Capital city regional growth
Source: CoreLogic December Home Value Data
  • CoreLogic’s December home value data shows 6.9 per cent growth over the past year; tripling the rate of the capital cities.
  • ‘Secondary cities’ along the East Coast have often outperformed capital cities.
  • Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast saw the highest net internal migration for the three years to June 2019.

The December home value data released by CoreLogic has shown that regional Australian dwellings have performed very strongly over the past year seeing a 6.9 per cent increase compared to the capital cities which only saw a 2 per cent rise in their values.

Capital city regional growth
Source: CoreLogic

The rolling annual growth graph seen above shows that historically regional Australia growth has seen far less fluctuations compared to the capital cities.

However, more recently there has been less of a direct relationship between the two; as growth in the capital cities peaked in July 2020 and have dropped since, regional growth has increased.

Coastal 10 year annualised growth rates impressive too

NSW property growth
Source: CoreLogic

In New South Wales, the regions of Southern Highlands & Shoalhaven and Newcastle & Lake Macquarie both saw 4.5 per cent annualised growth with 5 per cent for Illawarra, similar to growth seen in Sydney during the same time.

Victoria growth 10 years
Source: CoreLogic

Geelong saw 4.1 per cent annualised growth over the past decade, which is above and similar to regions in Melbourne such as Mornington Peninsula, which saw 4.2 per cent growth and Melbourne West which also saw 4.1 per cent growth.

Queensland growth 10 years
Source: CoreLogic

Queensland has seen much lower growth than Victoria and New South Wales, but notably the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast outperformed the rest of Queensland and Brisbane itself seeing 2.4 per cent growth, compared to Brisbane Inner which only saw 1 per cent growth.

COVID didn’t start the fire

The Report makes a point of mentioning that whilst regional Australia has outperformed the capitals in recent times, this trend has been ongoing over the past decade.

Of the 88 sub-markets the report refers too, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast have gained 39,770 additional residents from other areas across Australia – marking the highest volume of net internal migration.

Factors such as an ageing population, major coastal centers being within a ‘commutable distance’ and many households being priced out of capital cities – especially Sydney and Melbourne – have all likely contributed to this trend that Covid-19 has exacerbated.

With the outlook being positive for housing across Australia this year, time will tell whether regional houses can have long term returns just as good as the capital cities.

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