Investors rush to Pilbara mining hotspot

Alistair WalshDecember 7, 2020

Investors have been rushing to the Pilbara town of Onslow where house prices have jumped 212% over the last four years, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.

House prices increased from $301,000 in 2009 to $940,000 this year. They increased 30.8% in the past year and 4.4% in the past quarter.

The Australian Financial Review reports most of that growth came from Chevron’s $29 billion Wheatstone gas project which currently in early construction phase and has 2000 workers on site.

onslow

Source: REIWA

It was also helped along by the nearby BHP Billiton’s $1.5 billion Macedon Gas plant which opened on Friday.

Aubin Ray from HPG Realty says people are shifting there following falling rents in towns further north from project delays and cancellations.

“Absolutely, they’re coming from Gladstone and Karratha,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“They’ve had good returns but now yields are declining. They’re looking at Onslow as the next one.

He is selling one and two bedroom units in the town for between $685,000 and $850,000.

Rents have sky-rocketed as well. Older two-bedroom homes rent for $1600 a week and four bedroom homes rent for more than $2500, according to Ray White’s Tim Grose.

The WA government is building a 220 lot residential estate in the town to mitigate housing shortages.

Alistair Walsh

Deutsche Welle online reporter

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