Before recommending a property or an area to a client I like to visit and do my own research. I had heard some mixed reports about Gladstone. But after a tour with local building veteran Roy Atkinson I started to have the revelation that this was one of the strong economic areas in Australia.
Roy shared with me his building experiences spanning over 30 years and his rocket ride to multi-millionaire status in the last few years by simply building spec homes and holding them. We spent most of the day on a tour around the city and neighbouring communities such as Cutis Island, Calliope and Tannum Sands.
The statistics show why Roy has been so successful with his investing. The medium price for houses in Gladstone 2001 was $110,000. Just five years later the median price was $344,000. That’s an average annual growth of an amazing 25.6% (PRD Nationwide). The first quarter this year shows the median price at $380,000. There is some speculation that the ride is over for people investing in Gladstone. However, I beg to differ! With record low vacancy rates and new employment opportunities coupled with a shortage of available housing stacks up to an unprecedented opportunity.
I don’t believe I am alone in my opinion. Michael Addison wrote recently in the Investment Property Reporter (p16, vol 36, 2009) about the massive investment into the local economy. Currently there is an amount of $20 billion being spent on the infrastructure of this tiny town of 67000 people. This spend will go towards the following –
· Liquid natural gas drilling
· Construction: – pipelines, factories, rail lines, gas and coal leaders.
· New shale oil projects
“Think about the impact of $20 billion dollars (that’s $20,000,000,000) spent in a region with a current population of just 67000; that’s $289,855 for each man, woman and child” A figure as large as 20 billion sounds impressive – but when both government spending and private spending are put together it totals over $34 billion that will be spent in the region (QLD Government Dept. Infrastructure and Planning). Part 2 will be posted this week.