Residents flee Sydney in search of affordable homes
The latest interstate migration figures have revealed that a significant number of residents are fleeing Australia’s capital cities in search of affordable housing.
Regional population and migration data for 2016-17, recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), has revealed that a significant number of capital city residents opted to re-locate in the 2016-17 financial year, with over 40,000 Sydneysiders seeking housing alternatives.
The data revealed that most Sydney residents moved along the NSW coast, with Newcastle and Lake Macquarie topping the list with 5,502 former Sydney residents, followed by Illawarra, NSW (5,301), the ACT (5,219), Queensland’s Gold Coast (5,179), NSW’s mid-north coast (4,484), southern highlands and Shoalhaven (4,435), Hunter Valley (3,997), central west (3,647), Melbourne’s inner-city (3,511), and Melbourne’s west (3,098).
Sydney did not feature on the top 10 regions of arrival list for former Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, or Darwin residents. However, Sydney featured six times on the top 10 regions of arrival list for former Canberra residents, and once for former Adelaide residents.
The regions of arrival that topped the list for other capital cities were:
- 7,259 former Melbournians moved to Victoria’s Latrobe-Gippsland
- 8,834 former Brisbane residents moved to Queensland’s Gold Coast
- 3,741 former Adelaide residents moved to the south-eastern South Australia
- 4,403 former Perth residents moved to Bunbury, Western Australia
- 3,273 former Canberra residents relocated to NSW’s capital region
- 1,007 former Hobart residents moved to Tasmania’s south-east
- 948 former Darwin residents moved to outback Northern Territory
Looking at the figures, CoreLogic’s research analyst Cameron Kusher noted that Australians are looking to ease cost of living pressures.
“The data shows that overall a significant number of those people that moved away from a capital city over the past financial year moved to an area adjacent to the capital city,” he said.
“Some of these are coastal/lifestyle markets while also being locations where housing is more affordable.
“The reality is the reasons for moving to these locations likely vary somewhat from one in which the residents are seeking more affordable housing or one in which residents are looking for a seachange/treechange.”
Auction clearance rates strongest in Canberra
CoreLogic’s Property Pulse has revealed that the auction clearance rate in Canberra was the highest of the capital cities (73.9 per cent), well above the capital city average of 62.1 per cent.
Melbourne’s auction clearance rate placed second (63.7 per cent), followed by Sydney (63.1 per cent), Adelaide (59.1 per cent), Hobart (50.0 per cent), Brisbane (47.3 per cent), and Perth (21.9 per cent).
Of the non-capital city markets, Geelong recorded the strongest auction clearance rate (75.0 per cent).
From Mortgage Business