The Valuer-General has released South Australian property values for 2019/20, showing capital values for all South Australian properties increased on average 4.79 per cent last financial year, while site values rose on average 6.16 cent. Rural properties recorded the highest growth across all land use categories, with an average 11.26 per cent capital value increase. As a result, Non Metro areas posted a higher average capital value rise across all properties than their metropolitan counterparts, with 5.67 per cent compared to 4.52 per cent. Despite this, Metro properties saw higher average value rises in res... more

More construction professionals are expected to receive a pay rise this year than last, but a new report by employment agency, Hays, indicates it will be a less significant increase than they hoped for... According to the FY 2019/20 Hays Salary Guide, based on a survey of more than 3,400 organisations, 88 per cent of construction, engineering and property industry employers will increase salaries in their next review, up from 84 per cent who did so in their last review. However, the value of these increases will fall. 54 per cent intend to raise salaries at the lower level of 3 per cent or less, up from... more

The shortlist for the 16th annual Australian Interior Design Awards has been revealed. Delivered by the Design Institute of Australia and Architecture Media’s Artichoke magazine, the Australian Interior Design Awards are Australia’s leading awards program for design excellence. Each year the awards aim to celebrate innovation and ingenuity in interior design across the residential, public and commercial sectors. The 2019 Australian Interior Design Awards gathered a large volume of entries across seven categories from Australian practices, with projects featured both locally and internationally. A... more

New findings from market research firm, ACA Research, commissioned by construction project management software company, Procore Technologies Inc., display a positive outlook for technology’s impact on the Australian construction industry while highlighting a concern for a widening skills gap. The report, ‘How We Build Now – Tracking Technology in Construction 2019’, states that 86 per cent of construction industry respondents think increasing technology usage is an important means of improving productivity, but an existing skills gap could prove to be an issue as 92 per cent of respondents have stated... more

Australia’s first engineered timber office, International House Sydney, has been awarded the nation’s most prestigious property prize – the Rider Levett Bucknall Australian Development of the Year. Lendlease was presented with the coveted honour at the Property Council of Australia (PCA)/ Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) Innovation and Excellence Awards in Sydney last Friday. Chief Executive of the PCA, Ken Morrison, said that International House is not only a construction industry ‘game changer’, but that it highlights how innovative sustainable design is also a crowd pleaser that can enhance the fab... more

Sydney has just been deemed Australia’s most expensive city for construction, according to a new global research report by leading design and consultancy firm for natural and built assets, Arcadis. Each year Arcadis’ International Construction Costs report is developed based on industry-leading market knowledge and analysis. The report details the relative cost of construction in 100 of the world’s leading cities. Fifty new cities were added to the 2019 report, including Perth, making it the largest comparison of its kind. This year New York topped the rankings as the world’s most expensive c... more

It's clear that many cities across the globe are stepping up to meet the challenge of climate change, and landscape architecture is well placed to be the driving force behind this transformation. In the 2019 edition of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture (AILA) Victorian Awards program, submissions have highlighted how Melbourne and regional Victoria can be greener, more sustainable, inclusive and vibrant. Adrian Gray, President, Victorian Chapter of the AILA, said that this year the Victorian Chapter of AILA has once again received a record number of submissions to the annual AILA Victorian... more