Why are Australians obsessed with property? Because we have to be. And there are big reasons why it’s always on our minds.<\/p>\n
A growing number of Darwin home owners and investors are listing their properties to cash in on rising prices, but experts at real estate analytics company Cotality warn there may only be a small window to get a good price.<\/p>\n
Cotality head of research Gerard Burg said Darwin was defying the national property price slump, recording the “strongest property market in the country”.<\/p>\n
Property prices increased only modestly for the month of September, with house prices up 0.3 per cent and units up 0.8 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said Darwin was now the only capital city where house prices were rising, largely due to limited supply and years of sluggish building activity.<\/p>\n
Although more home owners were listing their properties, Mr Burg said there were fewer buyers, indicating the tight property market may be gradually unwinding.<\/p>\n
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Property prices are continuing to rise in Darwin. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
“There is still some uncertainty around where property demand is heading in the coming months,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There is the risk, of course, that the RBA may do another hike to the interest rates in November, and that would have another further impact.<\/p>\n
“So it is possible that Darwin might start to experience the broader national downturn that we’re seeing.”<\/p>\n
He said the market was already showing signs of cooling.<\/p>\n
“At the midpoint of January, [the total number of properties for sale was] around 60 per cent below average,” Mr Burg said.<\/p>\n
“It’s now sitting around 40 per cent below average and is continuing to track up.”<\/p>\n
Real estate agent Kerri-Ann Laurence, who has sold homes across Darwin for more than two decades, has also noticed an uptick in listings since January but said “historically, it’s still quite low”.<\/p>\n
She said the majority of her clients were either relocating, moving for family reasons, upsizing or downsizing.<\/p>\n
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Kerri-Ann Laurence has worked in Darwin for more than two decades. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n
“I’ve no doubts some of the downsizers in particular are seizing the opportunity,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Laurence said she’d also noticed the recent wave of interstate investors<\/a> \u2014 who, over the past year, had been snapping up properties across greater Darwin within days of them being listed \u2014 was now easing as prices continued to rise.<\/p>\n However, she said she expected the market to remain on an upward trajectory.<\/p>\n “There’s been plenty of projects on the boil \u2014 Beetaloo gas is now flowing<\/a>, I think that will lead to more investment, and in a small town like Darwin, it doesn’t take much,” she said.<\/p>\n “If one of these projects needs 1,000 [workers] on the ground, that’s going to make a dramatic difference in the real estate landscape overnight.”<\/p>\n Darwin remains among the most expensive capital cities to rent a home, ranking third behind Sydney and Perth<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n