Liveability is one of those buzz words you often hear when describing places or developments and housing affordability. But what does it actually mean and why is it important, especially to the business community?
Livability refers to the quality of life in a location or area. It’s the experiences we get from our surroundings, the accessibility to needs and services and how these contribute to our overall well-being. This includes where we shop, learn, live and play.
Many factors can make a place liveable and historically the Redlands Coast has been a high liveability region, ranking ninth of all metro regions in Australia, in 2018. However, by 2020, the Redland City region saw a drop from ninth to 14th, with other regions such as Brisbane north and Brisbane west seeing liveablity improve faster due to major investments.
Redlands is certainly a desirable place to live and work, with more than 335km in coastline, 12 suburbs and six islands within its borders, the area offers an envious natural environment, leafy outdoor recreation spaces, a health precinct, incredible educational establishments and low unemployment rate.
But without continued investment in businesses and infrastructure, for investment attraction, we face the liveability of the region being reduced even further.
As we know, small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and the heart of our community. Queensland itself is home to more than 452,000 small businesses with the Redlands Coast holding 12,384 local businesses just here, alone.
The Redlands Coast’s connected business community can focus on the themes of liveability on the Redlands Coast by having their say on the future investment into the region during community consultation periods, through networking with other businesses to understand how they can contribute to the future economy and investment attraction in the area and even by piloting and leading working groups that are targeting specific push factors. These include housing choice and affordability, public transport and connectivity, tertiary education options, commercial working spaces and future investment attraction.
The Redlands Coast has a bright future ahead and our championing of these areas by the connected local business community will secure the longevity of the unique lifestyle we have come to love.
For more information, visit redlandscoastchamber.org.au.
