Sep 5, 2020
Any investor not considering Regional Australia in the current
climate is missing the point completely about the state of play in
real estate markets across the nation.
Every metric that measures real estate market performance has
the regions outperforming the capital cities.
While some of the smaller capital cities are doing well in the
pandemic period, the best performers on vacancies, rents and in
particular prices are in the regional areas.
Mainstream media is gradually waking up to the reality that
the biggest story in Australian real estate is the trend I call the
Exodus to Affordable Lifestyle.
More and more Australians are leaving the big, expensive,
congested cities and heading to regional cities and towns that
offer a more relaxed and more affordable lifestyle.
The ability to work remotely has enhanced the trend, helped
also by improved transport links in many cases.
The pandemic period, with its lockdowns which forced people to
work from home, has made this trend even stronger.
Regional centres within 1-2 hours of their capital cities are
thriving from this trend. And it’s spreading further out, with
people seeking either a sea change or a hill change, driven with
affordability and a better lifestyle.
In the past two years, the strongest markets in the nation in
terms of the locations delivering price growth have been Tasmania
and Regional Victoria.
And in the past 12 months, many locations in Regional South
Australia have recorded good growth in the median prices, but few
Australians would know about it.
And the trend has continued through the pandemic period. The
location-by-location analysis conducted every quarter by
Hotspotting shows that markets with rising prices are the rule, not
the exception, in these regional areas.
A characteristic common to many of these markets is very low
vacancy rates, as well as strong and diversified economies and
increasing demand for real estate.
This means these locations are solidly-placed to withstand the
worst of the virus crisis and to continue on their growth
paths.
This makes the publication of my new edition of the National
Top 10 Regional Hotspots report very timely.
The report highlights the markets which are pumping the
strongest across Australia – and they’re all places with good
prospects for long-term growth, as well as the uplift that’s
currently under way.
So make sure you read the new 2020-21 edition of my National
Top 10 Regional Hotspots report.