35-year high for regional property value growth

Such growth has caused property supply in regions to reach almost historic lows, having dropped more than 30 per cent in the last year.

Furthermore, the pandemic has seen a change in people’s lifestyle, which boosted demand for bigger spaces and larger residences, and, in effect, inspiring people to opt for a sea change, a tree change, or a relocation to regional location because of the possibility to work from home.

According to Eleanor Creagh, PropTrack senior economist and report author:

“It appears that many ‘city skippers’ have sought out regions that remain on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, within a one to two hour commuting distance of major capitals. These commutable regions are seeing strong price growth, with new homebuyers taking advantage of both the ability to maintain office connections one or two days a week and the amenities provided by the regional lifestyle.”

Queensland remains popular among these “city skippers”, with the report naming Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast as the most searched regional areas on realestate.com.au in the year to September 2021 and the most in-demand areas for buyers.

In fact, as residents attempted to avoid lockdowns, nearly three-quarters or 74 per cent of searches on realestate.com.au for houses in Queensland came from NSW and Victoria.

But they aren’t the only areas luring relocators.

Illawarra is attracting keen buyers, which has six of the top 10 suburbs with the most highly engaged buyers per listing hailing from the region.

Meanwhile, Surfers Paradise, Dubbo, and Mildura are among the suburbs where first-time buyers are hoping to enter into the market.

The PropTrack report likewise unveiled the “regional stars”, or suburbs where prices are presently rising faster than the national average, which exhibited exceptional growth during the past 12 months to September:

•       South Hedland, Western Australia saw 58 per cent year-on-year growth, compared to 6 per cent historical trend growth
•       San Remo, Victoria saw 55 per cent year-on-year growth, compared to 8 per cent historical average rise
•       Byron Bay, NSW saw 56 per cent year-on-year growth, compared to 11 per cent historical trend growth
•       Sunrise Beach, Queensland saw 45 per cent year-on-year growth, compared to 10 per cent historical average growth

Interestingly, data also showed that buyers are willing to pay a premium for property, with the majority of transactions exceeding 10 per cent above list price, especially so in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in NSW, south-east of South Australia, Launceston and north-east Tasmania, and Geelong in Victoria.

As it stands, will the positive growth in Australia’s regional property market be sustained in 2022, or is it just a trend?

“The migration shift from metro to regional areas may remain high for some time, but begin falling back towards the long-run average as people begin to return to normal life,” Ms Creagh opined.

“Price growth in the regions is therefore likely to continue, but moderate from current levels. Already the pace of price growth is slowing across the broad market, and we expect that to continue with the peak of the current cycle now behind us.”