gold coast building approvals record low 11

Apparently only 11 applications in council for the whole month of August including both residential & commercial...?

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2011/09/07/347105_nick-nichols-opinion.html

New figures show the city is 'dead'
Nick Nichols, business editor | September 7th, 2011

Gold Coast building approvals hit new lows. SHUT the doors, we're no longer in business.

The latest building approval figures for the Gold Coast show this city is well and truly dead.

I had to pick myself up after viewing the August data which showed a paltry 11 approvals either completed, started or in progress across the city during the month.

What's worse, these figures include commercial buildings as well as homes.

To put this into perspective, dry and dusty Dubbo in the NSW western plains is a boom town compared to the Coast.

The city, with a population of 41,000, managed to approve 154 homes in the 12 months to the end of June -- an average of about 13 homes a month, or half the previous year's levels.

The Gold Coast, with a population of 530,000, approved only six homes in August, down from 26 in July with the year-to-date figures around a quarter of last year's levels.
It has to be the worst monthly figure on record, and one our sitting councillors are ignoring or at least clumsily trying to defend.

But the result is indefensible. It is an embarrassment that should anger every Gold Coaster who earns a living from this city.

The property industry has been warning of this sort of calamity for years and now that it has come to fruition, the council should be bending over backwards to sort out the mess.

The extent of the building downturn these days has more to do with council mismanagement than the financial crisis.

Building approval figures have been in rapid decline for most of this calendar year, accelerating over the past three months to levels that are better suited to a backwater village than a vibrant city by the sea.

If these figures were reflected nationally, the Reserve Bank would have dropped its pants on interest rates months ago.

The figures are a broad reflection of a total loss of confidence in the city and particularly the difficulty that developers are encountering in their dealings with the city council. It was only last week that the Housing Industry Association warned the Coast could expect a shortage of about 8000 homes by 2020 at the current rate of development.

The latest building figures are not due to a downturn in demand.

It is a direct reflection of how a bloated bureaucracy encouraged by a group of dysfunctional councillors has decimated the most important industry to this city.

The Bulletin had previously reported that long-time developers were abandoning the Coast in favour of friendlier shores.

It is now apparent that these were not idle threats.

The figures prove it -- and if you think they couldn't get any worse, think again. After starting the year around 200 a month and falling to 11, who is to say zero building approvals are not possible?

In the current climate, ratepayers have a right to ask one burning question: How much of our money is the council wasting on a clearly idle planning department?

Well, according to property sources, the council is already on to it by diverting more seasoned planning officers to its litigation department.

That's where the council does its best work -- blindly locking up development applications in court for years at a time.

I would say, it's officially time to be alarmed.