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Speaker 1: If we are able to recruit these four hundred staff,

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Speaker 1: where are they all going to live? Now? Joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line is the Real Estate Institute of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory CEO Quentin Killian.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Quentin. What was your initial reaction when you heard that

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Speaker 1: we might end up with an influx of four hundred people.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm always excited to seek growth in the territory

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Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form, and of course it

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Speaker 2: is going to present some issues as far as housing

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Speaker 2: the people go, but nothing is insurmountable. Rather than sort

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Speaker 2: of looking immediately at the problems, we should be thinking, well,

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Speaker 2: we are going to have these four hundred odd people

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Speaker 2: over a period of time. What are the solutions? And

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Speaker 2: off the top of my head, I don't have them,

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Speaker 2: but I'm sure there are solutions there.

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Speaker 1: I love your can do attitude though, Quintin, it's always

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Speaker 1: nice to hear mate. You know, if it's just a

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Speaker 1: situation where they're needing to find rental properties or where

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Speaker 1: they're needing to buy a property, have we got that

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Speaker 1: kind of stock on the market?

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Speaker 2: Look, there is. It's not necessarily in Palmerston though, so

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Speaker 2: if they're looking just at Parmeerson. I did a quick

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Speaker 2: scurry around real estate dot com dot Au yesterday to

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Speaker 2: have a look at the numbers, and it's sort of

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Speaker 2: coming up around the one eighty six to one ninety

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Speaker 2: mark for Palmerston for properties that are available, So you'd

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Speaker 2: have to look a bit further afield, perhaps coming into

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Speaker 2: the city area or into the northern suburbs, but yes,

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Speaker 2: there would be property available. One of the interesting things,

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Speaker 2: of course, is that it offers a real opportunity for

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Speaker 2: investors to come into a market to purchase properties and

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Speaker 2: then turn them back into the rental market to create

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Speaker 2: more rental stock.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon? You know, are we going to see here,

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Speaker 1: quintin a bit of a situation where there's a real

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Speaker 1: surge obviously in people wanting to rent to property or

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Speaker 1: wanting to buy a property, but it's kind of going

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Speaker 1: to be a bit of a false urge if it

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Speaker 1: is only for a year or so.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's happened many, many times in the territory and

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Speaker 2: that's one of the biggest problems that we need to

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Speaker 2: overcome going into the future, is that we base a

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Speaker 2: lot of our population growth on these project based actualities

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Speaker 2: rather than driven by real organic growth. We saw it

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Speaker 2: with Impacts, We've seen it with other projects, where we

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Speaker 2: suddenly have this great spike in activity which then dissipates

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Speaker 2: after a period of time. Because essentially all of these

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Speaker 2: people are contract workers, they are only there for a

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Speaker 2: period of time.

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Speaker 1: So Quentin, I mean on the whole. Obviously, you know,

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Speaker 1: it could be a really good thing for the territory

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Speaker 1: to have sort of four hundred additional workers here, but

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Speaker 1: you know it could be a tough situation as well

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Speaker 1: in terms of finding them accommodation.

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Speaker 2: Look, it could be that is a distinct possibility. I

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Speaker 2: don't think. Again, with all of these projects, I don't

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Speaker 2: think we should turn away from it simply because there

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Speaker 2: is a problem there. I think the key to it

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Speaker 2: is to say, yes, we recognize there could be a problem,

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Speaker 2: and there probably will be an issue, but let's see

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Speaker 2: if we can find a solution. Whether that solution is

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Speaker 2: housing them in temporary accommodation somewhere else or housing them

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Speaker 2: in a hotel rooms, I don't know. I don't have

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Speaker 2: that solution. But rather than looking at it as just

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Speaker 2: a problem and saying, well, we really shouldn't do this

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Speaker 2: because there is a problem, we should look at it

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Speaker 2: and say it's a good idea, let's find a solution

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Speaker 2: for it.

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Speaker 1: Well, and do you know what that hotel accommodation or

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Speaker 1: sort of looking more at the short term accommodation may

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Speaker 1: end up being the way to go, because you know,

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Speaker 1: even when you talk about the contracts that people will

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Speaker 1: be signing to come across. When we spoke to the

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Speaker 1: Health Minister earlier in the week, she did sort of

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Speaker 1: say that, you know, if at any time it became

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Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous dangerous or we're seeing sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: community transmission, it would be something that they'd be discussing

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Speaker 1: with the federal Health Minister's office. So it does sound

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Speaker 1: like whatever happens, we've got to be pretty fluid with it.

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Speaker 2: Sure. I mean, one idea perhaps is to go and

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Speaker 2: have a look at the short term lit market, so

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Speaker 2: the airbnbs and things like that, and say let's negotiate

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Speaker 2: longer term rentals in those you know, they're predominantly to

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Speaker 2: a large extent unused during COVID because of the fact

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Speaker 2: that there hasn't been that mobility of travelers or tourists.

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Speaker 2: So perhaps there is a marketplace there that could be

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Speaker 2: looked at for that contract period.

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Speaker 1: Well, Quentin, I tell you what, You've given me plenty

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Speaker 1: to think about. Like Billy did earlier this morning, thinking

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Speaker 1: out loud, you know, I'm sort of thinking to myself

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Speaker 1: as well, even when you talk about those airbnbs and

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Speaker 1: you talk about hotels, and we are thinking this could

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Speaker 1: all happen sort of just as the dry season kicks

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Speaker 1: in on one. What's going to happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, you know the one thing to consider. We've

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Speaker 2: just actually released our national figures through our national office

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Speaker 2: today and just to put it in some perspective, we've

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Speaker 2: got a vacancy rate around two percent, which is tight

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Speaker 2: for the territory market being a smaller market, but Perth,

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Speaker 2: which is a very large market, it actually recorded a

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Speaker 2: historic low of zero point eight percent vacancy rate. Wow,

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Speaker 2: so the struggle to get a rental in Perth.

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Speaker 1: Is very real.

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Speaker 2: Sort of pales into insignificance at the moment, and just

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Speaker 2: something else to ponder for your listeners. We did some

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Speaker 2: national calculations on median price. Perth came in the lowest

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Speaker 2: at four hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars for a house.

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Speaker 2: Nar One was not far behind that at five hundred thousand.

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Speaker 2: Sydney's median price at the moment is one point two

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Speaker 2: one one million dollars.

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Speaker 1: It's a bit rough.

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Speaker 2: That's the medium.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: Who we're not well, we're not manly placed as far

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Speaker 2: as medium pricing goes. Where you know, a little just

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Speaker 2: a touch behind where Perthy is and they've recorded the

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Speaker 2: lowest media.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. Well, Quentin Killy and it's always

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Speaker 1: good to catch up with you mate. I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Lovely Katie, thank you