- Interest in lifestyle locations is soaring
- Regional property price growth outpacing cities
- Increased migration away from cities to regions
It doesn’t seem that long ago that if anyone thought about buying a property in a holiday destination, most experts would not be overly keen on the idea.
In years gone by that was because the fundamentals often didn’t stack up from a property investment perspective.
Regional and coastal locations may have offered more affordable housing but that was generally because of underwhelming local economies and population growth.
Well, that was then, and this is now.
Yet, it’s not necessarily a situation that has changed because of the pandemic.
Rather, technological advances, as well as strong interstate migration away from Sydney and Melbourne in particular over recent years, have combined to ignite a steady fire under many regional property markets.
The past year has added fuel to this scenario, without question, with literally thousands of people moving out of the big smoke to smaller locations either in the countryside or by the coast.
In fact, according to the Australian Bureau of Statics (ABS) Regional Internal Migration Estimates, 43,000 Australians moved to regional areas from capital cities in 2020, which was the largest net inflow to the regions since the beginning of the series in 2001.
The data showed that regional Queensland had the biggest net inflow (17,000 people) of all the states in 2020.
And the regional areas of Victoria (13,400) and New South Wales (12,700) had the next largest net gains, according to the ABS.
On top of that, the data showed that Greater Sydney had the largest net loss (-31,600 people) of all the capitals from internal migration in 2020.
Melbourne lost a net 26,100 internal migrants, which the largest annual net loss for Victoria’s capital on record, according to the ABS.
What does it mean for lifestyle property investment?
We have been receiving an increasing number of enquiries from Sydney-based property investors who are keen to buy in lifestyle locations.
Sometimes, it is a total strategic property investment play – and a wise one at that.
But other times, they also want to secure a holding in a lifestyle location that they can use for holidays as well as potentially later on in life when they wind down their careers.
Property markets in many regional parts of New South Wales are already benefiting from the inflows of new residents, but also from their much lower buy-in prices for owner-occupiers and investors.
According to CoreLogic, the median house value in regional New South Wales soared 16.3 per cent over the year to May to be $576,514.
The thing is there are still plenty of opportunities for investors to buy into a variety of strategic lifestyle locations – even with prices firming.
The reality of the situation is that the median house value in regional New South Wales remains about half of Sydney’s, with market conditions likely to continue to strengthen for longer than the Harbour City due to affordability considerations.
We have been helping savvy property investors purchase investment houses in the Mid North to Central Coast as well as on the South Coast and Southern Highlands of New South Wales for a while already.
Investors with budgets from about $800,000 to $1.2 million not only have more purchasing power than many other buyers, but the local price points ensure they are able to secure some of the very best properties in some of the most desirable locations in lifestyle locations around the state.
Never has a property investment in the bush or near the beach been a more attractive, and potentially lucrative, proposition if you ask me.
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