IT WAS former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s homespun economic barometer during the 1970s and 80s – counting the number of cranes on the skyline to get a gauge on how Queensland was faring financially.
Fast forward a few decades and if Sir Joh’s “crane-ometer” is any yardstick, it’s all blue skies for the Gold Coast.
About 40 tower cranes dot the Glitter Strip skyline – more than double the number of last year – as billions of dollars in major projects rise from what was scorched earth in the wake of the global financial crisis.
SOUTHEAST: Crane count healthy but residential
Probably no place in Australia was hit harder and for longer by the GFC than the Coast which, despite efforts to diversify into areas such as IT and education, still relies largely on construction and tourism for its economic wellbeing.
During the financial crash and for years after, the M1 was a conga line of tradies forced to head north to find work as high-rise construction ground to a halt.
The Coast became Queensland’s FIFO capital, property values plummeted and hand-wringing civic and business leaders wondered if the pall of gloom that had blanketed the shimmering seaside city built on boundless optimism would ever lift.
But lift it did, in a big way. Projects worth more than $10 billion, led by venues for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, are under construction and tourism is humming. The jobless rate plunged to a near-record low 5.4 per cent late last year, although it has since crept back up above
6 per cent.
Mayor Tom Tate, a millionaire businessman with an unashamedly pro-development stance, says his first council’s Construction Kickstart program, which slashed red tape and discounted fees and charges, helped get “shovel-ready” projects moving.
“We also opened ourselves up to the economic juggernauts of China, the United Arab Emirates and India,’’ he says.
“I deliberately led self-funded trade missions to the UAE and China to show these regions how committed we are to forming partnerships. Today, we are seeing billions of dollars of international investment flow into the Gold Coast which is good for business, our economy and our children who no longer have to look south or overseas for skilled employment and career opportunities.
“We have also rolled out the red carpet to national investors so, in a way, we have created the perfect storm that has seen our city leading employment across the state.’’
The proof, Tate says in a nod to Sir Joh, is in the sky.
Besides the $870 million worth of Games infrastructure, other major projects under construction include a $670 million redevelopment of Pacific Fair shopping centre, a $345 million upgrade of Jupiters Casino across the road, the first stage of the $400 million Gold Coast Cultural Precinct and the $1 billion, triple tower Jewel project being built by Chinese developers on the Surfers Paradise beachfront.
Work will soon start on a $300 million redevelopment of the Gold Coast Airport and the $420 million second stage of a light-rail system that will link with the heavy rail at Helensvale. The Gold Coast-Brisbane rail line is also being duplicated at a cost of more than $160 million. It adds up to a massive construction program creating thousands of jobs but city leaders are loathe to use the “b” word.
“I wouldn’t call it a boom, I’d call it a correction,’’ says Finn Jones, Gold Coast-Logan president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia. “It had to happen because we were in the doldrums for so long.”
Jones says designating Southport as a Priority Development Area – making it easier for developers to get approvals – was a “master stroke” by the city council. A new City Plan, removing height limits on high-rises in Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, was unveiled last month.
“It feels like a city that believes in itself again,’’ he says.
Veteran Gold Coast real estate agent Andrew Bell, who heads the Ray White Surfers Paradise Group, shares Jones’s sentiments about the need to break or at least level out the Glitter Strip’s notorious boom-and-bust cycles.
“What’s most impressive about this recovery or upswing is that it’s not crazy – it’s very measured and sustainable,’’ he says.
Bell says Coast property values, which plunged as much as 50 per cent during the GFC, have bounced back strongly on the back of rising confidence, Chinese buyers, and investor money flowing in from overheated Sydney and Melbourne markets.
“We have a bit of wind in our sails and it will hopefully carry us through to the Commonwealth Games and beyond,’’ he says.
In the dark days following the GFC, the Coast was hit by a crime wave including an unprecedented spate of armed robberies and the Glitter Strip was branded Australia’s crime capital.
Gold Coast police chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon says while robberies remain above the state average, there hasn’t been another spike and some reported crimes have fallen by about 20 per cent. Business leaders say the bikie crackdown has helped make the Coast safer for tourists.
“Tourism is picking up and there’s certainly an optimism on the Coast,’’ Hanlon says.
Originally Published On: http://www.couriermail.com.au/