"I certainly don't see a bubble": property veteran Lang Walker

Alistair WalshDecember 7, 2020

Property developer Lang Walker sees no sign of a property bubble in the east coast capitals and says predictions of a bubble are incorrect and annoying.

"I don't think any of those markets are ever going to get to be a bubble for varying reasons," Walker told The Weekend Australian.

"Infrastructure costs in Brisbane, in Sydney the planning (restrictions) and pent-up demand and Melbourne probably has gone through the worst of what might have been a drastic situation before, but that seems to be working through the pipeline.

"I certainly don't see a bubble."

He said those predicting a bubble risk prompting the Reserve Bank of Australia into action.

"The Reserve Bank might say 'Oh my god, we better put up interest rates'," Walker says.

"The only reason that a lot of these sales are coming through now is the state governments have put incentives in place with stamp duty, breaks for first-home buyers."

He says growth in the market will come from bargain one-bedroom plus study, or two-bedroom, apartments.

"The three-bedroom and expensive stock in all those cities is very, very slow," Walker says. "It's not the luxury end that's really going, it's just the budget end, the affordable end."

The president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, Peter Bushby, said last week recent house price rises are not indicative of an Australia-wide price bubble.

The Walker Corporation, of which Walker is the executive chairman, has 12 office towers in some phase of development, 25,000 lots of land and four industrial estates.

The company will begin construction of the 277-unit Westmark residential towers in Brisbane’s Milton next year.

It is currently developing the $400 million Main Drive Kew development on the former Kew Cottages site in Melbourne.

It is selling sites at its 53 hectare Appin Valley development in Appin NSW, its 400 lot Wallis Creek development in Gillieston Heights NSW, its 625 lot Bluestone Mt Barker development in South Australia, its 918 lot Forest Springs development Gladstone , its 3000 lot Banksia Grove development in Perth, its 500+ lot North Sapphire Beach development in NSW, its Reflections Barlings Beach development in NSW, and its Buckland Park Development in Adelaide.

Its commercial projects include Melbourne’s Collins Square commercial development, Brisbane’s 150 Charlotte Street, Sydney’s 12 O’Connell Street, Sydney’s 66 Hunter Street, Melbourne Axis development at South Morang and Canberra’s Northbourne Square.

It also has industrial estates in Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Gladstone.

Alistair Walsh

Deutsche Welle online reporter

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