Does anyone else have a property there?
Do not own property there but have watched the market there for some time.
If only I purchased there when I first started watching. Lately has been more out of interest than anything.
BHP Billiton is about to construct a large amount of houses there to sell to staff at cost as the expansion will more than double the town.
I think it’s currently about 4000 people and expected to grow to 9000 people by 2009.
Biggest mine in the country and owned by the richest company in the country so not a bad town for cashflow and potential growth.
We are planning on visiting Roxby Downs over the next two weeks.
The problem is there is no accomodation available !
We wish we had bought two years ago as well
Hi kate
Yes two years ago would have been a good time to buy as places were cheap now however in my opinion places are quite over priced. I cant help but notice the amount of houses that are currently flooding the market up there compared with even 12 months ago when you battled to buy a place. This tells me that many people are taking profits and getting out for whatever reason.Yes the mine is expanding into a huge development and uranium/copper prices are rising but there is a high turnover in the workforce so there could be some vacancies. BHP rents a large number of houses up there and I dont know what they are like to deal with but they have plans for some of their own accommodation so it might pay to check that out.
On the larger shutdowns people have to stay at Woomera or Andomooka which are 1/2 to 1hr out of town and these are nearly like ghost towns now (you can pick up accm there if you need.)
Its only my opinion and I’m not saying dont invest up there if thats your goal I just think you are paying a lot of money for about 6% return on a property in the middle of nowhere.
Go and have a look, there are some great locals up there who are interesting to talk to and good luckDave
Hi Dave
As the houses are selling for $300,000 + we thought they were overpriced so had to find a way to explore other possibilities.
Our opinion is exactly as you say.
My husband has stayed or visited a few mine sites and is a little knowledgeable on the risk of buying into a mining town.
I am seriously looking at buying property in Roxby, but I am not totally convinced that I can get a proeprty that will give me a good enough return. Does anyone else have any opinions or suggestions?
The mine has been given the go ahead to expand and the town is going to expand with the influx of workers, is there any plans for the town to expand.
I have been watching Roxby for over 18 months like most other people, and I am kicking myself that I didnt buy back then, but the future of the mine at that point was too unknown.
Here is an article from the Herald Sun on APril 4th which may be of interest to some:
Roxby an Olympic task
From: By Andrew Trounson
April 06, 2006Mini-city … BHP hopes to attract thousands of new workers to Roxby Downs, which lies in the middle of a vast ochre plain. Graphic: Eirik Wallem Fossan BHP Billiton’s proposed $US5 billion ($7 billion) expansion of its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia will be nothing short of a mini-city development.
The population of the mining township of Roxby Downs will more than double, from 4000 today to 9000 by the time the expansion finishes in 2013.
The expansion work will go well beyond the construction of a massive open pit, which at 3km across and at least 350m deep, would be big enough to swallow Adelaide’s central business district some 560km to the south.In addition to expanding Roxby, major new infrastructure will have to be installed, including duplicating the power lines to Port Augusta, installing new road and possibly rail links, and the construction of a $US300 million desalination plant near Whyalla on the coast to supply the expanded mine’s water consumption of up to 100 megalitres a day – the equivalent of about 100 olympic-sized swimming pools – up from 30 megalitres now being used.
The desalination plant will have to be connected to the mine site by a $US400 million pipeline. Much of this infrastructure will be put in place and run by third parties.
But BHP suspects that its biggest challenge will be attracting thousands of new workers to Roxby Downs in the middle of a vast ochre plain with nothing but low scrub breaking the horizon.
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“The significant issue will be the availability of the workforce,” BHP corporate affairs executive Richard Yeeles said yesterday on a media tour of the underground mine and a sprawling chemical plant processing ore into copper, gold and uranium oxide.
Key to attracting workers will be new, attractive residential developments in Roxby Downs which BHP will onsell at cost to new residents.The focus on expanding Roxby, which was established to service the mine in 1988, is good news for the young community and local business.
The average age in Roxby is just 27 and a third of the population is aged under 12.
Of the more than 2500 employees and contractors at Olympic Dam, about 15 per cent commute from Adelaide on a fly-in, fly-out basis, and BHP is determined to keep that down to a minimum.
The company is in the process of releasing and developing 127 new residential blocks of land.
BHP expects to spend $US500 million just studying and firming up the project.
The company doesn’t expect to be in a position to give the go ahead until 2009.
It will then take as much as four years to excavate the massive open pit, down 350m to where the ore lies.
“Nothing has been undertaken on this scale in Australia for quite a while, so (2013) is a reasonable target,” Olympic Dam chief Dean Dalla Valle said.
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