BY GARY-JON LYSAGHT
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| [Image: The Herald]. |
While the infiltration of houses using and manufacturing the drug Ice in Newcastle and the Hunter has increased in recent years, it’s still not something that is rampant throughout the suburbs, according to one real estate expert.
Hunter chairman of the Real Estate Institute, Wayne Stewart said while there had been increases in residential houses that were home to drug users and manufacturers,
it can’t compare with the levels of Sydney and Melbourne.
He said drug operators are coming out of the rural areas and into the suburbs to help avoid detection.
“They assume that by putting them amongst residential people that they won’t be noted as much,” he said.
“Whether it be just the user or whether it’s crime gangs, they are renting homes in domestic suburbs and turning those into places where they … produce the drugs.”
A study in the Medical Journal of Australia in February showed Ice use in Australia had tripled in the past five years.
Despite the jump, Mr Stewart said it still isn’t something that is talked about much in the real estate market by either agents or buyers.
He also said there is very little regulation around buying houses which used to house drug operations or those being sold nearby a lab.
“It’s not something that gets brought up in our day-to-day dealings with customers," he said.
“Until we start to see how it is going to affect the community it’s difficult to see what sort of remedies will be put in place."
Despite the new stats in drug use – as well as reports from the ABC that a Newcastle biohazard cleaning service was receiving daily calls about meth lab clean-up – Mr Stewart said it’s nothing he hasn’t seen in the past.
“I’d probably go back 30 to 35 years ago and we’ve had evidence of needles being found on properties and in the walls,” he said.
