Rents and house prices rise in Mount Isa due to demand from mining employees

Rents have risen 22% over the past two years in the remote north-west Queensland base metals mining town of Mount Isa, driven by demand for temporary accommodation from mining employees.

PRDnationwide calculates that median rents in Mount Isa have risen to $550 per week, while house prices in the Mount Isa municipality have experienced “exceptional growth” of 12.4% per annum.

According to Australian Property Monitors, Mount Isa has median house price of $350,000 for the 12 months to August and a regional house price of $330,000.

Mount Isa lies 1,800 kilometres north-west of Brisbane and 900 kilometres west of Townsville.

The urban region of Mount Isa has around 20,500 people, according to the 2011 census, and sits directly below enormous mining operations, with smoke stacks billowing plumes into the sky day and night. Among the mining companies operating in the area is Xstrata, which operates the underground Mount Isa Mines, which extract copper and zinc-lead-silver.

Around 43% of Mount Isa residents rent.

Since June, the Queensland state government has been receiving hourly data updates from Xstrata's 10 air pollution monitoring units after the Department of Environment and Resource noted that air pollution levels in Mount Isa are much higher than other parts of the state.

Recent sales in Mount Isa include this four-bedroom house (below) sold by Brenda Slade of Vivid Realty for $380,000 on October 24.

Photograph of Mount Isa courtesy of Flickr.

Four-bedroom houses rent in Mount Isa from around $700 to $850. At the low rental point, this would equate to yield of around 9.5%