Perths future ?

[pegg]

Hey guys its thursday night and im pondering again ........ just thinking of how you think WA is doing and heading in the next 10 years ???

 

Just thinking of my personal view on UK is - Weve just been through hell for the last 7 years of a recession - only last year to now the midlands seems to be booming!

Times were so hard i requalified as a fitness instructor to earn more pennies, But like i say its booming now ,I am booked up with building jobs til this time next year easy !

 

However , the general election is very soon and i feel its not all over - i feel the world is still a tad unstable , So is this boom in the UK going to be shortlived ?

 

Anyhow thats a thought of mine , But im wondering how is WA doing ? it didnt seem to suffer as much as the UK , yet i read on the internet that Australia needs a recession to bring prices down so it can compete it world markets again ?

 

But hey please dont point out things that i may have wrong , as im just a builder who loves his family that wants a better life ;o)

 

Any comments / thoughts ????

 

Cheers Guys

 

Paul

[pegg]

mmm perhaps should have said Perths economic future .... ???

[Druid]

Perth's economy is slowing down, I work at the airport and deal with a lot of FIFO aircraft, one of the major FIFO airlines has just stuck a notice on the board asking pilots to consider voluntary redundancy, another smaller airline who's aircraft used to do at least two trips a day are down to only one a day, my son who works for one of the FIFO airlines used to do 24 hours of overtime a week now does nothing, the local tool salesman says there are loads of redundancies in the trucking industry with the slow down of the mines, the trucks aren't needed, one of the big mines recently announced it was going into caretaker mode, and the other night a big mine announced lay offs, the property market has also slowed down, houses are staying on the market longer and seem to have stopped going up in price, the rental market is flat with loads of properties on the market all going down in price, I talked to my Site Supervisor yesterday who is in charge of building my house, he says for the first time in months he can actually get a brick layer when he wants one, no more huge waiting lists, Australia did weather the GFC well, Perth did particularly well, the eastern states got hammered and are only just now recovering, the exchange rate is helping, the lower AUD is making Aussie goods more competitive, we are getting a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian based work coming through all because the exchange rate is good for them, but as with any city, life goes on, all our jobs are secure as we dont rely on the mining industry, people are still flocking to Perth in droves looking for better way of life, most make it and find jobs, we recently brought a Canadian in on a 457, her partner is a geologist in the mining industry, he was working in China, they have been here for 6 months now and he cant get work locally, so he has retrained as a personal trainer and now works in a local gym.

[rpakey]

I guess its all cyclical, I think WA has weathered the storm very well so far, but is definitely showing signs of slowing down, this is great news for those of us planning the move over!

[Give me a break!]

I don't think its slowed down at all from when we arrived 5 years ago to be honest. I remember sending a PM to another member as I got the collywobbles because there was so much doom and gloom on the forums stating we were on the brink of recession. 5 years later it's still not happened. It might, I'm no expert, but until then we'll just keep taking it as it comes. Don't borrow if you can help it. Keep you mortgage reasonable and be sensible and save.

[ali]

Recessions are probably part and parcel of life wherever you are .... we managed to live through negative equity in the UK (thankfully we managed to sell our first house for what we bought it for whilst so many suffered a loss), and we've done our share of economy shops in our lifetime ... nowhere is going to have it "so good" 100% of the time.

[JenPen]

I don't think its slowed down at all from when we arrived 5 years ago to be honest. I remember sending a PM to another member as I got the collywobbles because there was so much doom and gloom on the forums stating we were on the brink of recession. 5 years later it's still not happened. It might, I'm no expert, but until then we'll just keep taking it as it comes. Don't borrow if you can help it. Keep you mortgage reasonable and be sensible and save.

Sound advice there and one we have always stuck to!! Kept us out the deep end that's for sure

[pegg]

good advice / info ... cheers guys

[Lou8670]

Perth needs to slow down, everything was getting silly. Rentals have certainly calmed down and landlords are now having to reduce their rents rather than being able to give the property to the highest bidder. Since we've been here (less than a year) we've had 2 friends lose their jobs (quite a high proportion considering we've not been here that long so our circle of friends is still relatively small). Luckily, they have both managed to secure other work but both I believe had to accept less pay.

 

I've also heard net migration is down the last few years which also shows less people are coming here for work.

 

The economy is looking a lot less uncertain than it was. Major oil and gas projects are coming to an end with no new ones in the pipeline. There are a lot of FIFO workers losing their jobs. Rio Tinto are now laying people off and there will be a knock on affect to all other areas of employment.

 

I have friends who've arrived within the last year and not all have found work easily. Some have taken 9 months to secure employment. That's pretty tough on your bank balance and resolve. Others have found work within days or arriving. It really depends on what you do for work.

 

In Mandurah, there is lots of building work. There are lots of houses being built and new estates popping up; new schools, shopping centres, a new surf club in our little suburb; so lots of building work. I also see there is still a lot of investment in new high rises in the city too. So the building trade seems to be booming. The million dollar question though is how long will it last?

[scoobypatch]

I work within a sales department that deal with most of the industries in WA. The mining has dropped massively for us, projects being put on hold, or even cancelled. However, the contractors that were working on the mines have had to adjust and have now moved into other projects, like civil and electrical projects. It is getting quite competitive out there, where I have heard that some contractors are winning projects on a loss to keep the steady work going while they try to ride this storm. There is loads of work out there for people, however, there is going to be a lot of competition.