Analytics firm CoreLogic has released stunning figures that bely the notion that property prices in Australia are beginning to slow down.
Their most recent Regional Market update showed that half of Regional Australia has seen over 20% added to house prices in the last 12 months, with seven regions recording higher than 30%.
The areas around the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven topped the list, with 35.9% year-on-year property price rises, fuelled by those trading Sydney for the bush, but wish to remain within driving distance of the city.
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The Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, centred around Byron Bay, recorded the second highest growth of any region in Australia. Property prices in the Richmond/Tweed area grew by 32.8%, with the Sunshine Coast not far behind on 32.3%.
“There has been a broad demographic shift where more Australians are prepared to consider housing options outside of the capital cities, which has seen net internal migration rates to regional Australia reach record highs,” said Tim Lawless, research director at CoreLogic.
“Working from home looks to have some degree of permanency post-COVID and is one of the catalysts of this trend, with more people basing themselves in regional locations to work remotely or balancing office work with home working.”
The price rises have begun to make a dent in the traditional affordability gap that regional areas have enjoyed.
“If housing values across regional parts of the country continue to outpace the capitals, the obvious outcome will be that regional markets lose their affordability advantage,” said Lawless.
“We can already see this trend taking shape in some of the most popular regional coastal markets such as Byron Bay where median house values are $1.7 million and Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where median house values are $1.2 million, much higher than comparable capital city values.”
