What you said about Qld’s abandoned CBDs and cities

What, if anything, should be done to Queensland’s “ghost town” CBDs is up for debate – but one thing is clear: it’s time for change. JOIN THE CONVERSATION

More housing, more renovations or just more needless spending?

What, if anything, should be done to Queensland’s “ghost town” CBDs is up for debate, as experts this week called for more luxury residential towers, “affordable” boutique retail precincts and street entertainment.

Readers, though, weren’t as convinced, with about 60 per cent in the online poll voting to modernise the CBDs.

Brisbane has the second-worst retail vacancy rate in Australia, with almost 19 per cent of shops empty, according to a report by real estate agency CBRE.

More than 1000 shops in the state’s city centres including 321 in Brisbane are vacant as factors including high rents, cost-of-living pressures, traffic snarls, ongoing work-from-home arrangements and the online shopping boom hit CBDs.

While Brisbane’s overall retail vacancy rate improved slightly to 18.7 per cent in the past quarter, more than 25 per cent of shops in CBD centres are for lease, with the river city rivalled only by Perth as the nation’s worst for vacancies.

Ashleigh Planche at empty restaurant Byblos at Portside, Hamilton. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Experts say innovative solutions are needed to breathe life back into depressed CBDs.

However many readers argued the opposite.

Some said with many still working from home, the time has come to convert some of these centres into housing to help ease the state’s crisis.

Others, though, claimed that there are wider issues that won’t be solved any time soon.

And some insisted we must hold those in positions of power to account.

See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>

WHAT YOU SAID

I have an idea

Lianne

The thing that needs to happen is cheaper electricity. Business expenses would drop as would personal expenses. This frees up cash for discretionary spending therefore more earnings for business and higher employment.

Leslie

Make all carparks free from lunch time Friday till lunch time Monday and make them higher as there is a number of car models (4x4) that do not fit in then so we stay away as if its lower then 2.2m then we cannot get in them.

So so tired

I wonder how many CBD high rise buildings are mostly empty?

Just accept that WFH for white collar works better and convert the CBD into high density living.

Greg

Convert skyscrapers into Housing.

Geoff2

Let the CBD decline naturally & grow urban centres such as Chermside, Indooroopilly, Carindale etc etc. But they must be planned better than currently. Have the urban centres well connected to adjacent ones.

Brisbane’s CBD centre at Queen Street Mall at noon on Friday March 8, 2024. Picture: John Gass

There are a lot of issues

RogerJ

I was in the CBD the other day. Twice I was nearly knocked down by electric scooters. Won’t be going back.

Paul

I live in Brisbane and went to Cavil Avenue on the weekend for the first time in a long time. The place is a dump, not even appealing. They need to address this if they want to attract people back.

CHRIS

The light rail is the common denominator for destroying Gold Coast suburbs.

Matty J

Apparently having the Olympics will solve this

Allan

Workers working from home, need to get them back into their officers.

Alf

Maybe PARKING COSTS are the issue. Would love to visit the CBD to shop however parking makes it unreasonable and unaffordable.

Some other Rick

The city isn’t a pleasant place to get around as a pedestrian. Hasn’t been for the best part of ten years. Scooters, bikes and people who can’t walk and text make it very difficult if not down right dangerous. They have no place sharing footpaths. It isn’t a clean city and being accosted for money at every turn is annoying if you’re a regular commuter.

Ghost Towns. Empty shops and streets of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Time to move forward

Coastguy

We must embrace the change. The Internet has changed the way of shopping forever. The digital revolution is here. CBDs will go the way of the video stores

david

And are those politicians and public servants responsible for this situation ever going to be held accountable? Nah, this is Australia. The only time they tried to enforce a law was during the “pandemic”. Now we are back to the Wild West.

Havachat

Brisbane CBD has never been a particularly enticing place. It has the occasional good point. But compared to capitals like Perth, Adelaide and Hobart it seems to lack feeling.