Building Homes Key to Coast
THE head of the Queensland Investment Corporation has called on the Gold Coast City Council and the State Government to approve more dwellings to drive population growth. 
 
Speaking at the Urban Development Institute of Australia lunch yesterday, QIC chief Dr Doug McTaggart said the future of the company's Gold Coast holdings looked 'very promising'. 
 
QIC, which has a $65 billion portfolio, operates the Robina Town Centre site and is a joint venture partner with Westfield in the Coomera Town Centre. 
Dr McTaggart said he was pleased with the success of the Robina site but would not discuss any plans to develop neighbouring land. 
 
"Robina has proven to be a fabulous investment for QIC," he said. 
 
"I can't talk about future plans on the site but we do have land in the area." 
 
Dr McTaggart told the 110 developers that the Gold Coast faced some serious population growth issues. 
 
"One of the key issues is population growth and the delivery of the infrastructure and industry required to drive the economy," he said. 
 
Dr McTaggart said there was no quick fix for Coast developers who have struggled since the onset of the global financial crisis. 
 
He said Coomera would play a key role in the Coast's prosperity. 
Dr McTaggart said too much had been made of government stimulus packages last year. 
 
"We usually overstate the impact of government spending. Other forms of spending will fill the gap," he said. 
 
"Despite people going on and on about China saving the world, the fact is we do not know what they're doing." 
 
Dr McTaggart said it 'was complete rubbish' to say that China would lead the world into prosperity. 
 
"US consumers still outnumber any other country," he said. 
 
"Take a look at the average US household. 
 
"A US household accounts for 20 per cent output compared to a Chinese household, which accounts for 3 to 4 per cent."

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