As we reach the end of another financial year, red has been the predominant colour in the balance sheets again this quarter in almost all areas.

Looking back at 2015/16 we saw that the amount of houses sold for the year (sales volumes) fell below 1999 levels with just 820 house sold in Greater Darwin and Unit sales were around 2001/01 levels with 850 sold. Overall that’s a drop of 42.9% in volume from last financial year.

Dollar wise it looked fairly bleak too. The overall value of property sales, right across the Territory, dropped this past financial year by a whopping 39 percent to come in at $1.187 billion. The value of house sales fell by 35% against last year and was lower than gures from 2003/04, and units were down by 42% against last year and close to 2004/05 levels.

Turning to the quarterly data and volumes of House sales continued to fall over the June quarter. Overall for Greater Darwin we saw a further fall of 5.2% in house sales volumes. The overall house median declined again this quarter, moving down by a further 1.1% to $576,000, which puts it 5.6% below what it was this me last year.

The bright point for house sales this quarter was Alice Springs which saw an increase of 14.3% in sales volumes. However, that is s ll 9.4% behind where it was at this me last year. The biggest mover for the quarter was Tennant Creek which recorded a 300% increase in sales from the last quarter with 4 houses sold over the June quarter. The Tennant Creek house median price has also jumped on the back of this activity to record a new high of $377,500.

The Unit / Townhouse market showed equal amounts of red ink in the volumes of sales, dropping by a further 13.9% for Greater Darwin in this quarter. However, the unit/townhouse median price remained steady for the quarter at $500,222. Which means that while sales are very slow, those units that are selling are a rac ng good prices.

We did see a small increase of 10% in the Inner Darwin unit market, but that is still 45% less than last year, and we saw a 14% increase in sales volumes in units in Darwin North, but that also is 20% less than last year.

Again Alice Springs led the way in the unit / townhouse market with a 33.3% increase in sales volumes for the quarter, coupled with a 4.5% increase in the median price of unit / townhouses, now at $339,750. While that is up for this quarter it remains 6.9% less than last year for the median price.

However, what needs to be factored into the Alice Springs gures is that 18 of these units sales were made over 12 months ago and have only just se led in the past quarter. Also 5 of the units sales were made to DHA. So that means of the 40 recorded (se led) sales, only 17 units were sold into the private market.

Alice Springs, in particular, is still feeling the impact of the 2015 decision by the Northern Territory Government to remove First Home Buyer incen ves in the exis ng property market. The REINT lobbied Government for over a year and has had a successful outcome with the Government reinsta ng at least part of the original incentive in the form of a Stamp Duty concession on the purchase of exis ng proper es by rst home buyers. This resulted in the Opposite on promising to more than double the incen ve to rst home buyers if they are elected in August. The result of this, while in the long term it will prove positive to most home buyers, has been that buyers have either held back or in some cases rescinded contracts for the purchase of propeties, awaiting the outcome of the August 27 election.

The interes ng gures for the June quarter were the vacancy rates, which in the past quarter saw a positive turnaround across much of the Territory with lower vacancy rates.

Darwin and Northern Suburbs saw house vacancy rates drop to 6.3% and unit vacancy rates fall to 6.4%. Palmerston saw a rise in the house vacancy rates moving up to 6.3%, but unit vacancy rates in Palmerston saw a reasonable size drop to 8%. And Alice Springs saw the best falls in vacancy rates with houses falling to 2.7% and units dropping to 6.8%

These are good signs for investors who have been looking at re-entering the Territory property market. Prices are good, properties are beginning to get tenanted again and we look like getting a further interest rate cut from the Reserve Bank in coming months.

While there has been plenty of red ink on the balance sheets our Members are telling us the mood from buyers is still positive and the number of people turning up to opens is increasing. 

Read the full report: The Northern Territory real estate local market report