Sunset over Melbourne

Let's end this week with sunset in Melbourne's CBD.


This video was made in December 2009 by Givemeabrain and the YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9G_lrv4d_8 





Enjoy !






Francesco

Melbourne Wins on Liveability (Again)

In the never ending competition between Melbourne and Sydney, Melbourne wins another round.

The annual survey of world cities Liveability by the Economist Intelligence Unit have just been released and Melbourne claims second place whilst Sydney was in seventh place.

Vancouver topped the list of the world's most liveable cities for the fifth straight year.  The top 10 rankings are as follows.

1. Vancouver, Canada

2. Melbourne, Australia

3. Vienna, Austria

4. Toronto, Canada

5. Calgary, Canada

6. Helsinki, Finland

7. Sydney, Australia

8. (equal) Perth, Australia

8. (equal) Adelaide, Australia

10. Auckland, New Zealand

And, interestingly some of the world best know cities are well down the rankings as follows.

16th - Paris

18th - Tokyo

31st - Hong Kong

44th - Los Angeles

53rd - London

56th -  New York

72nd - Beijing

The Economist report says that "Mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion".  That’s an interesting observation in the context of increasing densities in almost all cities and a warning that those increases need to be managed carefully to preserve liveability.

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, was the worst rated city just below the Bangladesh, capital of Dhaka.

The Economist Intelligence Unit survey ranks cities based on 30 factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety.

So, congratulations Melbourne.  


At least Sydney beat Adelaide and Perth (but only just).

Francesco …

Sunset over Melbourne

Another nice way to end the week is to watch the sunset.

So here's a great video of the sun setting over the Melbourne cityscape made by John McLovin.  The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUu2nv5hypc



Enjoy.


Francesco ...

Strata Frenzy in Melbourne

It seems that despite a quiet strata development market around Australia Melbourne is entering the frenzy stage.

According to a recent article in the SMH Domain by Simon Johanson called Housing Shortages Fuel Apartment Boom there’s “a building boom in Melbourne's apartment market and it is being driven by changing lifestyles, housing shortages and overseas investors.

Some examples of the frenzy include –

• Several ultra-tall apartment buildings (including Grocon’s 90-storey skyscraper on the former Carlton Brewery site
• 32 of 94 large residential projects planned for the CBD and inner city moved to the construction phase in the past 18 months
• A 586-apartment building beside the Yarra in Richmond  begins construction soon
• Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show a rise of 8.9 per cent in Victoria in the June quarter this year
• More than $5.5 billion of multi-density construction started in Victoria last financial year (mostly in Melbourne) compared with $1.3 billion the year before
• New projects in 2010  had (on average) 150 apartments, whilst in 2008 they had just 61

So, in Melbourne there’s a lot of new apartments being built … and they’re big.

See you in the new Melbourne strata gold rush.

Francesco …

Move over Power Stations … Here come some more Apartments !

Going green is all we ever hear these days so it’s nice to see strata doing it’s bit in Melbourne to help.

On the corner of Lonsdale and Spencer Streets in Melbourne there’s an old power station and it’s chimney.  An eyesore and a reminder of less environmentally conscious times, the site has now been acquired by Far East Consortium who propose a large scale residential redevelopment.

Dubbed Upper West Side by the Hong Kong-based developer, it plans for 2500 apartments ranging from studios to one and two-bedroom apartments in 4 towers of between 31 and 50 storeys and a low-rise building. The development will also have up to 60 retail spaces.

The site houses a heritage-listed cast-iron water tank built in 1889 and the developer has agreed to preserve two other original buildings along the Spencer Street border.

The project is one of the last large-scale city developments awaiting ministerial approval before new planning arrangements announced a few months ago take effect.  Apparently there are applications for CBD developments of more than 25,000 square metres going before a panel comprising government and City of Melbourne representatives, which will in turn advise the minister.

So far an application to build a ''display home/marketing suite'' was issued by the City of Melbourne in February.

So, if you want to live on an old power station head down Lonsdale Street.

Francesco …