More than 120 Australian-Chinese business people visited Wollongong on Friday but twice as many potential investors wanted to come. The group was led by The Property Investor Alliance project listing executive William Takataka who said there was enough interest from Chinese-Australians that he could fill five bus loads next time.
Member for Keira Ryan Park welcomed the large group to what he described as the best city in Australia. And gave an inspiring talk about Wollongong was a great place to do business.
“We have a big pool of investors. The growth of Sydney is driven by some of our investors. And we are looking at coming to Wollongong to see how we can improve the growth and perhaps introduce our investors to another area. We chose to come to Wollongong because we know some of our developers are looking to buy in Wollongong,” Mr Takataka said.
Peter Taranto Real Estate director licensee Michael Schlegel said the alliance made the approach. “They are mostly Australian-Chinese business people. And they have obviously got other developers wanting to come down to see what Wollongong is all about. They want to look at what they can actually do..in regards to developments,” he said.
Mr Schlegel said developments happening in the Corrimal and Crown St area were examples of the kind of opportunities that exist. “Because of those some of the developers in Sydney want to come down and look at what Wollongong is all about. We want them involved. As other industry starts to decline we need more tourism and infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Schlegel said he was confident about the future because there was definitely a resurgence in the property market in Wollongong. “In all fairness this has been happening for the last two to three years. Peter Taranto Real Estate as a company has been heavily involved in development for the last 20 years. But what we are proud of more than anything else is we have been encouraging developers...who are originally from Sydney and from Brisbane.”
Mr Schlegel said there were several reasons why outside investors and developers were starting to get heavily involved and want to spend money in Wollongong. The main reason is they can see the potential of this market as a desirable place to live and retire. “I have just spoken to another group who have purchased a site on Loftus St who are going to do a 46 unit development there..next to the hospital. There is all this diversity coming in. But it is not just investors. We are noticing a trend with the Baby Boomers going into retirement. A lot of people don’t want to go into nursing homes or retirement villages. They want to get more central to Wollongong.
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