Buying a house in Western Australia
The Minerals Council of Australia is now predicting that the mining sector will need another 87,000 more workers over the next decade.
Most jobs will be for skilled and semi-skilled mineral sector tradesmen and and amaller increase in related professionals. The commodities of biggest demand are iron ore and coal, though copper, uranium and gold are also in high demand and likely to remain so with the continuing Chinese and Indian demand for minerals. The locations of these minerals will dictate the growth of Australia’s economy for decades to come.
Port Hedland is booming: but property investors should proceed with caution and here’s why.
Port Hedland had a capital growth rate for the year to Mar 2008 of over 37% according to the latest Residex statistics. The median price for a house in town is now A$770,000 and the average rental yields 2.2%. That average price will get you an average 3 bedroom house on a reasonable sized block, hopefully not too near the port which does run 24/7: Port Hedland is the main port for the Pilbara iron ore mining region of Western Australia. The good news that anything will rent in Port Hedland: in fact arriving in town without a booking, even if you have tent, can be a fraught experience. Everyone needs accommodation Port Hedland and the people who work in Port Hedland do it for one, and one reason: the money. Pay rates are superb for everyone from tradesmen, to cooks, to cleaners. So the rent demand is there, the capital growth has been spectacular: why do I say stay away?
The traditional marketing tools of the trade for an Australian real estate agent is a hammer: to help secure the large billboard outside the property. If its an expensive property this used to mean that the sign was bigger, with more pictures: some of the pictures might even feature the property for sale rather than the friendly face of the agent involved. More than one property owner has wondered why so much of the advertising that they often pay for involved the agent, their family, their agency, their dog, in fact anything else but the actually thing that was being sold: their home!