South-East Queensland Ripe for Investment, Challenges Remain: Don O’Rorke

Thirty years ago, Consolidated Properties Group decided to throw an end-of-financial-year party to thank its collaborators, contractors and team. 

It has since grown into a multi-day agenda of events bringing together the property, construction and investment industries to celebrate one of Australia’s best growth stories. 

There were more than 1000 attendees across the AICC property lunch, a gala cocktail party—delivered in partnership with Brisbane Economic Development Agency, Hutchinson Builders and The Urban Developer—and private briefings with key political leaders. 

The overwhelming message was South-East Queensland is open for business and the place to “get the job done”, according to Consolidated Properties Group chief executive Don O’Rorke. 

“We invited the capital providers from all around the country and some offshore to Brisbane to participate in those three events so that they get a flavour of what’s happening in Brisbane,” O’Rorke said. 

“So this year’s event was really well attended by the capital providers.

▲ Consolidated Properties Group chief executive Don O’Rorke, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie, Hutchinson Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson and Hutchinson Builders director Jack Hutchinson Jnr.

“And the overriding feeling was one of optimism and excitement about what’s happening in Brisbane. 

“Brisbane is now the number two capital location, only behind Sydney. We’ve overtaken Melbourne. And that was really evident in the comments that came out with the various capital providers over those few days.”

O’Rorke told The Urban Developer there were two key megatrends shaping Brisbane’s growth narrative: sustained population growth and the momentum created by the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games for infrastructure development. 

“Brisbane City Council is the largest and best-resourced LGA in the country,” O’Rorke said. 

“And what that means is that it processes development applications in a really prompt fashion.

“It recently approved a $1-billion office project by JGL on the Stock Exchange site in Brisbane.

“SEQ is the growth area in Australia, and to a certain degree South East Asia, but with that comes growth pains.”

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O’Rorke said building capacity and productivity were key challenges in South-East Queensland. 

“We’ve got to get better at both of those,” he said. 

“In terms of the capacity piece, there’s really only two ways of doing it. One is organic growth, which is a slow burn, just more apprentices.

“The second is freeing up the ability of labour to come either in from international destinations or from markets where things aren’t working as well as they are in Brisbane.

“Construction labour coming up from Melbourne, for instance. 

Importing capacity is the quick fix for the capacity issue.”

O’Rorke said he was hopeful of fewer rain events in the coming years, with wet weather largely drowning SEQ’s on-site productivity.

He also acknowledged that enterprise bargaining agreements needed to be addressed and, while the CFMEU was not entirely responsible for lagging productivity, it “should shoulder some responsibility”.