Lol @ Doomden line. Given the chat about it’s possible BRT conversion, seems relevant.
That line is a tricky one, it doesn’t attract patronage because it is slow and infrequent. Now I hate shutting down active infrastructure, but I do think the time has come for that section to be converted to BRT and you can use Toombul as the interchange.
Think gold glider, but through Hamilton it heads north to ascot and clayfield on the corridor.
You can still send a metro through airport link and onto DFO for connections.
Frees up QR rolling stock and space on the northern tracks.
At least in the outbound direction during PM peak, the GC train usually just catches up to the Beenleigh train at Altandi, enabling cross-platform transfers. From my previous experience (on the 5:xx pm services from Central), this hidden feature appears to be well used by (rail) passengers.
As much as it was sold as an improvement to align with buses, they only moved to Altandi (from Coopers Plains) to free up space for the Coopers Plains terminators when the all day 15 minute services were introduced.
Honest question. I have dreamed my whole life about one day owning a home. But with houses here costing over a million and apartments also getting close to that, will I just have to give up and admit defeat. Accept that I’m going to be financially worse off then my parents despite earning more than them. Will I have to rent for life?. Never move out of home?. Leave the city I have called home, for good?. Or worse, have to be homeless my whole life or be in a massive mortgage I won’t be able to afford, in some asbestos shack with corroded roof all the way out in Beaudesert or Kingaroy?.
The housing crisis is a real problem in South East Queensland and as much as this is a Transport group, the issue of housing does overlap heavily with transit, as people need services and a way to get around.
if you look at population growth by state, Qld basically kept on trendline whereas Vic & NSW had a big divot (I want to be clear that more people is good… as long as we have enough housing for everyone!)
with the rise of WFH people want more house to fit a home office etc and that makes a difference
quantitative easing = turning on the money printer = inflated property prices & stock market, and when houses are more expensive people stay renting longer
I understand building costs are also way up post-Covid
then there’s whatever’s going on with the Olympics buoying investor willingness to pay
At the risk of getting both slightly political and wildly off-topic from the forum, I’d tack on the nature of housing in Australia as a speculative investment. Given the consistent high growth of house prices and insulation against losses (via negative gearing, capital gains discounts, etc) successive governments have engineered a situation where housing is a better investment than almost anything else, which generates insane demand.
Coupled with low supply this inflates house prices to crazy levels, and since it’s such a good value investment basically every working and middle class family that can afford a house has ~all of their wealth locked up in this single asset (and more often than not being in debt to do so). This creates a situation where neither major political party actually wants to reduce the price of housing, because any reduction wipes out tens of thousands of dollars (or more!) of wealth for a huge portion of the population, and good luck getting their votes again after that!
Yeah I think my only realistic choice now if I want to own a home is to seriously move to another country that somehow has cheaper homes yet same or higher wages
Lobby group calls for 30-plus buildings near key transport hubs
A lobby group says it’s time Brisbane got radical, urging a drastic development change for some hotspots.
Brisbane needs to grow up, literally, with 30-plus storey buildings allowed near hubs with excellent transport, a planning and housing lobby says.
But parts of suburbs such as West End and Hamilton should not have highrise because of their poor public transport options, according to Greater Brisbane.
The entire CBD is suffering from the huge drop in numbers of people that go there regularly. As it looks increasingly likely that we are not going back to five days a week commuting for most office workers, the city needs to think how to adapt.
The Courier Mail this morning is reporting that the Myer Centre manager and minority owner, Vicinity Centres, is about to exercise their pre-emptive right to buy out the 75% stake owned by IMF Investors (previously ISPT).
I think this will result in things accelerating with any redevelopment/repurposing of the Myer Centre. I am of the belief that Vicinity do have plans for the centre, and are capable of progressing them (Vicinity are the owner of Queens Plaza here in Brisbane (the best CBD shopping centre in Brisbane), and the country’s largest shopping centre - Chadstone in Victoria). The hold up to now I feel has been down to ISPT not wanting to spend money on the centre/prioritising their wholly owned Regent/Wintergarden/InterContinental Hotel complex instead.
With the pending opening of Cross River Rail with the northern entrance to Albert Street Station almost across the street, I hope any redevelopment emphasises that connection.
Everyone in the media and politics blames covid and the rise of WFH. When in reality it’s simply absurd commerical rents that make running a small and medium sized business in the cbd unviable. It’s one of the reason why people in brisbane don’t travel into the cbd outside of the tradional 9-5. When in sydney and melbourne the cbd is packed in the evening and weekends because their cbds have things that people want to go to.
