Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) Economic Development and Marketing Manager Josie Howard says the most significant growth lies in the industry sector, which shows local sales in construction have almost doubled between December 2016 and 2017.

“Looking at the construction sector from December 2016 – December 2017 the figures show some pretty amazing growth,” she said.

“The increase in gross profit for local businesses that serviced construction over that year was an additional $12,902,000 on the 2016 figures, and local business providing goods and services to other local businesses has increased by $9.196 million.

“That’s money in the pockets of local plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and builders.

“With the increase in jobs and the additional wages and salaries that goes along with that, the construction sector has added $4 million dollars to the Wellington Gross Regional Product.

“That has a substantial positive impact throughout the whole town and the wider region.”

She said those figures, along with an increase in development applications (DAs), indicate people are investing. Residential DAs through council increased from 74 in 2016 to 84 last year.

This increase and recent data from Orana Real Estate Institute on residential housing investment growth supports the notion that people are investing in Wellington.

While the DAs can include anything from a new home to a garden shed, Ms Howard said it is a sign of stable growth.

Bob Berry, Acting Chair of REINSW (Orana Division), said house sales in Wellington outperformed towns in the region for the year to November. 

He said the most significant improvement has been the huge decline in the time taken to sell a home in Wellington. At the end of 2016 it was over 300 days, which has fallen to 149 days by November.

"It is clear the performance of the Wellington house market has improved, and much of this can be attributed to the greater focus on the town as part of DRC," Mr Berry said.

“Wellington is the only town, of four similar towns in the region, which recorded an increase in the median house price in the year to November.

“Wellington recorded an increase of 4.9 per cent for the year, and a five-year annual average increase of 4.32 per cent. 

“The investment return based on the rental yield of 8.4 per cent was 13.3 per cent for the year.”

With houses, come people – Australia Post data indicates that 28 new households moved into Wellington in the last six months of 2017, and eight more have presented for New Resident information at the Wellington Visitor Information Centre. 

Council, through the Wellington Information Centre will host a New Resident Event in March to officially welcome the new families to town, introduce them to each other and the wider community.

 “March will see the first of what I am sure will be many New Resident Welcome Events in Wellington,” Ms Howard said.

“With such an embracing and social community, I am sure these new families to town will really enjoy their new home.

“With good housing development and investment yields and new households setting up their homes in town, it’s a great time to be a part of the Wellington community.”