Darwin Blog

NT News 13/03/2021
ALICIA PERERA

AN influx of 400 extra Howard Springs staff is set to increase the squeeze would-be tenants are under in the city’s already tight rental market, according to real estate experts.

With Darwin’s rental vacancy rates at their lowest level in up to five years, Real Estate Institute of the NT (REINT) chief executive Quentin Kilian said Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s announcement that an additional 400 extra workers will be joining the expanding facility – mostly from interstate – could further drive up rental prices in greater Darwin.

“If we’re looking to house 400 plus new arrivals, that’s fantastic, but that will impact on the already tight rental market and there is potential for upwards pressure on prices,” he said.

Raine & Horne Darwin general manager Glenn Grantham said established locals, rather than newcomers, would be the most impacted if prices rose as a result.

“I imagine the people coming here will be receiving wages to make it attractive to come to the NT, so they’re going to be able to find places even as the median rent goes up,” Mr Grantham said.

“But the ordinary people there who are paying $300 a week … they’re the ones that will be hit with having to reconsider their living arrangements.”

Darwin resident Daisy Patterson, who works in the real estate industry as Mr Grantham’s personal assistant, has been searching for a rental since November and crashing on a friend’s couch while she looks.

“It’s just the price point,” she said.

“A house I saw yesterday, if I was to have looked at it a year ago the rental price would have been $150 lower a week.

“I feel like I definitely will find a home, I just don’t know how long it’s going to be until I get a lease application accepted.

“It has definitely been a stressful time.”

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