Darwin Defence houses over a third complete

Darwin will gain amongst the largest number of homes of any location under the program. There are 185 houses being constructed as the area has such a strong Defence presence and a fairly tight housing market.

In recent months there has been a lot of media coverage about the tight housing market conditions in Darwin. The Housing Outlook report published by QBE in October 2009 indicated that rental prices in Darwin are the highest in the country while the median sale price was second only to Sydney. The Defence houses under construction will go some way to easing the pressure on this market.

At 31 December 2009, 70 houses were complete with the remaining 115 under construction. This means that just over a third of the houses in the program are now finished. Three local building companies have been working ahead of schedule in delivering these new houses. One of these companies is Gusher Pty Ltd, a Darwin owned company operating in the area since 1970.

Mick Malady of Gusher Pty Ltd said “it has been tough for some people living in Darwin with the housing market as it is, but obviously increased construction means there is more supply to meet that demand.”

He further explained that the stimulus plan helped move along some of that construction “I know that these additional funds helped Defence Housing Australia to get moving quickly on contracting builders for these houses. As a local building company we were really happy to get on board, employ local people and have the money supporting Darwin’s economy.”  

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