Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Elders Real Estate Katherine owner Alison Ross says locals are leaving town in droves due to crime, sending vacancy rates soaring

Transcript

Elders Real Estate Katherine owner Alison Ross says locals are leaving town in droves due to crime, sending vacancy rates soaring · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are hearing that residents are leaving Catherine in droves
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: due to break ins and crime, and that it's driving
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: rental vacancies up to rates which haven't been.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Seen in years.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It is in quite a contrast, I think you'd have
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to say to what we've been talking about towards the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: end of last year, where there had been issues.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We've spoken to the teachers union.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: About it, where people were actually not able to find
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: rental properties to move into in Catherine. But joining me
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  Speaker 1: on the line to shed some light on the situation
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  Speaker 1: is Alison Ross.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Allison, good morning.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: How are you, Kenny?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Really good.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Now Allison, you are indeed the owner of Elder's real
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: estate in Catherine. What are you saying with the Catherine
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: rental market at the moment?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Oh?
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  Speaker 4: Look, every year, end of the year, like with Darwin,
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: you know, your transient population, end of the school year,
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: end of contracts, people do move down defense. So quite
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: commonly we had a lot of people that are moving
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: out towards the end of the year. But it just
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: sort of hitting that sort of mid or some pretty
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: much all of December, a lot of chants were breaking lease,
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: meaning leaving earlier than their initial term just due to
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  Speaker 4: because of the crime rate. You know, we've broken into
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: so many times. We've had enough where either moving.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Out of town to we're living, moving to the other
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: side of town, or yeah, just had enough of the territory,
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: we're heading out of here. So it's quite a shock
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: and obviously something that we couldn't plan for in our business.
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  Speaker 3: So we've got pretty hard with a lot of chance
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  Speaker 3: moving that is hard.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Like it's hard to sort of hear as well.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Isn't it that people are reaching the point where they're
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: leaving because of the crime. I mean, it's one thing
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  Speaker 1: to sort of move suburbs, but to leave the territory altogether.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, definitely. And I've obviously been up here for
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: quite some time and an advocate and.
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  Speaker 4: Pushing for the liveability and how great it is to
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: live up here, and we have done a lot of
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: push for that.
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  Speaker 3: And even then, we've sort of got so many jobs.
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  Speaker 3: So it's sort of like the housing, accommodation and employment
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  Speaker 3: all ties in hand in hand, and so well, it's
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: not because there's no jobs around. There's plenty of work around.
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  Speaker 3: People are just leaving to these other unfortunate reasons. So
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: it's sort of a push to sort of get people back,
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  Speaker 3: and that then knock on effects with having plenty of
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  Speaker 3: work around when we do have these break ins, it's
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: getting the repairs done. And obviously over Christmas you can
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  Speaker 3: imagine a lot of contractors had sort of shut down
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: or scaled back, so now trying to get work done
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: on any damages. Even our business that was hit. We
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: spoke back in early December, we still haven't fully got
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: back on board with that. We still have vehicles out
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  Speaker 3: of action. So yeah, the cost and timing from the
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: break ins just for a bit of fun for so
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  Speaker 3: few people is not fair.
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  Speaker 2: It's not fair at all.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: With the rental listings, how many rental listings are there
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to sort of, you know, to quantify the way that
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the you know, the way that the market is looking
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  Speaker 1: at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I guess generally and looking at just the main
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: websites for all agencies, you know, and the moment until today,
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  Speaker 4: sixty odd rentals available.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Generally you'd see that around thirty over Christmas, so that's
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  Speaker 3: sort of doubled of what it normally would be. I
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: guess just before COVID it got down to four only available,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: was it was tight in that push last year, a
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: lot of jobs around, a lot of good houses or
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: a lot of houses and all aspects were taken up.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, so sort of double what would normally expect
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  Speaker 3: to see on the market now than we would in
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  Speaker 3: previous use.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And so how does that kind of you know, compared
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to a month ago. I know that you said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: over that Christmas period there's always a bit of change.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: So I guess, how does it compare.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: In terms of the luck let's say to it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like December, it sounds as though we're you know,
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  Speaker 1: most places were kind of rented out in December, but
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: then you started to see that transition or started to
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: see people shifting out.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: That's right. So I said, is that double what would
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: normally expect? Is this another year and obviously we'll see
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: then start to see some prices being impacted because prices
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: had been creeping up. We now have some houses that
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  Speaker 3: are set or in a break lee situation where we're
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: going to obviously see some return to Okay, what are
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: we going to do to negotiate that down or I
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  Speaker 3: mean I've been communicating with landlord is about security. What
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: we've got to put into properties to try and make
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: the tenant feel safe.
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  Speaker 2: Allison, It's hard, Like it's really hard, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Because I know you are a huge advocate for the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Big Rivers region.
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  Speaker 2: I know.
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  Speaker 1: Well, look, I'm a big advocates for you know, for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the top end, for the Northern Territory in general. But
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  Speaker 1: this situation with crime at the moment, it's having such
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  Speaker 1: a big impact and it's making it really you know,
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  Speaker 1: like it is making it really difficult.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, definitely, definitely. As I said previously about business confidence,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: you know, we all do get behind each other and
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: help each other out and catter and that it's a
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: great thing of our resilience. He's sort of, Yeah, We've
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: going to really sit down and work out a plan
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: of how we can sort of work through this because
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  Speaker 3: we want people to come and today there's so much work,
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  Speaker 3: so many opportunities in the region. We need to sort
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of encourage those families to come and stay, yeah, not
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  Speaker 3: leave now leave?
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And what like, what are locals saying to you
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  Speaker 2: at the moment?
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: People can if everyone is frustrated, it's a solution that's communicating.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm talking to a few different industry people
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: across all areas, a few different people in government. I'm
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: not getting into politics, so I just sort of give
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: sort of opinion and thoughts. We're just going to see
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: what we can do. But certainly what I see in
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: the media, it can't just be isolated regions a whole
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: the territory. This needs to be addressed. It's seen that
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: happened before. Change has happened to a regional area. It
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  Speaker 3: just goes up and down the track. So we need
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: to sor be looking at the territory as a whole.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, how long has it been since you've sort
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of seen vacancy rates at the level that they're at
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: I would say probably close to three years.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, so it four.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Years, Yeah, it was, it was fairly strong, yes, probably, yeah, yeah,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: at least three to four years.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Obviously we've had a lot of housing built up building
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: in Catherine, which is attributed to more accommodation in general.
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  Speaker 4: But this amount of vacancies, which, as I said, when
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: it was previously this height, we didn't have as much
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: employment around. Yeah, now we do have lots of jobs
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: and now I've got lots of houses, so come on in.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's it. Isn't it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: We want everybody, you know, you still like, we're still
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: all advocates for people moving to the Northern Territory, but
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: but you know, we've got to make sure that we
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: sought this issue. Otherwise it is really holding us back.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: That's how I feel, and I think that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we've got to we've got to lance the boil. We've
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: got to sort it out otherwise we're going to continue
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to struggle.
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  Speaker 3: And people that are moving here are looking at the media.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: You know, Oh, there's a job opportunity in the territory.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Let's have a look look at a few social media sites. Oh,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: look at the issues here, the issues there? Do we
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: want to make that move? How do we now overcome that?
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's it.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the only way to realistically overcome it
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: is to sort the issue because we can sort of say, oh, look,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's negativity on social media, or it's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: or it's media coverage, you know, and rightly so, it
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: is media coverage.
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  Speaker 2: But the fact is, no one's making it up, are they.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: It's you know, it's real issues that are happening that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: even you, as a business owner are having to deal with.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: That's it. I think people can see some action happening. Yeah,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: then we should overcome up for sure.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, Allison. I really appreciate you having a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning. It's it is really interesting
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  Speaker 1: to hear that those vacancy rates, you know, that they
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that you're talking sort of sixty comparatively to it usually
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: being around the thirty market does sound like a massive,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you know, a massive change. So I hope that we're
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: able to get this issue sorted and get more.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: People coming back to the Northern Territory.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: That's it. We'll keep keep an eye up for sure.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good on you. Thanks so much for your time
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: this morning. I appreciate it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Thanks Kelly,