Investor bright on recovery

February 20, 2019

 The Townsville Bulletin

Property investor Warren Ebert sees a bright future for Townsville and is backing the city to recover strongly from this month’s devastating floods.

But he says some capital city bankers and the Labor State Government need reminding about the potential of the region and the need for mining projects to proceed.

Mr Ebert, managing director of the Sentinel Property Group, is focused on regional property markets. The fund has investments of more than $80 million in Townsville.

“We are in the town to buy. We haven’t lost any confidence in Townsville because of the floods,” he said.

“We understand when it gets to the (bank) head office, they say ‘Townsville is it still there?’ As long as we are here, we’ll back it.”

Mr Ebert said the Northern Territory Government was providing incentives for residential and commercial property development, something Queensland needed to consider.

But he said providing the long-awaited approvals for Adani’s Carmichael coal and rail project was something the Government could do to help the region recover from the floods and economic downturn.

“What if they allowed a mine to go ahead. Maybe the Queensland Government can do something for people up north,” Mr Ebert said.

“People up here have been hit hard. They need hope.

“If they found out today that Adani has the full go-ahead, imagine what that would do to lift the spirits of Townsville and North Queensland.”

Mr Ebert said the Sentinel Property Group’s investments in Townsville, including the River Quays building which has Adani as a major tenant, had come through the floods with little or no damage.

He said it would look at further acquisitions, mindful of what the impact would be of any extra insurance costs as a result of the “terrible” flood.