Latest news with #StretchKontelj
Sydney Morning Herald
11-08-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Magic number': How Stretch hopes to attract people to his ‘unicorn' town
Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj is eager for the region's population to hit the 'magic number' of 400,000. The Victorian city is one of several places that the country's oldest bank, Westpac, argues should be among 10 in regional Australia identified by the government as ripe for investment and growth. Regional centres, including Cairns, Wagga Wagga and Bunbury-Busselton, are also on the list of places that could collectively absorb the target of an additional 1 million people by 2032. 'We have an opportunity for regional Australia to reclaim its place as the driver of national prosperity and productivity,' the bank's submission to this month's economic roundtable reads. 'The population of our capital cities is growing twice as fast as regional Australia, and they are struggling under the demands.' In 2023-24, the population of Australia's capital cities grew by nearly 428,000 people, or 2.4 per cent, compared with 113,800, or 1.3 per cent, in the regions. Westpac argued that while capital cities like Sydney are facing housing supply and affordability constraints, regional and remote Australia was struggling with the need to maintain density to make services such as banking financially viable. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has advocated for greater focus on decentralisation to the regions, arguing in 2017 that more public servants should be shifted out of Canberra. Kontelj said Geelong, with its relatively young population of more than 300,000 people, a functioning port, an international airport and a university, was ripe for development and growth.
The Age
11-08-2025
- Business
- The Age
‘Magic number': How Stretch hopes to attract people to his ‘unicorn' town
Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj is eager for the region's population to hit the 'magic number' of 400,000. The Victorian city is one of several places that the country's oldest bank, Westpac, argues should be among 10 in regional Australia identified by the government as ripe for investment and growth. Regional centres, including Cairns, Wagga Wagga and Bunbury-Busselton, are also on the list of places that could collectively absorb the target of an additional 1 million people by 2032. 'We have an opportunity for regional Australia to reclaim its place as the driver of national prosperity and productivity,' the bank's submission to this month's economic roundtable reads. 'The population of our capital cities is growing twice as fast as regional Australia, and they are struggling under the demands.' In 2023-24, the population of Australia's capital cities grew by nearly 428,000 people, or 2.4 per cent, compared with 113,800, or 1.3 per cent, in the regions. Westpac argued that while capital cities like Sydney are facing housing supply and affordability constraints, regional and remote Australia was struggling with the need to maintain density to make services such as banking financially viable. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has advocated for greater focus on decentralisation to the regions, arguing in 2017 that more public servants should be shifted out of Canberra. Kontelj said Geelong, with its relatively young population of more than 300,000 people, a functioning port, an international airport and a university, was ripe for development and growth.
News.com.au
16-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Queens Park or Highton: Can a suburb's name raise home prices
Changing the name of a suburb can make the locals feel good about where they live, but can it change property prices? The perennial question to rename a part of Highton to Queens Park to reflect its widely-recognised locality has bubbled up again when Geelong councillors Eddy and Stretch Kontelj co-signed a letter to Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny requesting her support for Geelong council to commence public consultation on the locally-popular proposal. It's not the first suburb to change, with Whittington name dropped south of Townsend Rd in favour of St Albans Park as residential development progressed in the 1990s, Collendina disappearing at Ocean Grove, Newtown swallowing up working class Chilwell, and Rippleside expanded the end a bayside anomaly for North Geelong. Geelong buyers advocate Tony Slack said changing the name to Queens Park would result in higher house prices, but it won't happen overnight. 'It makes them a little bit more exclusive,' Mr Slack said. 'I couldn't see it happening overnight but in the short to medium term perhaps. Mr Slack, who was a real estate agent for 36 years, said people sought homes in that pocket for the riverside position and quality of the houses. 'Before we would be advertising in the Geelong Advertiser and would be referring to Highton/Queens Park – we always wanted to differentiate that part of Highton.' Highton's median house price of $875,000 is among the 10 most expensive in Geelong, according to PropTrack. But analysis of Cotality sales data for houses shows higher property values in the Queens Park pocket, with a $1.1m median house price. Queens Park stretches from the single-lane Queens Park Bridge connecting Newtown to the Montpellier Service Basins straddling Scenic Rd. Prices have held up better in Queens Park, with a 3.6 per cent rise over 12 months, compared to an overall 4.8 per cent decline across Highton. Though capital growth is level pegging at 25 per cent over five years, a $222,000 gain was recorded since 2020 in the Queens Park pocket, compared to $175,000 across the entire suburb. Barry Plant Geelong agent Kieron Hunter said changing the name would underline the exclusivity of the area, which has about 600 homes. 'It's a little bit in some ways like Manifold Heights. Obviously, a really small pocket, probably one of the smaller suburbs for mine and it gets that exclusivity.' Manifold Heights has recently topped the city's house prices, reaching $1.23m to overtake Newtown at $1.1m. Whitford agent Heidi Trempel said it was the reverse when Chilwell was renamed Newtown to shake off the working class heritage. Chilwell's old workers' cottages sat at the bottom of the hill, while the expensive homes were at the top in Newtown. 'The gap is closing because anywhere where there's cafes and development, like from a cafe shopping strip, that's really good for that little pocket,' Ms Trempel said. 'The younger ones, who potentially come from outside of Geelong, love the Chilwell zone.' And five bayside streets of North Geelong also increased in buyers' estimation, Ms Trempel said, when the area, widely known locally as St Helens but lined with many timber workers cottages, was renamed Rippleside. 'I grew up knowing it as North Geelong and St Helens and all of the sudden it turned into Rippleside and everyone from Melbourne thought, 'oh, Rippleside',' she said. 'There's a real mixture of properties in that little pocket and I do think Rippleside gives it that bayside feel and that's why people who want to be bayside love that Rippleside name.'
News.com.au
28-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
What Geelong needs to build to support booming population
Geelong has been crowned the king of regional Australia but local leaders say the city's greatest challenges lie ahead. As a new Regional Australia Institute report shows one in 10 people moving to the country settled in Geelong in the year to March 2025, Victoria's second city is confronting the challenge of housing that level of growth in the future. The Regional Movers Index saw Geelong record a 9.3 per cent share of net internal migration, overtaking the Sunshine Coast. Adding the Surf Coast, Queenscliff and Golden Plains council areas pushes the region's intake to almost 11 per cent. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Geelong is a world-class city, a fact many people from Melbourne only discovered since the pandemic, but the challenge was accommodating growth without wrecking the city's advantages. 'Geelong is really so much better than even I think we all appreciate,' Mr Marles said. 'It's the north-facing bay, the proximity to the Surf Coast, its really wonderful amenity. It's a fantastic community and you've got the Bellarine Peninsula with all those amazing views.' Geelong major Stretch Kontelj said the figures highlight the challenge of planning for a future population of 500,000, and a state government target to build 128,600 new homes by 2050. 'I've said consistently that it's managing success. Geelong is the fastest-growing region in Australia and these numbers are a testament to that,' Mr Kontelj said. 'The challenges are accommodating all those new arrivals, whether it's in greenfield development, or urban infill. 'You've got the legacy assets that we need to renew, such as the (100-year-old) stormwater drains and roads and other infrastructure to accommodate that.' That's a $500m bill facing Geelong, Mr Kontelj said. 'The biggest challenge is going to be transport. Working out how to move people north, south, east and west and through the city because the road network is getting more congested.' G21 chief executive officer Giulia Baggio said transport and housing need to be 'turbo-charged'. A metro-style transport system including local and linear bus routes taking people where they want to go, along with a shuttle increasing trains running between Waurn Ponds and Lara would help move people, as G21 modelling shows the city's roads would come to a standstill by 2041, if nothing is done. Two bus reviews identified in the budget for Geelong and the Bellarine 'can't come soon enough', she said. Building more apartments around the CBD would reactivate the city's heart and deliver more affordable housing, she said, but means renewing the ageing network of sewers and drains to cope with the additional pressure. 'We need federal help to activate that, because we know the state government is cash-strapped,' Ms Baggio said. 'The federal government has got a big mandate on housing, which is a very big issue right across the country. Everyone's got to put their shoulder to the wheel.' Urbis Geelong director Nat Anson said the city needs to identify activity centres that provide well-connected apartments and townhouses as well as continuing a strong supply of greenfield housing. 'A strong infrastructure pipeline is the biggest threat to delivering 'good growth' – new and upgraded transport assets including Avalon Station, Bellarine Link, Torquay transit corridor and a renewed Geelong Station will be vital to the city's future success,' Mr Anson said. Investing in alternative water, an open space network, arts and cultural assets and central Geelong underpins the city's existing value proposition that is so attractive to future residents, he said. Mr Marles said the city's health networks, including Barwon Health, St John of God and Epworth hospitals, would need to keep pace, but growth also offered economic opportunities. 'GMHBA Stadium is the biggest piece of sporting infrastructure in regional Australia, it underpins the biggest sporting club in regional Australia and the ability to continue to have that is underpinned by the growth in the region,' he said. 'The future development of Avalon Airport as an industrial precinct is happening, but developing it as an airport will underpin the population growth around this region.' Mr Marles said the benefit of being a smaller city was the ability to achieve a higher degree of co-operation between the three tiers of government. Though rising blue and white collar jobs – from advanced manufacturing to the businesses surrounding the head offices of NDIA, WorkSafe, TAC and Cotton On – was behind the growth, lifestyle was the real drawcard, McGrath Geelong director David Cortous said. 'It's a more affordable lifestyle here – execs and professional people can still pull the same type of income and probably live a bit more affordably,' Mr Cortous said. Property investors are seeing the benefits again, with Sydney buyers snapping up more suburban homes, spurred on by low prices and the opportunity for growth and rental demand. Geelong's $720,000 median house price is still 4 per cent down year on year but indicators show the city has passed the bottom of the market. 'We're just starting to see the needle move with a couple of interest rate cuts and more migration,' Mr Cortous said, referring to more people looking at properties, including up to 30 per cent out-of-town buyers. But there are growing pains, such as development pressures and the high cost of building, higher property taxes and competition for tradies with the state government massive projects in Melbourne.
