With the recovery now gaining momentum and demand for coal, especially from China, coming back strongly - property demand in the region is set to grow strongly. But don't just take our word for it. Study the evidence on this page and make up your own mind.

Speaking on Bowen, The Australian Newspaper's Property Expert Terry Rider Wrote:

Its median house price has grown more than 20 per cent a year every year from 2002 to last year. Its long-term growth rate an average of 20 per cent a year over the past 10 years is close to the best nationally. Much of the impetus for that has come from the Abbot Point Coal Terminal, 25km north of Bowen. An expansion now under way will double the export capacity and a further expansion to four times the current capacity will be completed by June 2011. The cost is close to $1 billion. Future expansions are under consideration. If they proceed, Abbot Point will eventually be eight times its current size. Investors could do a lot worse than adopt an any port in a storm philosophy. Amid the economic tempest, port expansion is a source of economic activity and job creation. There are massive construction works going on at export facilities nationwide, with plenty more in planning. This makes sense in a nation where export of resources and commodities is a key driver of wealth."

Terry Ryder

Speaking recently (20-10-09) The Managing Director of Rio Tinto's Australian Arm Bill Champion told the Daily Mercury:

"The best thing about Queensland and especially the Bowen region - it's elephant country for coking coal." Coking coal is a raw material used alongside iron ore to create steel, which falls under the heading of 'metallurgical coal'. "There's no better area for mining coking coal and if the demand continues up for this coal, it will be very good for the mining industry in the Bowen region." "I think there's a good consideration that we're seeing a recovery at hand," he said.

On the 23rd of October 09 Treasury Secretary DR Ken Henry said :

A return to full employment was a "conceivable possibility" in the coming years, with major export partners showing unexpected resilience despite the global downturn.

"It now appears the impact of the global financial crisis on the Chinese economy and the Indian economy hasn't been nearly as large as many feared," Henry told a Senate hearing late Wednesday. "It seems that that's likely to support high, relatively high commodity prices, that is prices for Australia's export commodities, for a considerable period of time, quite possibly ... for some decades."

In September 09 The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton said:

"It expected growth in China to fuel a new boom over coming decades, with global steel demand to double in 15 years".

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iFSp_8PDQZ28oURlApWqA-T6K6yQ

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/22/2720748.htm

http://www.dailymercury.com.au/story/2009/10/20/gear-growth-mining-boss-says/

Strong Mid Term Property Returns in Bowen, with the Best Yet to Come

Economic growth and increases in job opportunities and population is transforming Bowen into an investor's paradise. The combination of an expansion in high salaried industry jobs (mining and infrastructure) and the development of fantastic lifestyle amenities in Bowen is set to create a MASSIVE POPULATION INCREASE in Bowen.

Some population forecasters are tipping the town will more than double in size in the next decade, with property prices tipped to do the same.

Bowen has a Strong record of capital growth in the last 5 years (17.82%) and with all the current, understudy and confirmed mining and infrastructure projects in the area, plus a recognized shortage of housing, (particularly modern homes), rental incomes are poised to skyrocket.

"There is an undersupply of existing housing in Bowen" Says Stephen Wiseman from Herron Todd White Real Estate, "we expect that will continue into the near future" he said, particularly "Given the average wage of a miner, which I think is about $150,00 per annum, I think Bowen may still have more growth".

Quinten Muller of Century 21 points out the strong demand mining is creating for property, and how earmarked projects can only exasperate this "Local miners like to spend four working days in mining camps close to work and then buy or rent a home in Bowen for the family, so they can spend their days off there. With the rental market now stronger than ever, in some peak periods we have people lining up to find a rental property, and developers and builders can't build the homes fast enough to keep up with demand."