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Katie Woolf spoke with REINT CEO Quentin Killian · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Quentin Killian is going to be joining us in just
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a couple of moments to talk about this situation where
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the NT news is reporting that Southerners are apparently snooping
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: at Northern Territory properties online significantly more than what locals are.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: That's according to this data which has been revealed by
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the real estates real estate dot com dot AU. And
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: joining us on the line to talk further about the demand.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say from interstate and if
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: indeed it is there or not. The Real Estate Institute
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory CEO, Quentin Killian, good morning to you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you very well?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Quentin? I know that it's been reported today that there's
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: more Southerners snooping I guess on some of our properties
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  Speaker 1: up for sale here on here in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: on real estate dot com. How is it going from
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: your perspective?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Look, it's a very busy market still. We have seen
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  Speaker 2: quite a drop off since June thirty in first home
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: by activity, but that's essentially been supplemented at this stage
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: by inquiries from both local and Southern buyers. And I
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: noted today that one of our agents has released a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: press release noting that he's getting a lot of his
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: agency's getting a lot of inquiries from Asia at the moment,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: which has jumped about threefold in the last two months.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So it's interesting where the buyers are actually coming from there.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Is it quite easy for somebody from another
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: country to buy property here in the Northern Territory. Are
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: there any sort of rules and regulations?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, there are greater checks and balances by the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Foreign Investment Review Board than they have been in the past.
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  Speaker 2: But essentially, if you're buying a new property, it's a
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: relatively easy process. If you're buying an existing used property,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: then you have to have a visa that extends past
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: a certain period of time to enable you to act
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: live in it. But certainly there's investment opportunities. And one
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  Speaker 2: of the things that you've still got is a lot
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  Speaker 2: of expats that are still based overseas who are Australian
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  Speaker 2: citizens and of course can buy property at their will.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that's a smaller cohort. I think the
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  Speaker 2: bigger cohort at the moment of those that are escaping
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Chairman Dan and the perpetual lockdown down South and why
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: wouldn't you.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, when you look at how we're going
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  Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, you would be keen to
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: move to the territory or move to somewhere that hasn't
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: been as badly impacted by COVID.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: And I think the other thing to factor into is
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: that we still have a median price that sits under
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: six hundred thousand dollars. If you look at Melbourne, you've
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: got a medium that's just over a million dollars and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: in Sydney it's around about one point one two million
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: dollars and that's the median price. So you talk talking
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: about markets where it isn't how very expensive to buy
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: into property, but if you're selling out of your property there,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: you're coming to markets like Darwin and Alice where you're
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: cashed up and you can go into the market into
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  Speaker 2: a very very nice house. What we found is a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people are a lot more mobile. And it's
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: not just the territory, but regional Victoria, regional New South
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  Speaker 2: Wales have been heavily impacted by movements out of the
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: city and people are finding that with technology these days,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: they don't have to be sitting in an office Involvine
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: or Sydney. They can be doing their job and they
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: can be doing it from wherever they are.
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  Speaker 1: So, Quentin, when you really break it down, I mean,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: what percentage of our purchases in recent months have actually
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: been from interstate?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, Katie, I would be absolutely guessing, and I
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: would hate to speculate, but it has been a substantial amount.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And in fact, using tools like open Negotia, which is
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: an online process where you're actually competing in an auction
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  Speaker 2: process but with private treaty conditions, we've seen a number
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: of buyers purchasing properties that they haven't seen. They might
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: have had a friend inspect that they because they're learning lockdown,
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  Speaker 2: they're purchasing properties that they intend to move into at
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: some stage when they can get freedom from where they are.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: So and they're buying them at premium pricing.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yep, and Quentin, you know at the moment when you
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I guess it's it is good news to see that,
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  Speaker 1: you know that there are purchases coming from interstate and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: hopefully moving to the Northern Territory and making the territory home.
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  Speaker 1: But I would guess that that is also making it
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  Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more difficult for some territories to
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  Speaker 1: enter the housing market.
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  Speaker 2: It does put pressure on the market, yes, absolutely. I mean, look,
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  Speaker 2: we've gone through five or six years of having some
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  Speaker 2: of the most desolate real estate markets we've seen in decades.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: So this is a very nice bounce back, and it's
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  Speaker 2: moving a lot quicker than I guess people had expectations
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  Speaker 2: of it doing, and that's driven predominantly by the lockdowns
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: down South and the desire for people to move. So yes,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: it does put pressure on the market here, both in
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: stock and in pricing, but there's certainly still a lot
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: of bargains to be had, and I think if the
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  Speaker 2: best way to look at it, if you are sitting
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  Speaker 2: on the fence thinking about purchasing that property, don't sit
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: on that fence too long because somebody will sell it
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: from under you.
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  Speaker 1: And Quentin, I know you and I have spoken before
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  Speaker 1: about some of those different incentives to try to get
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: people into the housing market. There hasn't been much movement
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: though from the government's perspective in this space as there.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's totally frustrating, Okatie. I mean, we're the only
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  Speaker 2: jurisdiction in Australia now that doesn't encourage first home buyers
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  Speaker 2: into our market, which really doesn't make sense. You know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: whatever revenue the government was hoping to pick up from
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  Speaker 2: stamp duty from first home buyers is not there because
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: if the first home buyers aren't coming back into the marketplace,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: that revenue that they had counted on isn't going to
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: be flowing through. And the common sense is that if
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  Speaker 2: you get the first home buyers in through incentivization, then
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: at some stage in their life cycle they're going to
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: be upgrading to another house and to another house, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: that's when the stamp duty comes into play. So the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: logic is, bring the first home buyers in through an
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: incentivization program such as the stamp duty concession, and they're here,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: They're going to live here, they're going to work here,
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  Speaker 2: they're going to spend their money here, they're going to
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  Speaker 2: stay here at they're locals. It just makes no sense
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  Speaker 2: at all to be removing those incentives.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Well, Quentin Killian, it is always good to catch up
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  Speaker 1: with you and get a better idea of how things
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  Speaker 1: are going when it comes to the real estate market
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory. So we always appreciate your time mate.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having your chat. With us this morning.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Good to talk to you as well. Quentin. That's Quentin
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Killian who is the real Estate Institute of the Northern
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Territory CEO.