Council powerless to stop swap

Published: 01 May 2008.

By Shannon Molloy for Brisbane Times

Brisbane City Council admits it's powerless to stop the conversion of city apartment complexes into hotels, with Brisbane's tallest residential building, Aurora Tower, the latest slated for rebranding.

Short-term accommodation provider the Oaks Group recently added Aurora to its rapidly expanding portfolio, which includes seven other high-rises in the CBD.

While the company hasn't revealed its plans for the building, Aurora is already being advertised as a hotel on several accommodation websites, meaning many tenants could soon be forced out at the end of their leases.

Already, more than 700 CBD apartments have been converted into hotel rooms, placing even more strain on a rental market with a vacancy rate of just 1.5 per cent.

Analysts yesterday predicted rental prices for CBD apartments could skyrocket as stock is reduced and demand continues to rise.

Oaks has lodged an application with the council to convert the 69-storey, 408 apartment high-rise to a "class three" short-term accommodation building.

The council cannot prevent an existing building being reclassified as short term, so it will not consider implementing new development conditions for future high-rise projects to prevent the situation repeating.

It could borrow a development condition from Sydney City Council that would make it harder to change a residential high-rise into a hotel.

Legal officers are currently looking at the condition, which would require a fresh application before any change to short-term accommodation, Deputy Mayor and Urban Planning Committee chair David Hinchliffe said.

"It would make it more difficult by adding an additional process for anyone wanting to change a building's use, and I think that's entirely appropriate," Cr Hinchliffe said.

"They'd have to go through the process of lodging the application, paying the fee, having it assessed by council and meet any of council's requirements."

That process would effectively be considered a change of use application and could take months, making the process more transparent, he said.

Late last year, dozens of tenants at Charlotte Towers were shocked to learn their leases would not be renewed, leaving them with just two weeks to vacate and find alternative accommodation.

Shannon Molloy