The red tape holding back development has officially been cut by Campbell Newman and the new Queensland Government and the Gold Coast City Council over the last couple of months. And this time it has to have some real commitment behind it.
Last week we welcomed Minister for Housing and Public Works, Dr Bruce Flegg to our boardroom where he recanted the stories from developers who have sat in planning for three, four or five long years at prohibitive cost trying to achieve approvals and proceed with development while maintaining feasibility.
We heard first-hand that the Government clearly understands the costs of planning and rising infrastructure charges over the last five years have crippled our property industry and scared off some of the strongest players in our markets. They are determined to turn property sentiment around quickly and are working tirelessly to make it easier for developers to do what they do best.
The recently released policies of the Government show just how far they are willing to go to rebuild certainty and stimulate construction as an important pillar of our economy. So today we take a look at the actions of Governments in Queensland over recent months to remove red tape and stimulate property growth again. We hope you read between the lines and see the opportunities this might bring.
The removal of planning red tape
The Queensland Government have made continual commitments over recent months to streamline the planning and decision making. On the 13th of September, the Government has followed through with changes to Queensland's Planning and Development system.
Under their new planning and development scheme, developers seeking state government assessment of development applications will only have to deal with one single office reducing the complexity and increasing the certainty of development outcomes.
The Government has also removed the master and structure planning arrangements that the industry deemed ineffective and will no longer separate state resource allocation and entitlement requirements from the development application process.
The Government will introduce a new streamlined 'no costs' regime within the Planning and Environment Court for less substantial matters that do not require the attention of a Judge and will expand the powers of the Planning and Environment Court to allow the awarding of costs to successful litigants, where the court sees fit.
Importantly and finally, Councils will be given the discretion to accept development applications that do not include all required supporting information at time of lodgement to try and speed up the process of approval.
All of these measures have fallen on a development industry hungry for certainty in the planning of their developments.
First Home Owners Construction Grant
The Queensland Government has, in its September budget scrapped the $7000 first homebuyers grant, replacing it with a First Home Owners Construction Grant of $15,000. A buyer qualifies if they buy a new, first home under the value of $750,000 after the 12th September 2012. This support is clearly going after immediate activity in the residential construction market.
Stamp Duty Concessions
Queensland have reinstated principal place of residence stamp duty concessions to all homebuyers from 1 July 2012 saving home buyers up to $7,000. The concessions were removed last year for buyers other than first home buyers.
This brings Queensland's stamp duty rate to one of the lowest jurisdictions in the country and will surely help reignite interstate migration.
The new legislation provides a concessional stamp duty rate of 1% up to a value of $350,000, with stamp duty charged at normal rates for the remaining value of the home purchase. First Home Buyers will also pay no duty at all on property up to $500,000. Queensland is the only State or Territory to offer this general concession to all 'own home' buyers.
Construction Kickstart on the Gold Coast
From the 1st of October 2012, the Gold Coast will support small and medium business in creating short term construction jobs through significant discounts to infrastructure charges. The most valuable and immediate stimulus is the complete removal of transport, recreation and stormwater infrastructure charges for projects that commence in the next six months and complete by March 2015. Then, for projects that start in April 2013 to September 2013 and complete by March 2015, they will receive 50% discount to the same charges.
The Government cannot change the post GFC economic environment by themselves. But these policy initiatives, alongside a clearly more accessible and business-friendly approach might just create the incubator for recovery that we have all be waiting for.
How will your property investments capitalise on the changes?
Matthew Buckley is Managing Director of Savills Queensland. He has over 20 years experience in Property Consultancy including Valuation, Property Management, Sales and Leasing. His extensive background includes asset management and portfolio valuations, mortgage, insurance and non-current asset valuations. Employed as a Director of Savills since 1999, Matthew has established and developed one of Brisbane's most successful valuation teams responsible for the valuation of all classes of property, project feasibility studies, property consultancy and construction cost analysis. He has also assisted both private and institutional owners with asset management and the acquisition and disposal of assets including CBD office towers, shopping centres, industrial and development sites. Ongoing roles include assisting in negotiation of major leasing transactions within CBD office towers and cashflow modelling to maximise building value.
