WA’s Resources led boom
The following is an extract from the Sydney Morning herald regarding WA’s boom:
The west’s property spree is driven by its resources, but will it last?
When apartments in a yet-to-be-built Perth inner-city building went up for sale in May, more than 20 people slept on the street, queueing overnight in the hope of securing an off-the-plan purchase. By 5am the following day, the crowd had swelled to 60, and by noon, 74 of the 81 one- and two-bedroom Domus units, priced from $275,000 to $455,000, had been snapped up.
“It was pretty unbelievable,” says Ronald Chan of Finbar International Limited, the building’s developers. “It was a frenzy.”
It was exactly the same story when a small West Australian developer put 15 new luxury units in Geraldton, 424 kilometres north of Perth, on the market a few weeks ago. He wasn’t sure how they’d go - apartment living is a relatively new concept in the state, they were all priced in the top end at $485,000 each and most people still prefer to invest in houses and land. Yet five days later, they were all sold and he was left with a waiting list of 300 eager buyers for his next release of 60 units.
Demand seems to be just so strong,” says Barry Humfrey, managing director of Humfrey Land Developments. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
It’s a story that’s now being repeated across Western Australia and parts of the Northern Territory.
