Hi there,
I live in Darwin and personally wouldnt recommend buying anything here right now purely because prices have topped,
I bought here in April and am now thinking it may not have been the best descision I could have made, long term [10-20 years] it should be a good investment but not for quite some time, holding costs are quite high,
Ive got a good return on my place here but am still forking out quite a bit, rates are very high here also,
Its a fact that Darwin has very good rental yields but as prices are high, its still got a way to go but is moving up in terms of rent.
I think, if you are going to invest here, you probarbly wont see any significant growth for a while because prices are still peaking and sales have dropped way off for the past few months. [ I have a friend who is an agent]
I wish I had of bought in a few years ago, there was a 124% growth jump in 2005 and big jumps in the 2 years pre seeding 05.
Darwin is growing fast and certainly does have strong growth rates predicted for the coming years as API listed this month.
Long term, Darwin will fare well but be prepared to wait a long time IMO,
Another thing that worries me is a cyclone like Tracy, if this happens again, Darwin prices will plummit and you will most likely lose out and have to hold for much longer, this is one of the reasons I just bought interstate, and to diversify and because I dont like my prospects at the moment here in Darwin.
As for vacancy rates, theyre below 1% so youre right there for sure, houses especially as there is currently a small over supply of units in the CBD. theyre going up everywhere, wherever they can put them, this ofcourse is a good sign of things to come though.
Builders are hard to come by up here, weve been waiting a year for our small buisness to be rebuilt and no good word yet..
