State of Markets – NSW October 2012

$80m mine announced for central NSW
The announcement of an $80 million mining project 100km south east of Cobar in central NSW is set to increase the town’s appeal to investors.

The ‘Hera Project’ mine, 4km south of Nymagee, will be an extraction point for 355,000 tonnes of gold, silver, lead and zinc annually, with an estimated lifespan of eight and a half years.

Up to 100 jobs will be created during construction and a further 100 during operation, according to the state planning department.

Housing within the area is largely controlled by employers, according to the Cobar Shire Council’s Economic Strategy 2012 to 2016 report.

“There are around 2,300 dwellings in the Shire with over 36 per cent of residents renting, and only 30 per cent of residents owned their home at [2011] census time,” the report said.

Government must act on affordability
Laing+Simmons has joined industry groups in calling for urgent reform on housing supply and affordability in NSW.

Leanne Pilkington, general manager at Laing+Simmons, said the NSW state government needs to commit genuinely to stamp duty reform and to providing support in order to provide a boost to affordability.

“The affordability and supply issues experienced by the market in recent years are no closer to being solved, and the changes to planning and development in this state recently proposed seem insufficient to effect real change,” Ms Pilkington said.

“If the NSW government is serious about making housing more affordable in this state, then the buck stops with stamp duty," she said.

“The application of stamp duty in New South Wales is overly complicated and excessive, and continues to stymie the market,” Ms Pilkington said.

“Failing its complete abolition, it’s clear this tax needs reconsideration to more closely align it with the more reasonable frameworks operating in other states.”