Hi All,
This is the latest news I heard today, 25 blocks of stage 2 in Mount Isa sold in less than one hour, stage 3 should be ready around xmas this year.
All sold for slightly more than stage 1 and one buyer bought 11 properties. I wonder who bought the 11 properties, someone has the faith in the area.
Couple of weeks ago I saw a property for sale in the local paper which i get delivered to Brisbane just to keep up with whats happening, sounded good and was a private listing with POA. Getting the paper a week late does not help, but i thought you never know. I rang the number and spoke to a lovely lady who kindly told me her house was sold in one day for $600,000. It was 6 years old and had a seperate 2 bed house. Second couple who looked at it signed a contract. She told me she had others interested if it fell over. Seems to me the Isa is going a bit like WA mining boom, anyone else got property in Isa, feel free to ad your thoughts.Don
djr
** WOW ** !!!
Almost famous….
That was me who bid on those blocks.
And it was 12 in the end not 11.The number was scaled back to 21 on the day of the auction, as 5 were apparently ‘reserved’ by a govt department or something.
No one is saying exactly whats going on.We also got 4 in stage 1 and prices didn’t really go any higher in stage 2.
We have also been doing some buying and building in Karratha WA.
Mt Isa has some very similar parallels, with the same pressures on housing.Its a good news story as far as I am concerned..
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Hows that for a small world, thanks for clarifying the number of blocks, hope you have some tradesman up your sleeve, as getting anything done in Isa for a fair price is a problem i am finding.
Have 3 IP in Isa myself and having one subdivided at the moment for duplex that has been approved.
Would love to hear your past experience in WA in mining towns?
Is this a buy and hold or build and onsell type investment?Don
djr
Hi Don,
What I am amazed about is how quickly you heard about it ???
Can you clarify how you got the info so fast ?Its a huge country but indeed a small world !!
To over come the builder and trades problem we are taking our builder from Sunshine Coast up with us.
Some of the things I learnt by investing and building in Karratha, we are applying to Mt Isa to make it go smoother and thus reduce the risk factor.
We are also offering the building service to other block owners in Mt Isa.
Then we will be duplicating this strategy back in Karratha soon.
Both these mining towns have serious shortages of quality housing, as well as a lack of available builders to provide the houses.
At the moment we are treating it as turnover business hence the completed houses will be for sale.
In fact they are being offered for sale off the plan with a 5 year lease in place at $600 pw to $650 pw.Any other queries, pls feel free to ask.
Kevin..
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the reply, I happen to be talking to Isa Council that afternoon of auction and one of the staff told me in a conversation, so it was fresh news.
WOW 5 year leases is amazing, I have approval to build a 2 bed duplex in Isa at the moment in West st, currently subdividing the block before I make a decision on building or selling with approval. I see someone is selling 2&3 bed villas of the plan with leases as well at the moment with 10% return. I will have low rise builders licence by early next year, but I don’t think I will be doing job, wife wants me in Brisbane with kids. Maybe I should have a talk to you and your builder for a quote, although you sound like you are busy for while. Any idea of sqm costs for building, can PM if you wish.Cheers
Dondjr
Hi Don,
PM sent mate…
Don’t build them yourself…stay with the family in Brissy !!I am sure we can help out with a quote, etc.
All we need to start with is a contour survey, of the proposed subdivided block.
Do you need a soil test report where yours are, or not ?
I would think not, but its up to the council in the end.Xstrata were suggesting that they will require another 1000 employees to add to thier 1083, by 2008..
Got me beat where they are all going to live [blink][blink][blink]
Kevin
Hi Guys,
I live in Mount Isa and work at the mine.
Just thought I would share a bit of talk going around here. could be nothing in it.
First is that a contractor is housing his workers in cloncurry 116km away, and using a light plane to fly them to work each day.?!!!
Second is that there is a joke down here that if we don’t pull up soon on one of our exploration drives we are going to end up in the middle of the uranium hotspot that xstrata holds about 15km away.
From the inside looking out it’s all good here and getting better each day.
I thought I bought in late but will still do well out of it. For the last few months there have only been 0-4, four bedroom homes for sale at any one time. Pretty amazing stats for a town of 20 000+ people.
Take whatever the local paper reports with a grain of salt. They are notorious for getting it not quite right.
Case in point is that our EBA’s have just been re -negotiated for a four year term. Headline, front page of paper said that a 3 year agreement has just been accepted! I’m embarrassed for them sometimes.
Congrats on the land purchases Kevin, I’m very green eyed about that, would have loved to be in a position have a go too.
cheers
Rav
Thanks Rav,
No need to be green eyed….(just get even!)) LOLTheres no secret…we were just a bit more organised this time.
We got 4x blocks in stage 1, and after doing a local visit, realised that its a very good story….both whats going on up there and the new subdivision.So we planned, and got organised to make sure we were in a position to bid on a few more.
If you look into the history of that subdivision you will realise how cheap those blocks were.
I am convinced you will not see those prices again, in the future stages of the release.AS it is, we already have sales evidence of a block being resold in Stage 1 for $87.5k which is much higher than the original purchase price.
Plus the sworn valuation on ours has already confirmed higher values than purchase prices.
What seems to have held back local buyers is the concern that they can’t get a house built on their block if they decided to purchase.
Once we get construction underway, they will realise that there is an altrnative solution.
Hopefully, this will give locals the confidence to buy in future stages to build their dream houses as well as to invest in their own town.If we are successful with some our our ideas for that area, then I am quietly confident you will be seeing some more news and activity on the ground to speed up the problems of land and housing shortages up there.
KEvin
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