Regional CRE
Last week we were in Melbourne and attended the CoreNet State of the Regions event. Thank you to KPMG and Leonie Hicks, CoreNet’s Program Chair, for hosting a great event with guest speakers, Terry Rownsley and Matt Fletcher of KPMG.
Terry and Matt highlighted how well regional Australia is going, and that its future looks really bright. In fact, regional Victoria appears to be doing better than Greater Melbourne – with manufacturing thriving, especially in hubs like Geelong. Growth is higher, unemployment is lower, and the sense of community is a huge drawcard.
The biggest issue is the shortage of housing required to house the talent that is needed to keep the regions growing.
It was a timely event as the next morning, a client and I set out for an 8 hour drive in regional Victoria looking for a site. There is a lot of infrastructure in the regions but not always where you want it. It can be difficult to find the best possible site that satisfies your parameters. It’s a lot harder than looking for an office or industrial facility in the capital cities.
We love working on regional projects as site visits require road trips, allow for some fresh air, and give us a chance to escape the city rat race. Perhaps that is why we have done a lot of work in regional Australia; regional offices, earth stations and ground stations to name a few.
For years, regional CRE has been the forgotten component of major CRE portfolios because of size and cost relative to the larger facilities in the capital cities. However, it is just as important to the regional community as HQ is to the capital city.
Our road trip gave us a deeper understanding of how much regional Australia contributes, and why it deserves just as much attention as our capital cities.
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