Regional NSW leads regional house race

For units, the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven region in NSW took the top spot for the second consecutive quarter, with a 17.9 per cent annual growth.

Overall, regional housing values increased at more than four times the pace than their capital city counterparts over the past 12 months to January 2021, according to CoreLogic’s executive director of research Tim Lawless.

Specifically, CoreLogic’s combined regional index was up 7.9 per cent, whereas combined capital city home values expanded by a slim 1.7 per cent.

“As more Australian’s look for properties outside of the capital cities, an imbalance between demand and supply is placing upwards pressure on housing prices,” the research director noted.

“This is most apparent in markets like Richmond-Tweed, which includes high profile towns such as Byron Bay and Tweed Heads.”

Mr Lawless said that several factors contributed to the persisting demand for regional housing, including improved affordability, low housing density and a new-found appreciation and ability to work remotely.

In terms of sales volumes, Central Queensland won across the house market with a 42.5 per cent increase, while Bunbury in Western Australia topped the unit market with a 51 per cent increase.

Ballarat in Victoria took out the win for the shortest days on market for houses, having clocked 27 days, while the shortest days on market for units was recorded in Launceston and North East in Tasmania at 24 days.

Will the trend last?

While nobody can tell exactly how long the regional markets will continue to outperform their capital city counterparts, Mr Lawless said that the regions are currently holding strong momentum.

Naturally, the narrowing pricing gap, continued response to the pandemic and the eventual return to the office will affect demand in the future, but regional markets are expected to remain popular, according to the research director.

Areas that offer the “best of both worlds”, or the proximity to capital city metro areas along with regional living, could be successful over the long-term, he noted.

“To some extent we expect the rise in popularity of regional markets will persist into the future,” Mr Lawless concluded.

“Many workers and employers have found the working from home experiment to be successful, with productivity remaining high while workers enjoy additional flexibility in their work life balance.”