Regional areas of the NT have 125 per cent more home buyers than pre-pandemic levels

Regional NT real estate buyers have more than doubled since pre-pandemic levels. Find out why the outback is becoming a top investment opportunity.

Alison Ross of Elders Real Estate, Katherine. Picture: Supplied

The number of potential real estate buyers per listing remains more than double pre-pandemic levels in regional Northern Territory.

The PropTrack Regional Australia 2022 report, released on Monday morning, revealed there were 125 per cent more buyers in regional NT than there were before the pandemic.

Elders Real Estate Katherine principal agent Alison Ross said the spike in buyers was likely because people were “covid cashed-up”.

”With covid shutting a lot of things down and travel impacted, they used the opportunity to pool their savings,” Ms Ross said.

“The banks kept interest rates low, and I guess because, for regional Australia, there’s sort of the push for, ‘you know what? We don’t really want to live in the city, let’s just buy now and have something rural’.

“The benefit for Katherine is that we have such a good rental market that if they are looking to leave or move on, they’ll always be able to rent it out.”

Elders Real Estate Katherine principal agent Alison Ross said interstate investors found Katherine appealing thanks to the ‘fairly good returns’ of its rental market. Picture: Shane Eecen

In the three months to October, the report found outback the NT was also the slowest-selling house region based on the average time a home was listed on the market.

Ms Ross said the slow market was nothing new for regional Australia simply because it takes longer to get valuations done than in cities.

The PropTrack report also revealed that sellers in regional NT were among the most likely to discount a property below its listed price.

Some 76.6 per cent of sales in outback NT were below the listed price, compared to 69.49 per cent in 2021.

“We do have some vendors that hear about record prices, so some vendor expectations have been set quite high,” Ms Ross said.

“They might live interstate and hear that things have gone up 10 to 20 per cent, so they have an expectation.”

She said it was just “a matter of time” then that negotiations begin and vendors decide to “just take it”.

Ms Ross said interstate investors might not see “exponential capital growth” but the strong rate of return in Katherine’s rental market in particular makes regional NT ideal for investment.

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