyone who owns real estate
in the South Australian capital.
Adelaide continues to report rental vacancies below 2%, with some precincts (including the
Adelaide Hills, the western suburbs and the south) reporting vacancies of 1% or less.
This is reflected in rental trends. The quarterly Domain-APM Rental Series in December
found Adelaide rents grew 17% over the past 12 months, both for houses and for units.
Tenants now typically pay $340 a week for a house and $245 for an apartment.

Having considered all that, here's my tip for Adelaide for 2008: remember The Ripple Effect.
This describes an established pattern in real estate whereby a real estate up-cycle tends to
begin in the swanky inner-city suburbs and ripples out from there. As the popular suburbs
become too expensive for some, buyers look to the suburb next door and gradually the
growth filters further and further out.

Adelaide's inner-city and beach suburbs have shown tremendous growth in the past year. It's a
good time for investors to look for suburbs that border the 2007 trend-setters but haven't yet
had the same level of growth.

[crawf]

A new state arises
Article from: The Advertiser

KIM WHEATLEY, CHIEF REPORTER

July 12, 2008 12:30am

THE face of South Australia is set to change dramatically over the next 10 years, with predictions we will have a younger, more multi-cultural population and our country towns once again will be vibrant, thriving hubs.

Premier Mike Rann and key business leaders believe while many of the extra 133,000 workers needed to keep pace with the defence and mining booms will be migrants, South Australians will be in the box seat for the jobs bonanza.

"How we'll be in 10 years time is that rather than be an ageing population we will see an influx of young people from overseas and interstate," Mr Rann said.

"We will also see young people in SA being given opportunities, getting the first slice of the action. We will have new townships – Roxby Downs township will be three times its size. We also see northern cities in the Spencer Gulf that have been declining over the years being absolutely resurgent.

"So I think what we're seeing is the absolute transformation of the SA economy . . . the balance of economic power in Australia is shifting."

The major economic drivers stem from winning Australia's most lucrative defence contract from Victoria – the $8 billion air warfare destroyer program – which will be bolstered by the relocation of 1100 soldiers to Adelaide by 2011.

Exploiting the world's biggest uranium/copper mine at Olympic Dam will be enhanced by 30 new mines amid estimates of $20 billion in investment in the mining industry over the next two decades.

The Government also believes SA is undergoing an education renaissance, pointing to 6000 overseas students in 2000 and almost 24,000 in 2008.

South Australia is also poised to capitalise on alternative energy sources, through solar, wind, gas, geothermal and carbon sequestration, according to the Federal Government's climate change guru Professor Ross Garnaut.

The state's Economic Development Board is ensuring SA is positioned to take advantage of the economic transformation.

"In five or 10 years time, I think you'll see a state that is at full employment, but is culturally different because of a changing in the mix of the population," EDB chairman Bruce Carter said.

"If its a large Filipino community or a large Indian community or a large community from Somalia they have to be, as much as Greeks and Italians underpinned us 30 years ago . . . welcomed and integrated into our community.

"So I think my children will grow up in a far more culturally diverse Adelaide than I did."

Mr Carter is optimistic about the future, but is sounding major warning bells over finding workers, water and attracting capital in the midst of the global credit squeeze.

He points to Western Australia's Pilbara region, which has a "two speed economy", where most workers are attracted to mining for the money.

Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan is also talking up the state's prospects despite his organisation this week releasing a report showing business confidence was declining.

"Despite the dip (in confidence) . . . in the future for SA we will see prosperity that has not been enjoyed at any time in the whole of white settlement in SA," Mr Vaughan said.

"It will bring with it a dynamic youthful, educated highly skilled and very well paid workforce that will completely re-engineer Adelaide and shake its foundations to the ground.

"We are at the cusp of one of the great transformations of society in SA."

[Cruise]

"In five or 10 years time, I think you'll see a state that is at full employment

now that is just pure A-grade crap, no place in the world will ever have full employment.

[Unknownspeedster]

full employment does exist but only in a economic term which is when in a city, country etc, all those who can be employed are in jobs, it excludes those people who are unable to work at anytime, due to a physical or mental illness etc.