Vacancy Rates, Radioactive Water, and Meta Ray-ban Smart Glasses

Australian News

• The Australian residential rental vacancy rate returned to a record low of 0.8% in the September quarter, pushing rents up to new heights.

• 1 in 7 nursing home beds in Australia sits empty despite long waiting lists as the industry struggles to attract workers - some regional aged-care homes are running at only 50% capacity.

• Australian farmers are expecting their revenue to drop 21% and costs to jump 11%, due to drier conditions and a slump in commodity prices.

• The national trade balance surplus increased to $9.64B in August, from July’s $7.32B. Exports rose 4% driven by gold shipments, while imports fell 0.4% due to a decline in industrial transport equipment arrivals.

• Over 100 flights in and out of Sydney Airport were cancelled yesterday due to strong winds.

• Vacancy rates slumped to their worst ever levels in Sydney and Perth at just 0.9% and 0.3% respectively, while Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Darwin fell close to new lows at less than 1%.

• 1 in 4 retail jobs will be replaced by AI and automation by 2027.

Global News

• Japan begins release of second batch of treated radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant.

• About half of the world's coffee-producing land will be too hot and dry to grow the crop by 2050.

• Britain's construction industry saw the biggest slide in activity in over 3 years last month, as higher interest rates led to one of the sharpest falls in homebuilding since the 2008-09 recession.

• Britain proposes a ban on cigarettes for younger generations.

• At least 14 people were killed and 102 are missing after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks, with 22K people expected to be impacted.

Company News

• The Matildas’ record-breaking FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign contributed to a near $1B recovery in the brand value of Optus, almost erasing the catastrophic falls after last year’s cyberattack.

• Property giant Lendlease has put the Darling Square precinct up for sale for $95M.

• Westpac will merge its private banking arms at St George and Bank of Melbourne with its mainline brand, about 2,000 customers at Westpac’s regional subsidiaries are to be consolidated.

• UniSuper and two European pension funds will consider building wind farms in Tasmania after investing hundreds of millions of dollars each to buy timber plantations.

• Alongside Canva’s new AI-centric products, the business will launch a $200M fund to pay users whose content is used to train the company’s image-generating bots.

• Meta and Ray-Ban launch new AI smart glasses.

Other

• Teachers are a target for deep-fake pornography blackmail as students turn to AI for cyberbullying.

• Around 1.1M or nearly 40% of 16-24 year old Aussies, experienced a mental health disorder such as anxiety or depression in the last 12 months.

• The long-awaited criminal trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has kicked off - his defence lawyer has portrayed him as a ‘math nerd’ who overlooked risk management in building FTX.

• The Royal Australian Mint unveils image of King Charles III set to appear on $1 coins before end of this year.

This Week’s All Star Picks

• Spotify ups audiobook push by giving its premium subscribers access to ~1.5 audiobooks each month.

• 30-day late payments on prime quality home loans was 1.38% in Q2, up from 1.25% in the March quarter.

• Another 550K Australians will roll off fixed mortgages onto higher variable rates in the coming months.

• There is an egg shortage in AU due to bird flu, floods and fires as Aussies consume 18M eggs/day.

• Farmland investment returns are at their lowest levels in years due to slowing capital growth and weaker commodity prices.

• NSW is likely to run out of landfill entirely within 10 years as councils plead for more state funding.

• Construction sector administrations jumped 38% in the year to September 10, a 255% spike from 2021.

• France is trying to fix a bedbug scourge before the Olympics, with reports of bugs in trains, cinemas and airports.

In partnership with:

The Aussie Corporate

Your go-to for insights into corporate Australia sourced from our Auscorp community and delivered to you without the red tape and corporate fluff 🔥 Just dropped: Your monthly caffeinated dose of AusCorp.