RAYMOND Terrace isn’t just a sleepy service town.
Port Stephens Council and Commercial Collective identifies the area as a growing market ripe for investments and a projected population growth of more than 5,400 people in the next 20 years.
To explore the future opportunities that await Raymond Terrace, Port Stephens Council and Commercial Collective hosted an online Raymond Terrace Investor event, which brought together more than 200 attendees eager to hear about market insights and opportunities.
Port Stephens Mayor Leah Anderson said that Council wanted Raymond Terrace to “rise from the ashes,” and that she believed Raymond Terrace had the capacity to grow into a vibrant and connected regional centre.
Dane Crawford, CEO of Commercial Collective, said he believed one of the biggest features that Raymond Terrace had to attract investors was its affordability, with the average house price being 30 per cent lower when compared to Newcastle.
“We’ve got a lot of outside interest from Sydney to move into the regional areas,” said Dane Crawford, CEO of Commercial Collective.
“I believe that there will be a real demand in the future for high density and medium density housing.”
Attendees to the event also heard that affordability alone wasn’t enough to attract investments, and that was where major recent infrastructure projects came into play.
One example cited the M1 Pacific Motorway extension, which is expected to improve the existing bottleneck in the industrial and logistics corridor that includes Tomago, Heatherbrae, and the newly expanded Williamtown Airport.
“The combination of connectivity, affordability, and growth momentum creates a really strong investment opportunity,” said Steven Peart, Director of Community Futures at Port Stephens Council.
The event panellists answered many common questions from investors and discussed how Council was interested in cooperating with private interests to obtain results for the community.
“Our message to industry is quite simple,” Mr Peart said.
“Council wants to work collaboratively to help good projects get delivered fast.”
Bob Hawes, CEO of Business Hunter, outlined what he believed would be the main future opportunities in the area.
“There’s obvious ones, like investments in the defence, education, housing, and visitors industry,” Mr Hawes said, “but also the rehabilitation and reuse of mining sites, and the renewables and energy sector.
“The Hunter Region is in a very fortunate position. It’s a very diversified economy; it doesn’t rely on just one sector to drive it along.”
By Nico LOMBARDO
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