We recently hosted a networking event at the Management for Design office here in Melbourne — An insider’s view of the property market. We were very fortunate to be joined by our guest speaker Andrew Leoncelli, industry leading Victorian Managing Director of CBRE.

Andrew is currently managing several of Melbourne’s highest profile and exciting residential projects including Australia 108. An industry leading, highly capable professional, he single-handedly established the Residential Projects business for CBRE in Victoria in 2010. Andrew has extensive experience with several large listed domestic developer clients as well as some of Asia’s largest residential developers from Singapore, Malaysia and mainland China.
During the evening, Andrew shared his insights into the procurement process, engaging the design team, the intricacies of collaboration and marketing, and delivering the “highest residences in the southern hemisphere” — not forgetting what’s planned!

We walked away with a greater understanding of the current and predicted property markets. Andrew covered the relationship between migration patterns in Victoria and the average house price as well as the key drivers for international interest in Melbourne property. Tellingly, 11 years ago there were only 5 suburbs in Melbourne with a median house price over $1 million and as of 2016 there were 102 suburbs with a median house price over $1 million. It was great to see this comparison drawn so clearly, to visualise just how much the property landscape has changed in a very brief period and how that growth is driving demand for more affordable housing alternatives such as apartments and town houses.

It was also interesting to hear about Andrew’s work with Australia 108, the highest residency building in the southern hemisphere. With Melbourne being consistently voted the world’s most liveable city, massive population growth that is set to outstrip Sydney by 2030, increased availability of alternative housing plus stamp duty benefits, it’s easy to see why Melbourne is an attractive market to buy into for a range of buyers at various stages in their lives.

The event proved to be a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and mingle with colleagues and business leaders across the architecture, engineering and design sectors. Our Director Rob Peake also gave a presentation on business performance in the AEC industry, giving our guests a guide to benchmark their performance in several aspects of their business.

If you would like to receive an insight into the presentation please contact Rob on RPeake@m4d.com.au.