14 October 2009

Adelaide - The University City

Our earlier story on international students prompted us to do a little more research on education and its impact on the city.
If asked to name 3 universities in Adelaide, we think most South Australians would respond with Adelaide University, Flinders University and UniSA - the traditional mainstays of tertiary education in this State. However, international visitors might come up with a completely different set of 3 - Carnegie Mellon, Cranfield University, and University College London (UCL). The Torrens Building on the eastern side of Victoria Square is flying the flags for these 3 Universities.
UCL School of Energy and Resources, Australia will become fully operational in 2010.
Cranfield University is a world renowned centre for postgraduate defence and security studies and research. It offers long and short courses to defence organisations and industry professionals in areas including electronic warfare, integrated logistics and explosives.
Carnegie Mellon Heinz College Australia was the first of the three to open for business in the Torrens Building and is one of the top information technology universities in the world.

There is also Kaplan, which last month opened its new premises at 132 Grenfell Street Adelaide, to cater for students enrolled in courses through Kaplan Business School. Kaplan is a leading global provider of education services to individuals, schools and businesses serving over one million students in more than 30 countries.
All this activity means an ever increasing demand for student accommodation. The ipad project in Waymouth Street (containing 220 fully furnished student studio apartments) was completed at the start of the 2009 academic year and filled up rapidly.
A new project, aptly called "The Nest" is underway on the corner of North Terrace and Bank Street in the City. This development will consist of two interconnected 17 level buildings containing 460 rooms designed for student living with a full compliment of facilties including student common rooms. As it is just minutes from both of our North Terrace university campuses we are sure demand will ensure a quick take up.
The City Council's own research predicts that there will be an additional 700 international students per year requiring accommodation in the City. We think this bodes well for the square mile with lots of young people giving it the energy and liveliness that makes a city an exciting place to live and work.

12 October 2009

Master food by a Master chef



Poh might be a family friend, and although we love our asian food, we have to say that Andre Ursini was sensational at Martini Ristorante in Norwood when we went to his restaurant for a 'company dinner' earlier this month. It was a great night, memorable of course because of the Martini kitchen's wonderful Italian fare.
Andre suggested that we select the "Chef's Table", where the Head Chef chooses each and every course of our entire meal, from dishes not available on the regular menu. We had no idea what would come out next, so it was really fun anticipating what the next course would be! It began with an antipasto plate of thinly sliced roast pork ('porchetta'), tomatoes, basil, rocket, fetta cheese and balsamic. Next was a tray of baked Tasmanian scallops, followed by 2 fantastic pasta dishes - one with crab meat, and the other with yellowfin tuna. Then there was scampi in polenta, grilled lamb cutlets with pesto, fennel salad, prawns and more scallops! After this, we barely had room for the dessert, which was a plate of mini doughnut type pastries with melted chocolate chips inside.
The staff were pleasant, and the restaurant fit-out is understated and modern, yet very warm and inviting. We would definitely go back and highly recommend the place!

08 October 2009

Aussie interest rates cycle on the upswing

Well the big story this month has to be the Reserve Bank's (RBA) decision to increase the cash rate to 3.25% (an increase of 0.25%). The RBA board in its wisdom decided that Australia didn't need to keep the official cash rate at its historical 49 year low of 3%, and demand for houses, cars, whitegoods, flat screen TV's and all other things retail needs to be tempered.
The world's most profitable banks, our big four banks didn't take very long to lift their rates so mortgages are going to start taking a bit bigger bite out of home owners' household budgets.
All of the experts are saying going forward we can count on more rate increases.
The RBA board is concerned about a real estate bubble and booming house prices and interest rates are one of the few instruments they can use to dampen demand. As we have pretty strong population growth and a quite healthy local economy, we are feeling more confident about South Australia's future (even though we were already confident last time we checked). There is also an undersupply of new housing, so we feel that our market can sustain some moderate rate increases and still have period of capital growth over time.