LIVERPOOL Plains mayor Andrew Hope has described as “misleading” a report suggesting towns in the shire are under financial pressure and at higher risk of defaulting on business or personal loans.
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Fairfax Media on Monday reported the National Australia Bank had red-flagged 40 postcodes where business and personal loans were at higher risk of default because the areas have an over-reliance on single industries for growth, have high unemployment, or property prices have run too hard.
Although the bank wouldn’t disclose which postcodes were on its credit watchlist, Digital Finance Analytics analysed Australia for the postcodes most susceptible to stress if interest rates or unemployment rose.
Included were Blackville, Caroona, Colly Blue, Pine Ridge, Quirindi, Spring Ridge and Wallabadah in the North West, in the Liverpool Plains shire.
Cr Hope said median house prices in Werris Creek were still under the $200,000 mark, which he thought was “reasonable”; however, the top end of the market was too high.
“I think maybe the data is working on the top end of our market, which certainly is higher now and is having a price (adjustment),” he said.
“But the bottom end and the normal day-to-day market that the average homebuyer is buying in our area is quite good, it’s quite buoyant.”
As for employment, although the shire’s economy was heavily reliant on farming, and finances were linked to decent rainfall, he said employment levels at local businesses in the shire had remained steady for at least the past 20 years.
“We’re not seeing a massive downturn or uplift. We would certainly encourage some development to fix that and create some employment,” Cr Hope said.
“Our economy fluctuates, but not probably to the degree that some of the ones further west do that are heavily reliant on rain.
“I think possibly the data’s not 100 per cent accurate.
“Probably, unlike Gunnedah, we haven’t seen the extensive boom of mining. We’ve had Werris Creek Coal, which has certainly brought in some local employment and a little bit of money into our economy. We have certainly had a benefit and a flow-on from that.
“The Shenhua project further up the road, being in Gunnedah ... we may pick up some work off the side of it, should it be approved, and maybe it might help our property prices and our real estate values.”
He said the local farming community was also very innovative and coped well during times of drought, especially the larger broadacre farms on the plains.
“With our underground water and our nice, rich soils out there, we tend to be a little bit more drought-proof than some other areas,” he said.