The Queensland Government has moved to ensure Queensland’s future domestic gas supply, while providing industry with the certainty it needs to kick off its $40 billion LNG investment.
The Government has decided to set aside future gas fields for future domestic supply if needed and rejected an option to require a percentage of gas from all fields to go to domestic supply. “We want to create a business environment that allows the LNG proponents, which are contemplating more than $40 billion of investment, the opportunity to proceed and develop their projects in Queensland,” Premier Anna Bligh says. “It’s a win for the people of Queensland in the 18,000 jobs the industry is expected to create.
The eight LNG projects in the pipeline are:
• Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas Project (Santos Ltd/ Petronas)
• Queensland Curtis LNG Project ( QGC a BG Group Company)
• Australia Pacific LNG Project (ConocoPhillips/ Origin Energy)
• Gladstone LNG Project (LNG Ltd/ Arrow)
• Sojitz Corporation
• Shell Australia LNG (Shell CSG Australia Pty Ltd)
• Southern Cross LNG
• Energy World Corporation.
A 31% rise in new apartment sales in inner Brisbane has coincided with a $70,000 price increase, according to Colliers International.
There were 273 new unit sales in the September Quarter - up from the June Quarter’s 209 sales.
Colliers’ Brisbane Apartment Report reported the weighted average sale price was $636,190.
About $170 million has changed hands in new residential apartment deals in Brisbane in recent months.
A home construction boom has been predicted after record numbers took out mortgages in September.
Almost 50,000 Australians took out mortgages for purposes other than refinancing, a seasonally adjusted record. About 7,600 were construction loans, the highest in 15 years.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance figures reveal a 73% increase in demand for housing finance from first-time buyers in the September quarter, compared to the same time last year.
Finance approvals for other home buyers increased 17% during the same period.
Loans for the construction or purchase of new homes grew 5.5% for the month, continuing the trend of increases in 12 of the past 13 months.
September quarter construction lending increased 67% compared with levels 12 months ago.
According to mortgage brokers Mortgage Choice, the results show the housing market is steadily improving.
There has been a spike in fixed-rate home loan applications since the interest rate rise earlier this month, according to financial comparison website RateCity.
Fixed home loan applications at www.ratecity.com.au jumped 41% in the week after the official cash rate moved 25 basis points to 3.25%, compared to the previous week.
“This shows there are many Australians out there who are paying a significant premium to fix their home loan rather than saving potentially thousands by comparing rates online,” said Damian Smith, RateCity’s CEO.
For the week ending October 12, 2009, fixed-rate home loan applications made up 22% of all home loan applications on RateCity, compared to only 13% percent during the prior seven days. RateCity also found that fixed loan applications were up 24% for the week ending October 19, compared to the week before the RBA rate rise.
Victoria’s building industry has grown for the second consecutive month, with significant growth in the value of building permits in most regions of the state.
Building Commissioner Tony Arnel says the value of permits issued in August 2009 totalled $1.9 billion, a 12% increase from $1.7 billion in August 2008.
“All regions except Inner Melbourne and Gippsland experienced growth, with rural areas the strongest. North West (up 104%), North Central (94%), South West (50%) and North East (46%) all grew. Total rural building permits issued grew 52%,” Arnel says.
The REIV says Melbourne’s residential vacancy rate rose slightly in August to 1.4%, compared with 1.2% in July. However, data from independent sources suggests the vacancy rates are considerably higher.
The institute says vacancy rates in Melbourne have remained between 1.2% and 1.4% for over 12 months. “The last time we recorded a vacancy rate of over 2% was in December 2005,” it says.
The REIV says the vacancy rate in the inner suburbs has increased from 1.1% to 1.5% but in the outer suburbs there was a tightening from 0.9% to 0.7%.
The claimed vacancy for the inner ring suburbs is particularly in dispute. Data from sqmresearch.com.au suggests many of the postcodes of inner Melbourne have vacancy rates above 4%, with many having vacancies in the 7-9% range. This is confirmed by anecdotal evidence from property professionals in the inner suburbs.
Adelaide’s vacancy rate tightened to 1.3% in August despite reports of a quieter rental market, the Real Estate Institute of South Australia says.
Anecdotal evidence from property managers suggests the falling vacancy rate can be attributed to a smaller number of properties coming onto the market.
No section of the market had a vacancy as high as 2%. The central City market had a vacancy of only 0.44%, while the highest vacancy was in the eastern suburbs (1.7%).
The largest single resources project in Australian history has been officially approved.
Gorgon gas project partners Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil have announced they have made the final investment decision to build the first phase of the Western Australian development at a cost of $43 billion.
The decision was expected, given that the project partners have already handed out contracts worth many billions of dollars for various components of the development.
The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs during peak construction, with an estimated $33 billion to be spent on Australian goods and services.
Chevron says the Gorgon gas field has a resource of 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to power a city of one million people for 800 years.
The Australian economy grew 0.6% in the June Quarter, confirming that the nation has avoided a recession.
The growth rate was three times stronger than that predicted by economists – who have, yet again, got it spectacularly wrong by under-estimating the Australian economy. The concensus forecast among economists was 0.2% growth in the June Quarter.
The June Quarter performance follows 0.4% growth in the March Quarter.
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the national accounts show that Australia has been the best-performing advanced economy in the world. The economy remains weak but is very resilient, he says.
Consumer spending rose 0.8% in the June Quarter while exports improved 1%.
Stand by now while the national media works hard to find a negative slant to put on the nation’s strong economic performance. This, predictably, will be speculation that it will lead to interest rate rises.
Residential building approvals rose 7.7% in July, following a 9.9% rise in June. Approvals for private homes rose for the 7th consecutive month, with 12,048 new homes approved in July, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The July figures included a 35% increase in approvals for apartments.
Economists had predicted a 3.3% increase in July, reinforcing their unerring ability to under-estimate everthing that moves in the Australian economy.
