House listing backlog at Blackwater mining town will take 200 months to sell: Propell

Blackwater, Moranbah, Karratha, Emerald, Muswellbrook, Gladstone have been dubbed by the Propell advisory group as the six towns have been most affected by the mining boom and bust.

Gladstone is the largest, with 8,900 houses in the port city for the Bowen Basin, within which are also Emerald, Moranbah and Blackwater.

Source: Propell 

These towns have been the worst affected.

For these six towns, the number of house sales has dropped by half.

There were almost 3,000 sales in 2011, as optimism about mine expansion and the dredging of the harbour to provide new port facilities reached its height.

Three years later in 2014 saw 1,225 sales, as mine expansion plans were reversed, environmental concerns dogged the harbour dredging, and commodity prices fell.

Moranbah saw 260 house sales in 2011 which dropped to 43 in 2014.

Price increases of 10% per anuum, 20% per anuum or more have been replaced by falls in the past two years of up to 38% per annum.

Blackwater has 181 house sales in 2011 which fell to just 12 last year. There are around 200 for sale, with Propell putting the sale time line for vendors out to 20 months.

Muswellbrook made the list as the most affected in NSW with a fall in volume of 13% in 2014 that Propell noted seems almost modest in comparison.

Karratha, at the hub of WA expansion, and with almost 3,400 houses, has seen turnover fall some 45% with prices down -12% in 2013 followed by -26% in 2014.