What Geelong needs to build to cater for booming population

Geelong’s population growth is increasing more rapidly than Melbourne and regional Victoria but housing is only one of the challenges facing the city.

A new report from real estate services firm CBRE shows what and how much the city must build to cater for another 87,000 people forecast to be living in the city by 2034.

Speaking at the opening of CBRE’s Geelong office in the former Geelong Protestant Hall renovated by owner Bill Votsaris, CBRE head of retail and alternatives research Kate Bailey said the population influx was dominated by millennials who were making an immediate impact on the local economy.

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CBRE executive managing director Victoria Jarrod Frazer, left, Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj and CBRE Head of Retail and Alternatives Research Kate Bailey spoke at the opening of CBRE’s Geelong office in Yarra St.

The report shows how the growth would fuel increased demand for commercial infrastructure across retail, office developments and industrial space.

“The population in Geelong is expected to increase just shy of 30 per cent over the next 10 years,” Ms Bailey said.

“At the same time 158 projected valued at over $10m, worth just shy of $15b are underway – there’s a huge number of new local jobs – a lot is happening.”

Geelong’s 3 per cent annual population growth is outstripping Melbourne with the housing affordability proposition driving a lot of people to Geelong, Ms Bailey said.

“As a result we’re actually driving a lot of that millennial group into Geelong – particularly those in their late 20s to early 40s.

Geelong’s CBD could house 25,000 people Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said.

“That’s the group that’s seen out there buying dinner, going to cafes. It’s been a real boon for the local economy that we’re attracting the right people in to the market.”

On top of housing supply, Ms Bailey said there’s an undersupply of commercial property space, particularly serviced land for the industrial and logistics sector.

“So 390,000sq m of new logistics space is going to be needed to accommodate this growth. Office and retail is just shy of 70,000sq m.

“But on top of that we need hotel space, hospital space and Geelong’s mid-level employers to attract a lot of this growth and lot of this investment.”

The report also said the city needed 285 more hospital beds, 995 hotel rooms and 36,330 residential units.

Yale Place, at 16 Gheringhap St, Geelong, is an office development from Livv Developments. It has 13 storeys and will include a rooftop bar and restaurant.

The local economy is growing at twice the pace of the Victorian economy, Ms Bailey said, with job creation running at three times the rate of population growth.

“We are seeing a significant number of people move to Geelong, driving that demand,” she said.

“But at the same time, it’s really acting as a hub – pulling people in to commuting from Melbourne. They’re coming down to WorkSafe, as well as from Ballarat and parts of regional Victoria.”

CBRE executive managing director Victoria Jarrod Frazer said the population growth and economic strength were reasons the firm has opened an office in Geelong.

“Geelong’s economic growth has outpaced both Victoria and Australia over the past five years,” he said.

Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said Geelong needed to “build, baby build” to accommodate the predicted population growth.

Artist’s impression of a Committee for Geelong vision for redeveloping Market Square in the Geelong CBD shows a 5000sq m green space, apartment towers with several heritage buildings retained.

Mr Kontelj said there are challenges to greenfields development as well as asset renewals needed to accommodate the huge housing target imposed on Geelong.

“Geelong’s population is expected to grow to some 500,000 by 2050, so you can see we are really going to grow a significant amount year upon year.”

Mr Kontelj said Market Square was the epicentre of where the development needs to occur in the CBD, while the council was seeking to understand the barriers the development industry is facing to start construction of an increasing number of stalled permit-approved projects.

“At the moment we have some 2500 people living in the CBD. We need to increase that ten-fold to 25,000 people living in this precinct, so we’re going to have to go up.”