Energy transition, housing and land shortages and Newcastle Airport were among the challenges and opportunities discussed at a lunch about what's ahead for the Hunter this year.
The Property Council of Australia held its Hunter Outlook 2023 lunch on Friday, where attendees heard from industry representatives about the region's position.
University of Newcastle's Institute of Regional Futures research programs director Amanda Wetzel said the institute had introduced research called Regions Matter, which surveyed more than 3000 households across Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and 18 regional areas.
"It allows us to understand what the community sentiments are on major agenda setting issues like the importance of place, belonging, reasons for moving or staying, and hopes or fears about the future," she said.
It found more than 60 per cent of Hunter people were willing to trade off jobs to protect the environment, while most people felt the regions were getting a "raw deal", with that sentiment higher outside capital cities.
Colliers director of research Luke Crawford also touched on the relationship between cities and regions, saying Sydney's rental vacancy rate of two per cent was causing "spillover demand" in Newcastle. He said the Hunter was also struggling with land shortages.
"We've done some analysis and between now and the next two years, there's only 34 hectares that will become available across the Hunter," he said. "If you match that against demand... if all the inquiry in the market is met that will take up over 100 hectares of land."
Newcastle Airport property development manager Robert Green spoke about the airport expansion and said while they were talking to a number of "primes" (multinational defence companies), it was hard to compete for them.
"When we're talking to primes, we often hear about the incentives that other states are putting forward to try to get the primes to move to their state," he said. "We hear rumours of offers in the hundreds of millions. NSW is in the tens of millions. Putting us on a level playing playing field with the other states would be a wonderful thing."
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Join the discussion in the comment section below.
Find out how to register or become a subscriber here.
