Since Covid hit and brought with it the opening up of options to work from home and the realignment of many of our values, Aussies are having a love affair with regional areas. And I totally get it!
CoreLogic’s quarterly Regional Market Update shows Australia’s 25 largest non-capital city regions continued to achieve unprecedented increases in value. Over the 12 months to January 2022, 24 regions recorded double-digit annual growth for houses, with 18 regions notching up gains in excess of 20%.
This is unprecedented and a big shake up for property markets across the country.
When we lose the reason to be tied to the city and open our eyes to other options, the grass does seem pretty green when you can get more house and land for less money. Or a better lifestyle for the same money.
This massive growth in property values now means that regional areas have lost their advantage of affordability, but they still hold the golden ticket of lifestyle.
Experts forecast that the regional value growth will slow this year, but places like Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Toowoomba have really been impacted with massive demand which has led to a housing shortage and price increase.
It will be interesting to see how all this change settles and whether the regional shift is temporary or a permanent realignment of what’s important to us.
As a nation, we’ve always been pretty good at putting our lifestyle first. This change shows that we just needed a little nudge to take the plunge.
Have you opted for or been tempted by a tree-change or sea-change in the last couple of years?
