Most of us, well, those who have an interest in property investing perhaps, have heard of the Pilbara region in Western Australia and we associate the region with the mining resources boom in Australia. For many of us, however, that’s about it, that’s all we know!
Let’s take a bit of a closer look at this region and the towns in the Pilbara that have property investors interested and in some cases paying huge dollars to get into these markets.
Western Australia is a state that is rich in minerals and there are mines related to the extraction of many of these. Amongst the commodities mines in WA you’ll find Gold, Nickel, Alumina, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Salt, Cobalt, Diamonds and Coal. It’s Iron Ore, however, that is the big ticket item here and it’s the Pilbara that sees a good number of iron ore deposits, mines and mining towns. Natural gas and petroleum are also found in this region. Some of these mines have been operating for many years and others are quite new. Iron ore is in high demand and projects continue to be developed and expanded.
The Pilbara itself is a regions that covers a large amount of space (over 500,000km) and has relatively few towns, in proportion with the size of it. The main towns here are, on the coast, Port Hedland and Karratha and inland, Newman and Tom Price, with a few smaller towns here and there, such as Wickham.
It’s a well established mining investment market and pricing to get into many of these areas is high. So too, though, are the returns.
| Location | Median Price | 12 mth Capital Growth | 5 yr Capital Growth | 10 yr Capital Growth | Median Advertised Rent per week | Time on Market | Yield |
| Port Hedland | $1,150,000 | 5% | 102% | 20% | $2200 | 161 | 10% |
| Newman | $762,500 | 9% | 82% | 32% | NA | NA | NA |
| Tom Price | $685,000 | 16% | NA | 14% | NA | NA | NA |