The Northern Territory has been a strong performing property market for a number of years now with Darwin in particular outperforming many of the better known Australian property markets. With heavy investment from mining companies and the large Australian Defence presence, the demand for property in the top end has been growing and savvy investors are now viewing this region as a prime investment opportunity.

The September announcement of the Inpex Gas Project, http://www.dcm.nt.gov.au/inpex, is an exciting and positive development for the region with an estimated investment of $25bn USD. This is an LNG project and as stated, the largest single private sector investment ever made in the Northern Territory. Herron Todd White Darwin state that this is probably going to be the most significant factor fuelling Darwin’s property market over the coming years.

The Darwin market has slowed in recent months as has been the case for the majority of Australian property markets however it is still performing very well against the other capital cities.

The Northern Territory population is growing at a very strong rate of 2.2% per year and interstate migration is at its highest point in 20 years as people move north to take up opportunities in what is a strong and expanding economy.

The Northern Territory government, responding to these factors, is fast tracking a land release in major centres, approximately 3700 allotments. Please see http://www.housingnt.nt.gov.au/Grow/docs/LandRelease_Darwin.pdf  for land allotment areas and release dates.

This land release will increase competition in the construction industry and make building more affordable. There is likely to be a significant portion of this new land taken up by the Defence Housing Association which should see the value of land remains strong even with such a large land release.

With Australian troops still stationed in Afghanistan and East Timor, there is a strong and significant Australian Defence presence in the Northern Territory which continues to stimulate the local economy. Darwin is home to the biggest Australian Army base in Australia with $800m AUD spent over the last 5 years and the planned Black Hawk Helicopter Squadron being located here at a cost of $60m AUD.

Darwin is seen as the gateway to South East Asia with easily accessible flights to all of the major Asian capital cities and with continuing investment by the mining industry its location offers a number of reasons for future property investment.

If you’d like a buyer’s agent in the NT to help find and secure your next home or investment property in Darwin, please contact us to get started.