Darwin’s property market has teeth

After nine years in the Northern Territory, Ray White Darwin | Palmerston director and selling principal Andrew Harding is no stranger to wildlife, but spotting a croc at a listing is still a rarity.

Andrew figured the closest he’d come to a crocodile while on the job was a life-sized concrete garden decoration at a Cullen Bay listing. But earlier this year, while helping fellow selling principal Ryan Rowsell with a Virginia listing, he discovered a real 4.5m saltwater crocodile that was part of the sellers’ family. Fortunately for the next owner, the croc will not be part of the deal as it’s moving on with the vendors who legally own the reptile.

“It's definitely not something you see everyday and when you're doing inspections you get to show people a huge crocodile in the backyard,” he said.

“We've sold plenty of houses with big snakes and birds*. There are lots of interesting people in the Northern Territory, especially when you start going rural.”

As for the Cullen Bay listing (pictured above), currently on the market with a $3.95 million price guide, the seller got involved in the marketing by placing the fake crocodile at the end of the jetty, hoping neighbours would report a sighting to the local radio station. It was certainly creative, and as they say in the public relations world, all publicity is good publicity.

“The owner had a life-sized crocodile that he put on the pontoon. There were some calls to the local radio station to report it but it didn't get as much action as we thought, although it’s definitely gotten a few people through the inspections,” Andrew said.

“We have some pretty cool homes in the Northern Territory to suit the tropics. We get some pretty fun Troppo homes, like 35 Martin Cres, Coconut Grove which sold for $1.3 million last year, they are essentially just big tree houses and all open to the outdoors. They're always popular and fun to sell.”

Originally from Tasmania, Andrew (pictured above) drove to Darwin nearly a decade ago while travelling Australia as a builder. He only planned to stay for a weekend but never left. In 2017, he pivoted to real estate and has since built a highly successful career, ranking in the top one per cent of Ray White salespeople across Australia and New Zealand.

Over the past nine years, Andrew has watched the Darwin property market change and adapt, especially during the COVID-19 years.

“The market has evolved a lot since I started. It was heavily declining when I first started and in a bad way. I didn't know at the time, I really had no idea what was going on when I first started and then three years in COVID happened, and that changed things as we know,” Andrew said.

“The Darwin market depends a lot on industry projects. Since Japanese natural gas company INPEX finished up in 2014 the market has been pretty flat except the little run with COVID.

“Now we’re seeing a lot more investors in the market for properties under $600,000 and most properties above $600,000 are being bought by locals. It's very transient so we get a lot of interstate buyers buying and moving here.”