Darwin property values continued to grow through 2009 with increases of 26.9 per cent and 15.7 per cent in house and unit median values.  Pressure from an increasing population along with economic growth surrounding current gas and oil projects has fuelled these increases.

Vacancy rates of both houses and units have been extremely low due to strong demand and a continuing shortage of housing stock.  Good news for investors has been the significant increase in rents received for both houses and units.

It could be said that the future will be more of the same with some very large resource based projects proposed for Darwin.  Land release has been a major issue and the government has moved to release more in an effort to cope with increasing demand.

Alice Springs is the second largest population centre in the Territory and services cental Australia.  The story here is much the same with median house and unit values increasing by 30.4 per cent and 32.9 per cent respectively for the year to the end of the September quarter.  Again, 2010 should be more of the same.

Pressure from major government projects plus possible future mining in the region will keep vacancy rates low, currently less than 1 per cent and put upward pressure on property values.  Alice Springs has also seen strong increases in rents of between 8 per cent and 35 per cent for different sectors of the rental market.