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Vol 12. No.75

Landsburys Independent Accreditation Reports

Economic Overview

	Current	+/-	Movement
$AUS/$US	108.19	+1.29
Cash Rate	4.75	Steady
90 Day Bill	4.90	+0.05
10 Year Bond	5.480	-0.052
ASX 200	4872.9	-40.9

New South Wales Property

• Cancer Council NSW has leased a 275 square metre office at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus on a 10-year term.

• Cromwell Property Group is in due diligence to acquire the Sydney Opera House Car Park for about $80 million from ReCap Property Trust 3.
• ReCap, formerly managed by Mariner, owns the 33-year lease of the car park.
• The car park has 1,176 car parking bays equating to approximately $68,000 per car park if acquired.

• FX Display & Exhibition has sold an office and warehouse building located at 70-90 Chelmsford Street in Kensington for $3.45 million with vacant possession.
• The net lettable area of the building is 2,206 square metres ($1,564/m²).
• The property includes a two-level office, production and showroom area.

• A retail/residential property located at 212 Harris Street in Pyrmont has sold for $2.24 million at a yield of 7.3%.
• The ground floor is leased to Cafe Azzuri on a three-year lease with a three-year option at a net rent of $164,500 per annum.
• The first floor includes a two-bedroom unit which was sold with vacant possession.

• Centuria Property Funds has sold 632 square metres ($4,399/m²) of strata office space located at 924 Pacific Highway in Gordon for $2.78 million.
• The strata suite includes a balcony and 22 car parking spaces.

Victoria Property

• According to Victoria’s state planning authority VicUrban, the two hectare site on Batman’s Hill in Melbourne’s Docklands has attracted 15 registrations of interest from developers.
• Mirvac, Grocon, Equiset Grollo Group, Walker Corporation and Lead Lease are believed to be among the developers contending for the site.
• Equiset Grollo Group are proposing a $1 billion transformation for the site including a Collins Street office tower, a 5-star international hotel, mid- to top-tier residential component and a range of campus-style, low rise office buildings.
• The end product will comprise approximately 160,000 square metres of office space, 5,000 square metres of retail, 400 hotel rooms, 200 apartments, significant public amenity and art projects.
• The successful developer will be named early 2012.

• Consolidated Property has sold $65 million of apartments off the plan at its Ikon apartment tower in Glen Waverly before the official launch yesterday.
• Consolidated Property has joined up with VicTrack to construct a 10-storey tower, with 116 apartments priced from $355,000 to $700,000.
• The 1,658 square metre site received formal planning approval in March with construction for the tower due to start in August.

• A private investor has acquired a warehouse located at 166 Buckhurst Street in South Melbourne for $1.95 million.
• The warehouse comprises 731 square metres of space ($2,668/m²) and has a rental potential of $130,000 net, or 6.67% yield, per annum.

• A local developer has acquired a student accommodation site located at 373-377 Burwood Highway, east of the Melbourne CBD and close to Deakin University for $3.9 million.
• The property has a land area of 2,179 square metres ($1,790/m²) and has a planning permit to build a 116-unit student accommodation centre over four levels, with a basement.

National Property

• The Australian Taxation Office has issued a new GST ruling for new retirement village projects. The ruling cuts the input tax credits during development and significantly increases the GST paid on the eventual sale of the village.
• The tax ruling includes transitional arrangements so existing villages will continue to pay GST in the current form.
• In the current form, GST was paid only on the value of the management contract when a village changed hands. An example of this is if a 100-unit village had the management rights selling for $3 million the GST would be $300,000.
• Under the new ruling the ATO would include a nominal value of the loans on units typically occupied under loan-lease arrangements while reducing the input credits. For the same 100-unit village valued at $30 million, the GST could be more than $3.3 million.

• Research shows that Australia’s population growth is adding to the nation’s housing shortage.
• In NSW, since the start of 2009 the population has increased by more than 184,500 however new dwellings approved has only been 27,500.
• Victoria experienced an increase in population in 2009 rising by 183,400 with the number of dwellings approvals at 63,600.
• An index that contrasts the number of residents with new home approvals found that there were 3.7 new Australians for every new dwelling built in the past two years, well above the decade long-average of 2.9 new residents per dwelling.
• NSW experienced the most pronounced housing shortage where 6.7 new residents arrived for each home approved, with the ratio almost doubling since 2009.
• In Queensland, the long term average rose from 3.6 to 4.6 new residents per dwelling approved in the past two years.
• South Australia’s 10-year ratio of 1.6 increased to 2.2 new residents per dwelling since 2009.

• In the first quarter of 2011, retail construction has increased to its highest level of starts in the past three years.
• The 20 projects started totals 243,400 square metres of space taking the national retail supply to 676,170 square metres.
• Bunnings has begun several developments and Woolworths has several stores under construction.
• Westfield Group and Westfield Retail Trust have started a 34,600 square metre expansion of Melbourne’s Fountain Gate shopping centre. A 30,000 square metre extension of the Highpoint Shopping centre, co-owned by GPT Group is also under way in Melbourne’s west.