From the Mayor’s desk: investor forum and future of Raymond Terrace

RAYMOND Terrace is changing fast.

Our town is experiencing a major surge in development, backed by the multibillion-dollar M1 Pacific Motorway extension and the expansion of Newcastle Airport nearby.

While these changes bring great opportunities, they also add to existing pressures, making it harder for local families

to find a rental or buy a home.

In the face of these changes, our job is to plan for our community, with our community.

To ensure we deliver the needed improvements, upgrades, and houses, we have been developing our new Raymond Terrace Place Plan in parallel with this growth.

Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas at our recent workshops and pop-up stalls.

Your message was clear: you want a cleaner, safer, and more welcoming town centre.

Now, we must balance all these needs at once.

Raymond Terrace is expected to grow by over 5,400 people by 2041, and we have set a target to deliver more than

2,500 new homes to support them.

Our town has plenty of room to grow, and we can meet this demand through new townhouses, affordable rental options, and projects that create local jobs.

The Place Plan will provide us with a community-led roadmap to ensure Raymond Terrace becomes a safe, vibrant, and connected riverside centre.

To help navigate these challenges, we are collaborating with real estate experts Commercial Collective to host an online Investor Forum on Tuesday 2 June 2026.

We’re inviting developers, housing providers, and industry stakeholders to get the latest market data and a direct look at the future of Raymond Terrace.

By attracting the right kind of investment, we can turn the community’s vision into reality, bringing in the diverse housing, new businesses, and revitalised spaces our town needs to thrive.

This forum is an important first step toward sharing our long-term community vision with builders and investors.

We want to show the wider market why Raymond Terrace is the perfect place to invest, look closely at our housing supply, and hear directly from the market about what it takes to invest here.

We’ve made a start on a roadmap for our town, and we’re determined to use the

growth around us to help build it.

This is about ensuring Raymond Terrace doesn’t just watch from the sidelines, but actively takes the lead in building a better future for everyone who lives here.

By Port Stephens Mayor Leah ANDERSON