You could also try the company's website (this may tell you how many new jobs they expect to create). Check out the local council there as well.

Bear in mind though that other services are being pulled out of the west coast as they are not sustainable due to the population base, eg health services are being scaled back.

Kylie

Hi Katri,

I suggest starting by reading as much as you can about property in the area you would like to invest in. You can find out a lot by reading Australian Property Investor (API) about capital growth, median prices, etc (other property magazines also have these types of data). API for example covers all the states and you can pick out suburbs of interest and look movement in price averages to guage where they are in the property clock (booming, sideways or dooming). If you don't have any of these types of mags, back issues are usually available. The local real estate guides and newspapers will often tell you about the market too, eg properties sold at auction/passed in, likely trends.

Some real estate agents will be really useful, eg our local council newspaper (Glenorchy in Tas) includes a short editorial on the front page with the median price over the last month. You might also find that if you have IPs already, your property manager (or others in their offices) may be a good source of information about what's happening in their local area / town. If you can build up relationships with RE agents you might find they will talk to you more honestly about what the market is doing. A retired RE agent whose family are still active agents would be ideal!

You could also talk to RE agents about how quickly rental properties are being re-let, this will tell you something about vacancy rates. Talk to the locals too. We were looking at a block of land to build on after we moved interstate, what looked like a good proposition to us as newbies to the area was appalling to the locals who knew it was a low socioeconomic area with a relatively high crime rate.

Local councils and state governments may also be able to provide demographic information about their towns, expected growth, major employers/infrastructure programs, etc, ie lots of the background you need to assess whether regional areas in particular will be viable.

The more general reading you do, the more you will start to get a feel for what a particular market is likely to do. Then, when you have a better general understanding you can look for the more detailed information to help you with making a decision about a specific property.

In terms of rental trends, building trends etc, try searching on sites like the housing industry association, or government sites / social welfare groups as these may also have information about likely trends in the industry. Eg, affordable housing will be a big one for the next few years because property prices are getting so expensive, renters have to pay more, rents have to be balanced between what renters can pay based on their income and what investors need to make a property viable for their portfolio.

The postcode reports and similar things are helpful as background when you're considering a specific property (they can also be helpful when revaluing a property or when selling). Check out the REIA and your state REI office as well, some of them publish market reports and these can be quite inexpensive. From my perspective, I read widely then spend my research budget on info targeted to the market I want to enter. As well as the ones you mention you could also try Residex or RP Data.

Good luck!
Kylie