Residents flee Sydney in search of affordable homes

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 relocate over the 2016–17 financial year, with more than 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 in 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 Melburnians moved to Victoria’s Latrobe-Gippsland
• 8,834 former Brisbane residents moved to Queensland’s Gold Coast
• 3,741 former Adelaide residents moved to 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,” the analyst 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 of 75.0 per cent.

[Related: Investors ‘spooked’ as loan demand drops]

Charbel Kadib is the news editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2017, Charbel completed internships with public relations agency Fifty Acres, and the Department of Communications and the Arts.

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