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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If we are able to recruit these four hundred staff,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: where are they all going to live? Now? Joining us
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on the line is the Real Estate Institute of the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory CEO Quentin Killian.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Good morning, morning, Katie.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Quentin. What was your initial reaction when you heard that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we might end up with an influx of four hundred people.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm always excited to seek growth in the territory
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form, and of course it
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: is going to present some issues as far as housing
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the people go, but nothing is insurmountable. Rather than sort
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of looking immediately at the problems, we should be thinking, well,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: we are going to have these four hundred odd people
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: over a period of time. What are the solutions? And
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: off the top of my head, I don't have them,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: but I'm sure there are solutions there.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I love your can do attitude though, Quintin, it's always
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: nice to hear mate. You know, if it's just a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: situation where they're needing to find rental properties or where
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: they're needing to buy a property, have we got that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: kind of stock on the market?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Look, there is. It's not necessarily in Palmerston though, so
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: if they're looking just at Parmeerson. I did a quick
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: scurry around real estate dot com dot Au yesterday to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: have a look at the numbers, and it's sort of
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: coming up around the one eighty six to one ninety
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: mark for Palmerston for properties that are available, So you'd
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: have to look a bit further afield, perhaps coming into
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the city area or into the northern suburbs, but yes,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: there would be property available. One of the interesting things,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: of course, is that it offers a real opportunity for
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: investors to come into a market to purchase properties and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: then turn them back into the rental market to create
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: more rental stock.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon? You know, are we going to see here,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: quintin a bit of a situation where there's a real
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: surge obviously in people wanting to rent to property or
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: wanting to buy a property, but it's kind of going
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to be a bit of a false urge if it
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is only for a year or so.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Well, that's happened many, many times in the territory and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: that's one of the biggest problems that we need to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: overcome going into the future, is that we base a
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: lot of our population growth on these project based actualities
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: rather than driven by real organic growth. We saw it
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: with Impacts, We've seen it with other projects, where we
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: suddenly have this great spike in activity which then dissipates
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: after a period of time. Because essentially all of these
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: people are contract workers, they are only there for a
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: period of time.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So Quentin, I mean on the whole. Obviously, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it could be a really good thing for the territory
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to have sort of four hundred additional workers here, but
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you know it could be a tough situation as well
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in terms of finding them accommodation.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Look, it could be that is a distinct possibility. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: don't think. Again, with all of these projects, I don't
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: think we should turn away from it simply because there
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: is a problem there. I think the key to it
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: is to say, yes, we recognize there could be a problem,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and there probably will be an issue, but let's see
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: if we can find a solution. Whether that solution is
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: housing them in temporary accommodation somewhere else or housing them
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: in a hotel rooms, I don't know. I don't have
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: that solution. But rather than looking at it as just
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a problem and saying, well, we really shouldn't do this
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: because there is a problem, we should look at it
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: and say it's a good idea, let's find a solution
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Well, and do you know what that hotel accommodation or
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: sort of looking more at the short term accommodation may
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: end up being the way to go, because you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: even when you talk about the contracts that people will
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: be signing to come across. When we spoke to the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Health Minister earlier in the week, she did sort of
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: say that, you know, if at any time it became
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous dangerous or we're seeing sort of you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: community transmission, it would be something that they'd be discussing
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: with the federal Health Minister's office. So it does sound
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: like whatever happens, we've got to be pretty fluid with it.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Sure. I mean, one idea perhaps is to go and
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: have a look at the short term lit market, so
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the airbnbs and things like that, and say let's negotiate
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: longer term rentals in those you know, they're predominantly to
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: a large extent unused during COVID because of the fact
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: that there hasn't been that mobility of travelers or tourists.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: So perhaps there is a marketplace there that could be
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: looked at for that contract period.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Well, Quentin, I tell you what, You've given me plenty
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to think about. Like Billy did earlier this morning, thinking
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: out loud, you know, I'm sort of thinking to myself
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as well, even when you talk about those airbnbs and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you talk about hotels, and we are thinking this could
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: all happen sort of just as the dry season kicks
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in on one. What's going to happen?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Well, look, you know the one thing to consider. We've
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: just actually released our national figures through our national office
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: today and just to put it in some perspective, we've
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: got a vacancy rate around two percent, which is tight
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: for the territory market being a smaller market, but Perth,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: which is a very large market, it actually recorded a
• 5:22
  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.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Is very real.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Sort of pales into insignificance at the moment, and just
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: something else to ponder for your listeners. We did some
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: national calculations on median price. Perth came in the lowest
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: at four hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars for a house.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Nar One was not far behind that at five hundred thousand.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Sydney's median price at the moment is one point two
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: one one million dollars.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: It's a bit rough.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: That's the medium.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Who we're not well, we're not manly placed as far
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: as medium pricing goes. Where you know, a little just
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: a touch behind where Perthy is and they've recorded the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: lowest media.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. Well, Quentin Killy and it's always
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: good to catch up with you mate. I really appreciate
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: your time this morning.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Lovely Katie, thank you