Located approximately 1184km Northeast of Perth along the Great Northern Highway is Newman with its current population of 5000 permanent residents and 3000 FIFO (fly-in-fly-out) workers.
Newman is at the heart of the mining and resource boom, with Mt Whaleback mine being the world’s single biggest open-cut iron ore mine and BHP’s single largest project. Despite the vital role Newman plays in WA’s economy, it is still quite overlooked as a property investment hotspot. When investors think of high rent returns and positively geared property, typically locations such as Karratha and Port Hedland spring to mind. There is an opinion however, that there is an opportunity for investors to get into the Newman property market now and enjoy a steep rise in capital growth as well as the already high rent returns of around 11.5%, that is set to continue given the mining expansion and town revitalisation plans.
There are around a dozen significant iron ore mines surrounding the town of Mount Newman, which is the service town for their workforce. “As a key service centre for some of the world’s biggest iron ore projects, Newman faces an exciting future” Brendon Gryll’s states in his foreword of the Newman Revitalisation Plan. The plan (some 56 pages in summary), outlines how over $800M will be spent in the next 0-5 years as short term actions, projects and studies for the improvement of Newman as a subregional centre. The improvements are essential for planning the town’s projected population growth from 8,000 to a permanent 15,000 residents by the year 2015. These infrastructure and growth plans are directly linked to the world’s demand for our iron ore, which continues to be newsworthy and contribute to record breaking exports and profits. Last year saw another record broken by BHP Billiton; producing 36.5 million tonnes of iron ore from its Pilbara operations in the three months to September 30 (up 25% on the same period the previous year).
Having just approved a $698M development of a new ore mine near Newman that is expected to start production in the second half of 2012, this corporate’s growth plans are clear. Similarly Rio Tinto has substantial export growth plans, with their biggest mine Yandi-coogina also located near Newman. Rio produced 144mt of iron ore in 2011 and has targets of 350mt a year by 2020, with an ultimate goal of 450mt.
See www.macrorealty.com.au for further details.