NT Signs of Life in Darwin...

Don't all go rushing in at once but there are signs of Life for Darwin.

It's not about to boom, but if you look, there is a pulse and its still breathing. This is an improvement over the past 2 years...

I've been charting the Darwin listings for a few years now and can say that listings are now starting to drop slightly for the greater Darwin region.

But its when you break it down to Darwin and Palmerston you can see some real change. The number of Darwin listings is down significantly....like 15 percent or so whilst Palmerston has increased.

The time on market has reduced (in Darwin) and all of a sudden, compared to the rest of the country the town is now good value.

Unemployment remains Super low and wages remain high.

Vacancy rates in the northern suburbs and outside the city are dropping to around 3.5 percent.

Anyway, I'm seeing signs of life, certainly in the 0810 and 0820 postcodes. The CBD and Palmerston remain a disaster and overall sentiment remains ...er...how should I put this?....."somewhat low"....

Volatility rules up here so this could be a just a small window of happiness too....

Anyway, just reporting on what I see.

H.

 

Since November I've noticed a lot more properties go under contract in the Northern Suburbs. Prior to that the market was stagnant/dropping. As construction jobs wind up prices will drop and people will move from Palmerston back to Darwin.

 

Agree. The few metro markets in Oz that were on the nose barely 12 months ago are starting to move, albeit slowly. Damn I hate not picking the bottom!

 

Hi hammer

I know nothing about the Darwin property market .

Can you give everyone a run down . Nice areas , areas to avoid . Returns etc

I have some non forum friends who did well with a unit , but have always found places closer to Sydney , but Darwin is a lot closer to Asia and there's been talk about developing agricuture up to export to Asia outside beef . Intersting to note that Gina is using her iron money to buy up more beef stations .

Maybe she attracted by the fact that beef is a good source of dietary iron......

Cliff

 

I think you'll find its more like beef sits upon a good source of shale gas....

I wrote an overview on here a while back...I'll see if I can find it....

 

Here it's! This is still relevant....

 

I like darwin as a city but i would struggle to justify buying there.
Houses in just average areas start at bout 450k and they are very basic shacks , a lot bessa block.
Townsville is a far bigger city and you buy a cracker of a house for about 350-400k in a decent area. The really good areas your looking at 500-600

Looking at Darwin it appears its still rpughly twice the price of Townsville for a like for like property.
Obviously whats put a rocket under Darwin is the inpex project and the lack of available land due to swamp/wetlands
Just cant see any upside in Darwin. Its already expensive and work will probably dry up a bit in the next 18 months

 

I agree with you on Townsville...On paper it makes more sense....great town too!

I think it's all about the unemployment and wages though. At least at the moment. There's more work in Darwin and the wages are much better. Even now.

We will have to wait till Inpex is built to know what is really going on though...

Time will tell.

 

Last couple of years chinese have been snooping around charters towers and townsville for beef supply / abbatoirs
Not sure where that is at though

 

Agree that Townsville is struggling. Thats why its great buying. Its a pretty diverse place and on paper would probably be the cheapest city in Aus with population over 100k.
10 years ago it was probably the most expensive of the cities with 60,000 - 200,000 population.
The place we bought sold for 100k more in 2008 than what we paid in 2015. It had its boom and a bust/ prolonged downturn.
It will run again, even if its just on the back of it being a nice place to live.
Darwin is probably at the opposite spectrum of the 'property clock'

 

Well HTW actually agrees with both of you. Has both Darwin and Townsville at 6 O'Clock on the property clock.
Interestingly they have Perth and Rockhampton at 4 O'Clock.
So you guys might be onto something here....
(Eric has a thread/link about this in the general property section)

 

Sudden loss of 800 Inpex jobs in Darwin? Mostly FIFO staff.

 

That part of the project still needs finishing. The next company will hire the same amount of workers to finish it

 

There will be a loss of 6000 staff at some point in the next couple of years as construction winds up.

Most of them are fifo by now though, living in camps...hence the housing crash.

Not out of the woods yet by any means.

 

We have held onto our 2x2 apartment in the city (purchased early 2012). It's due to be advertised for rent today (we had great tenants in place for two years paying $590 so were stoked with that) I'll be very interested, given the recent loss of employment with inpex to see how much we get now. I'm thinking more like $500 a week. Will wait and see ! I see @hammer you said cbd still a disaster - if agree. Was there in January and so many new apartments (although I do think building activity has decreased slightly in the last 12 months - based on looking about(!), that could be totally wrong though!)

 

Bought a basic 3 bedroom cottage ("Balmain" cottage built 1998) in Gunn (Palmerston) in 2005. Only on 316m2 of land. Cost 250k. Could have sold about 4 years ago for 480k (maybe higher). Wast rented at 550/week. Now rented for 410/week. Mkt rent is 420/week. Could sell for 430k maybe (market has started to pick up a bit in the last 6 months-HTW are on the money here).

Things to be aware of (1) Tradies are very expensive (2) 3 aircons =lots of maintenance (3) Power/water levies are high (4) Rates are high (5) Managing agent fees and sales commissions are higher than other capitals.

On the plus side it is very close to Asia. If wealthy Indonesians (from Jakarta and Surabaya) and Singaporean buyers ever moved into Darwin in a big way mkt would fire. There is something I like about the place...can't put my finger on it. Might be that the average age of people in Darwin is 33 years and there is a sense of frontier/adventure/can do spirit here.

 

Gunn is a great spot! Very underrated IMHO.

 

Lots of good stock still sitting vacant. This one near us has been vacant since Nov 16, has changed leasing agent and still not leased. (3 bed, 3 bath, 2 car garage)
U 1/26 Tipperary Court, Stuart Park, NT 0820 - View Sold History & Research Property Values - realestate.com.au

Cheers
PP

 

If i owned it I'd drop the rent or short term let it (is there demand?) or possibly sell. I'm not bullish on Darwin. A decent home looking for tenants since Nov 2016 would be unheard of in Sydney.

 

It's because they're asking $600 a week.

Those days have gone.....