From the CEO

Hard-hitting and often controversial industry commentary from Immediate Past UDIA (Qld) CEO Brian Stewart.

>9 May 2012
Valuations killing home sales in Queensland
Toward the end of 2011 UDIA embarked on a research project looking into the vexed issue of valuations in Queensland.
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>30 August 2011
Approvals record pre-boost activity slump
Queensland's dwelling approvals fell in the month of July with significant falls in the detached housing sector partly offset by increases in the units sector. The approvals figures released today 30 August 2011) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics record a 1.8% monthly fall in Queensland activity, however over the July ‘quarter' approvals were up 4.4%.
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>10 August 2011
Housing recovery inches closer
Queensland home lending figures have improved over the June quarter driven by loans for new homes and first home buyers, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released yesterday.
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>2 August 2011
June quarter approvals bode well for housing recovery
Queensland has come out ahead of the rest of country with an increase in dwelling approvals for the June quarter, according to ABS data released today (2 August 2011).
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>25 July 2011
Land Tax Review
The UDIA (Qld) Board of Directors has decided to establish a review into the provisions of land tax in view of the recent changes to the Valuation of Land Act as well as the many changes to development processes in Queensland.
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>14 June 2011
State Budget 2011/2012 - Good News for Some
The announcement today of housing market reform by Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser has been welcomed by the UDIA (Qld). In essence, we have restricted our observations to what we sought from the Government during pre-budget discussions and in recent releases.
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>23 May 2011
Letter from Cr Amanda Cooper
Subsidy Fact Sheet

>27 April 2011
Carbon Tax - A repeat of the GST experience?
In recent years UDIA has followed a strategy of publishing the most up to date information available on industry performance at a national level. Our quarterly UDIA (Qld) Development & Construction Industry Performance Report is a vehicle for Queensland industry fundamentals in particular.
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>19 April 2011
Open letter to the Premier, Deputy Premier and Treasurer
UDIA (Qld) has today issued an open letter to the State Government capturing the industry's response to last week's Building Revival Forum and the announcement of capped infrastructure charges, and outlining our view on the best approach to further stimulate an industry revival in next year's State Budget.
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>12 April 2011
How long will it last?
In a few short hours the Premier of Queensland, the Honourable Anna Bligh, will have consulted extensively with the industry and numerous representatives of Local Government at the Building Revival Forum and will no doubt announce some decisions about what her Government's plans will be for industry revival.
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>22 March 2011
Latest Development & Construction Industry Performance Report sends critical message
With a further 8,000 jobs shed from Queensland's construction sector in the last quarter, the stakes have been ratcheted even higher in the lead-up to the Premier's Building Revival Forum.
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>15 March 2011
2011 STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR INDUSTRY & YOUR INSTITUTE
Following the seemingly ongoing natural disasters impacting on the Queensland landscape and almost every sector of the Queensland economy, the state is now being impacted by significant international concerns.
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>22 February 2011
New ministry announcements
With four Ministers now having responsibilities associated with urban development and re-development, including the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Treasurer and the new Minister for the Building Industry, Simon Finn, there is now considerable ministerial fire-power directed towards the economic recovery of the housing and construction sector.
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>25 January 2011
Warning to Developers, lawyers and valuers re: transfers of parkland
A number of incidents have emerged in the last few months regarding the transfer of parkland to local authorities and issues surrounding valuations and the payment of stamp duty in that context. Members are advised to carefully review DAs from councils and to be particularly attentive to the wording of conditions requiring parkland to be transferred to Council in fee simple/freehold.
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>23 December 2010

Get your council refund today
UDIA (Qld) has now received formal advice from the Minister that many members will be entitled to refunds from Local Authorities for charges which have been unlawfully applied.
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>30 November 2010

More Bad News for Qld Industry
Approvals data released yesterday (30 November) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is more bad news for Queensland, although the data is pretty much as we expected, with units having held a little but houses falling steadily. (Interestingly, Victoria and NSW are on the way up.)
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>24 November 2010

UDIA (Qld) applauds Premier's announcement of building recovery reform
The Queensland Premier has this morning announced in a Ministerial Statement to the Legislative Assembly that the Queensland Government will convene a Building Revival Forum on 8 February 2011. The stated purpose of the summit is to search for solutions to get the industry moving again.
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>2 November 2010

Old fashioned politics or a new leaf?
Late last week the LGAQ issued a press release putting forward a new position on Infrastructure Charging. It received some coverage in the media but was generally received with little fanfare.
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Rubber hits the road in Townsville
It is also great to see that some local authorities aren't sitting on their hands waiting for the Queensland Government to conclude its review of infrastructure charges. The latest local authority to specifically recognise the need to immediately address the current charging regime is, once again, Townsville City Council.
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>14 October, 2010

Ready availability of industry-wide data
Just on 15 years ago, I was first introduced to the regular delivery of industry-wide data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Prior to that, I'd only accessed this sort of information through mainstream media. Earlier this week, the ABS released the latest housing construction data for Queensland.
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>10 September, 2010

An inconvenient truth
For the last seven years the industry has been asserting, particularly in South East Queensland, that a lack of land supply has placed upward pressure on house prices and thus affordability in South East Queensland. The response from the Local Government Association of Queensland has been predictable and immediate...
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>7 September, 2010

Land valuation claims and concerns
You may have seen a recent media article claiming that the development industry is not paying its fair council rates. The article attempted to infer that if developers paid more rates, local authorities could build some thousands of affordable houses. Let's put aside, for a minute, the fact that only a handful of local authorities in Queensland currently contribute funds to affordable housing and look at the absurdity of this latest claim.
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>11 May, 2010

"Some days are diamonds, some days are stone"
In the next week we can expect substantial announcements from the Premier detailing the State Government response to the Queensland Growth Summit. The question is, will the day be a diamond or will it be a stone? For my part I believe there is the political will for it to be the former, but only time will tell.
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>4 May, 2010

Not-for profit developers - should the playing field be levelled?
Two separate events this week have resulted in today’s column. You could write a book about each of them really but I won’t. For various reasons they will gain traction in the months ahead and we do need to be ready as an industry and as individuals to take part in the policy debate that will inevitably occur.
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>23 April, 2010

Truth in public policy - the role of the media
It has been a little while since I raised some of the more complex issues that face industry, and the role of the media and politicians, with particular regard to the development industry. Being a baby boomer, I have experienced the massive changes that occurred as a consequence of the power of television and printed media in shaping modern politics. Read More>>

>28 December, 2009

CEO Email #14
'Tis the season
All things being equal this will be my last email for 2009. “And wouldn’t it be wonderful if it is his last”! I can imagine everyone thinking. And that is a sentiment with which I agree. In fact, someone said the other day that they will never get back the 20 minutes it took to read the last email. Read More>>

>7 December, 2009

CEO Email #13
Decisive action on affordable housing, indecent haste or a bit of both?
With a front page story in today’s Courier Mail, follow-up stories on page two, and three interesting editorials last week that focused on infrastructure and the state of governance in Queensland, it is not surprising to see the press release issued from the Premier’s office earlier today announcing the appointment of a seven member panel to work with the Population Growth Summit in some as yet unspecified manner. Read More>>

>27 November, 2009

CEO Email #12
“It’s the spin, stupid!” Queensland Government talks up affordable housing
At around 4.30am this morning, I had an epiphany. Now before you get excited and imagine I had visions of deities or start reaching for your dictionary, epiphany is a Greek term that has, as one of its meanings, "a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple...Read More>>

>18 November, 2009

CEO Email #11
'Ban the banners' pushed through Parliament
The recent 'Ban the Banners' amendments by the Queensland Government in the Building Codes and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (2009)  provide yet further proof (as if we need any) of questionable agendas, ill-conceived policy and very limited comprehension of contemporary development industry realities. Read More>>

>12 November, 2009

CEO Email #10
We are not alone!
Just in case you were thinking that maybe, after all, the PM, the Treasurer, the Federal Housing Minister, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, the Head of Treasury, just about everyone in the industry, the UDIA and yours truly had got it wrong.  Even if you happen to be thinking that we are not facing an affordability and land supply crisis in Queensland that is generating undersupply...Read More>>

>4 November, 2009

CEO Email #9
Feds weigh in on affordable housing debate
Rudd gets it. Swan gets it. Plibersek gets it. Federal Treasurer Ken Henry and his Treasury Team get it. So is this the Deep North all of a sudden? Why don’t we get it up here? There has been a flurry of activity at the Federal level over housing affordability in the past few weeks. The Prime Minister bought into it and even visited a housing construction site in Townsville. Read More>>

>21 October, 2009

CEO Email #8
Crystal clear solutions for affordable housing crisis
Some years ago while working for the State Government, I undertook postgraduate studies in business and was fascinated by the paradigm shift that I realised was necessary to be successful in business. It was a whole new world to me. I consumed the works of Porter, Drucker and even Ricardo Semmler’s “Maverick” and just about every other popular author on business strategy and management. Read More>>

>19 October, 2009

CEO Email #7
Unemployment booms in lagging construction industry
For some reason I have a vivid recollection of there being significant concern post-August 2008 about employment in the mining sector. Political mercy dashes were made and the State Government established a Jobs Task Force in December 2008. Visions emerged of Queensland being on a war footing, a Regional jobs security summit was held, and a joint Queensland Resources Council/Local Authorities job savings initiative was announced. Read More>>

>17 September, 2009

CEO Email #6
Affordable housing threatened
Thank you for the emails and verbal responses to my last email that focussed on asking the Queensland Government what were the plans to assist the industry in getting out of the abyss that we are now occupying. I understand that a number of letters were sent to the Premier and Government Ministers expressing the sender’s personal concerns about the situation we find the industry in today. Read More>>

>26 August, 2009

CEO Email #5
Slump in residential building slashes affordable housing and employment in Qld
More disturbing news came today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, detailing the value of residential work undertaken in each of the Australian States to June 30, 2009. That’s right, Queensland has again fared worse than any other mainland State. And not just by a few per cent, by a whopping 19.7 per cent. Read More>>

>20 August, 2009

CEO Email#4
Why infrastructure charges and industry governance are killing off affordable housing
In the last few weeks since my last email it seems that the industry is making some headway with the complex issue of infrastructure charges and their negative effect (along with the GFC) on our industry and employment. The list of local authorities now discussing the current failed system is growing by the day. Read More>>

>31 July, 2009

CEO Email #3
Losses in Qld construction industry will boost unemployment stats
When I sent out my email to members yesterday I didn’t think I would be sending another so quickly, but a day is a long time in the development industry and here it is. I can’t say I was surprised when I saw the front page of The Courier-Mail this morning and read the criticism regarding the structure of governance surrounding the processes of planning and development in Queensland, as this is a regular concern to many members. Read More>>

>30 July, 2009

CEO Email #2
Affordable housing lags behind SEQ population growth
It has been a few weeks since my last email and the release this week of the South East Queensland Regional Plan has prompted me to make a few quick observations. I was quite appalled to see allegations in a Queensland Government media release (dealing with the exclusion of investigation area land from the urban footprint in Redlands) that developers were “plundering” the environment. Read More>>

>7 July, 2009

CEO Email #1
Housing and construction industry leads unemployment in Queensland
The Queensland Premier the Honourable Anna Bligh last week released a press release advising that 950 jobs had been saved at Yabaloo. This is, of course, great news for those individuals anxious about their future at the Mine and for the associated industries and facilities in Townsville. Read More>>

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