ABSTRACT
This chapter considers urban structural change within Sydney focusing on both the building provision process and building use in the Central Business District (CBD). During the years of the conservative coalition government, particularly in the late 1990s, as a part of a deregulation scheme, many multi-national companies established new Asia-Pacific headquarters in the CBD of Sydney. Sydney is the corporate and financial capital of Australia as well as a financial centre of the Asia-Pacific region. Australia has the highest market capitalization in the Asia region, excluding Japan, and is larger than both Hong Kong and Singapore. Like other world cities, Sydney today is characterized by high levels of socio-economic and cultural diversity. Sydney's population has been increasing and becoming more multicultural in the last few decades. 'Financial and Insurance services' and 'Financial, Insurance and Real Estate' (FIRE) both indicate higher growth rates than the total population increase in the whole metropolitan area after 1996.
