Hi everyone, I have read all the past posts and it is interesting to hear everyone thoughts. I live in Dysart and have been a resident since Saraji Mine was originally built. My husband works at Saraji as does my brother and brother in-law. We own our house here and have just bought another which has just been rented to BMA for $1100 per week for 1 year. Our tennant is an employee of the mines. My brother is waiting for a BMA house to rent and is in a private rental, rented by BMA for him unitl BMA house is available or built for him. We know of a recent person employed permanently who got told he is 80th waiting for a house. With those numbers waiting for a BMA house at one mine alone the rental market looks good to me. Remember only small number of permanent employees are being put off, and of those the mines are asking for people to put their hands up for voluntary redundancies.
If anyone has any questions I will try to answer them. everything is still bustling here and so far very little has changed.. I too have noticed more houses on the market quite a few I have noticed are Housing Commission houses which are the ones sellling for $369000 or a bit above with nothing done to them..Some of the houses in the higher price bracket are taking longer to sell due to people being greedy and the uncertainy in the area. As for people selling because of herd mentality there maybe a few but being a small town i know of alot of houses up for sale as people have retired and moved on, nothing to do with the economic climate.
We have just had Eagle boy pizza shop open and the council is currently puting new permanent shade structures in all the parks as well as extending cemented foot paths all around the town.
The media has a lot to answer for with all the hype and it is hard to not get caught up with all the negativity but it is human nature to stress about things we feel are out of our control. There is enough coal here to see my children's retirement out and maybe their grandchildren. Both the Lake vermont and Mac camps seem to be full and there are still contractors work cars everywhere.
I don';t have a crystal ball (good if i did) but even in rents dropped to between $600 and $800 a week properties are still positively geared.
We owned 2 properties here 8 years ago when the town was half full one we rented and the other we lived in. Our rental never went a week not rented, remember their are many people especially the younger ones or those not in the mines wanting accomodation that just cannot afford to pay the high rent prices. So we are not worried about whether it will be rented or not and as for the prices of house going back down to the $40000 and $70000 we paid 8 years agos the growing world would have to have a major slowdown in development and i personally don't think that is going to happen.. Yes growth in China, india and other developing countries has slowed but probably back to a more sustainable percentage.
Happy investing
Dessyray
