The Darwin real estate market is set for more goods news on the employment front with the announcement Australian energy company Santos has acquired ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia businesses. Correspondingly, innovative NT farmers are investing in cropping technologies that will drive the Top End’s agricultural future.

Significantly, the multibillion-dollar Santos buyout includes the Barossa Project, a gas and light condensate field located offshore about 300 kilometres north of Darwin. “The gas from this project will be pumped into Darwin,” said Glenn Grantham, General Manager, Raine & Horne Darwin. “ConocoPhillips has one train for transporting the gas to Darwin, and they will need to build two more. This project will potentially create hundreds of construction jobs, which will impact demand for property in Darwin.”

The move by Santos is additional to the establishment of a $25 billion SunCable solar farm in Tennant Creek. This project will power Darwin and Singapore,” Glenn confirmed. “The solar project will create thousands of jobs over the next 7-8 years in this city as the cable between Tennant Creek, Darwin, and then Singapore is completed.

“Throw in the massive $400 million ship lift to be built in Darwin Harbour, and there are excellent signs for jobs and population growth, which don’t seem to be on the antennas of some so-called real estate experts who have never visited Darwin.”

Glenn continued, “We shouldn’t forget the agriculture potential of Northern Australia either and the long-term impact this will have on the economy and demand for property,”

For example, some farms near Darwin are testing a genetically modified cotton that is resistant to the insects that contributed to the collapse of the northern Australian cotton industry four decades ago. “These farms are growing dryland cotton, and the trial comes as there is increasing scrutiny on drought-plagued cotton regions in the southern states,” said Glenn. “The Top End has plentiful rainfall, undeveloped land and a climate that is attractive not only to cotton but other crops that have the potential to underpin Northern Australia’s long-term economic case as the food bowl of Asia.”