Looking for a great place to raise your kids? It’s in the Palmo of your hands

Long-time Real Estate Institute NT frontman Quentin Kilian has lived in Palmerston for 20 years. Here’s his tribute to the Territory’s second city.

DEPARTING Real Estate Institute NT chief executive Quentin Kilian has delivered a fond tribute to the city that has been his home for the past 20 years and where he and his wife Connie raised their family.

Once the butt of snide asides, Palmerston has bloomed in the past two decades and over recent years the gap between the median house price with Darwin properties has narrowed.

The latest REINT figures show the median house price in Darwin is $592,000 — a 3 per cent increase on the previous quarter — and the Palmerston median is $560,000, up 9.1 per cent.

“The housing gap between Darwin and Palmerston has certainly closed over recent years and part of that has been because more stock is available in Palmerston than in the northern suburbs and city,” he said.

“People are also waking up to the realisation that Palmerston is a damned nice place to live and is a 15 minute drive into town.

“I don’t know for how many years people have downplayed Palmerston with all sorts of names but I’ve lived there 20 years and it’s been a wonderful place for me and Connie to raise our two sons.”

Will Palmerston’s median price pass Darwin’s?

“It will always struggle to beat the median price because the beachside properties in Darwin will always inflate the prices, but the most likely scenario is Palmerston will match Darwin’s northern suburbs.”

The NT Government is in the process of preparing about 5000 lots in Holtze and Kowandi for release and he says this should also bolster the residential house price going forward.

But he also warned against bold real-estate predictions in the face of an economy and society in Covid-induced turmoil.

“It’s all good for economists to forecast ahead of time but what they’re not factoring in is the external things that could change such as interest rate rises. They’re making an assumption the Reserve Bank doesn’t increase interest rates but we’ve already seen that is a likelihood in August this year.

“Westpac and others are expecting an interest rates rise in August and if that comes to fruition that could dampen buyer enthusiasm, particularly in the first homebuyer market and that would put downward pressure on pricing.”

He also sees danger in regulatory changes that will prescribe access and environmental ratings.

“A lot of Palmerston houses are built to southern standards but the more you increase the need for certain types of glass and insulation that are designed predominantly for southern standards the more it’s going to push building costs up and this has to be passed on to homebuyers.

“It’s all good for bureaucrats in Canberra to make these decisions but there is no consideration of the impact on places like the Territory where we are so dependent on bringing materials in.”