Robina ‘ideal location’ for Brisbane 2032 Olympics athletes’ village if designed for future property market

Property industry experts say a Brisbane Olympics would have positive flow-on effects for the Gold Coast, but only if past mistakes of the Commonwealth Games are learned from.

Key points:

• Robina is earmarked as a village location for the proposed Brisbane 2032 Olympics
• Industry experts say it is a perfect location but lessons must be learned from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
• Mayor Tom Tate says quality is a concern and it must be desirable for post-Olympics residents

Last week the International Olympic Committee executive board proposed Brisbane to host the 2032 summer Olympics, which would include various events and three Olympic villages between Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Robina was the earmarked location for the Gold Coast Olympic and Paralympic village, which would home over 2,600 athletes and officials in a new residential development.

The region would host events including aquatics, beach volleyball, golf, judo, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.

Mayor Tom Tate said he was happy for the Gold Coast to play a “supportive” role at the Olympics, with visitor numbers likely to equal, if not exceed, that experienced during the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

If the 2032 Olympics goes ahead in Brisbane, events will take place all across the south-east, with villages proposed in Brisbane’s Hamilton, Robina on the Gold Coast and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.(Supplied: International Olympic Committee) 

‘Gold Coast class, gold class’

But he said a local Olympic village would have to be of a higher standard than those built for previous events in other cities.

“So we’ve done it already at the Games, but I think we would need to do (the Olympics) professionally and then it would be a great thing for the Gold Coast,” he said.

“(An Olympic village at Robina) would be on State land, so all I would ask is that the standard is in keeping with that high standard we build in Robina nowadays.

“Don’t view it as an Olympic village ala Beijing, because if you go and look at that now, it’s terrible, build it with a life span of 50 years.

“I support the concept but we want it to be Gold Coast class, gold class”.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland, Gold Coast Zone Chairman, Andrew Henderson, said an Olympic village at Robina would be a huge success with the right style dwellings that also accommodates future buyers and renters.

“It’s very positive.  The additional number of residences becoming available after the Olympics would be a big bonus,” he said.

“And I think Robina is an ideal location because it’s got good transport —  a train close by, it’s got good bus connections, shopping, great infrastructure.

“So as a location, it’s very central and would be a very desirable post-Olympic place people would want to live in”.

Learn from mistakes of Commonwealth Games

Mr Henderson said if the proposal went ahead, the Robina village should not mimic that of the Smith Collective at Southport from the Commonwealth Games.

“The market was different then and for a while, there was a reasonable level of vacancy within the Commonwealth Village (after the event),” he said.

“So, use that experience from hosting the Commonwealth Games. I feel there is a lot to look back on and a lot of things they can change going forward.

He said planners needed to make sure the village was designed in a way that it became desirable for residential owners to live in post-Olympics.

“So, whether that’s full-size kitchens, usable size balconies, good size bedrooms, study areas. —  things like that that people really want today.

“As long as they look toward the future and try and gauge that as the yardstick for the product they deliver, I think it can be a very successful place to put the athletes’ village”.

According to Mr Henderson, the Gold Coast’s forecast population growth would mean the dwellings, if designed correctly, should not be difficult to fill post-event.

“I think an event like the Olympic Games will create a significant amount of jobs. We are still going to need to cater for our ever-growing population,” he said.

“The Gold Coast has always been an area that’s been built on growth and this will give us additional growth going forward,” he said.

An artist’s impression of a proposed Olympic village at Robina for the proposed Brisbane Olympics in 2032.(Supplied: International Olympic Committee) 

Lynda Campbell, from property research and real estate advisory firm Urbis, said international borders eventually opening would provide another market to fill the accommodation post Olympics.

“Apartment supply is not keeping up with demand; sites are becoming scarce,” she said.

“They’re not making any more land and the demand for new apartments is coming from locals and interstate for mainly owner-occupier purposes, so what’s being built at the moment are larger apartments in smaller boutique buildings.

“I think when overseas borders reopen, we’ll see a new wave of overseas investors and they will look for smaller investor style products in bigger buildings, which we don’t really have at the moment.

“So I think there’ll be demand for that and the type of building that would fit well with visitors coming to the Olympics”.

 

Article Source: www.abc.net.au

from Queensland Property Investor https://ift.tt/3vkkZjP
via IFTTT