A year of activity and achievement

As we wind down for the Christmas and New Year period it’s a great opportunity to take a moment to reflect on the year almost concluded.

It’s been another year of significant activity and achievement on behalf of our members.

On the advocacy front, the issues of tax, planning, population and cities have dominated the agenda, with more on the horizon in 2019. Key achievements have been locking in the tax treatment for stapled structures, getting policy makers to support Build-to-Rent housing at both the federal and state levels, the continuing roll out of City Deals, setting the agenda on sustainability for the built environment, and prosecuting the Retirement Living Council’s eight-point plan with its newly launched Retirement Living Code of Conduct.

Our ‘Creating Great Australian Cities’ thought leadership paper helped to shape the public conversation about managing growth in our cities. More than 1,200 members attended launch events around the country, the reports were downloaded more than 6,500 times, the videos watched more than 9,000 times and the launch generated significant media coverage.

For all the new media focus, good old-fashioned advocacy remains core business. We have held some 170 meetings with federal ministers, shadow ministers and policy makers in what has been an ever-changing environment. Our divisional teams have been just as busy with state and territory governments, including managing elections in South Australia and Victoria, with NSW just around the corner.

Our ‘Creating for Generations’ industry campaign was launched in January to tell the proud story of our industry and ran over two phases through targeted print, broadcast, online and outdoor media. The campaign generated more than 26 million online impressions. Later in the year, the Retirement Living Council launched our ‘Wise Move’ campaign to promote the benefits of retirement village living.

Our members are at the heart of everything we do. More than 3000 people from across our industry volunteered their time and expertise to join one of our various industry committees which help to inform and guide our advocacy, professional development and events programs. Women will make up 44 per cent of our 2019 committees.

Around 60,000 people attended one of our 400 events across the country through 2018 and almost 1,700 people gave their career a boost through a Property Council Academy course. We drew record crowds at our Property Congress in Darwin and our Innovation and Excellence Awards gala dinner, farewelled Green Cities in grand style, and our inaugural international study tour to New York sold out.

Our Girls in Property initiative targeting school-aged students went national, our 500 Women-in-Property sponsorship program went from strength to strength and the Property Male Champions of Change continued to lead on this very important area.

And we finished the year on a truly inspiring note, with Property Council events contributing over $400,000 to the Property Industry Foundation and other charities through the year. A tremendous result.

I hope you enjoy the holiday break and get to some spend some time with family and friends. We look forward to getting back to work again on behalf of Australia’s biggest industry in the New Year.