Housing shock as more regional areas across Australia become increasingly unaffordable

Aussies eager to get a foot on the property ladder better act fast, with traditionally affordable regional areas across the country becoming increasingly out of reach.

Exclusive: Sydney remains the most unaffordable housing market in Australia but a surprising number of regional areas, including Gympie and Lismore, are becoming increasingly expensive to buy into, landmark national research reveals.

A Bond University study shows Melbourne City is the least affordable local government area (LGA) in Australia but eight other municipalities in the top 10 are in Sydney; Botany Bay, Burwood, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Rockdale and Randwick. Adelaide City comes in at number nine.

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Melbourne City is Australia’s most unaffordable place to live according to new Happiness Project data. Picture: Nicole Garmston

The research forms part of the Happiness Project, which uses the most recent Census data and a host of other publicly available information to measure key categories affecting quality of life across 540 Australian LGAs.

The housing affordability category looks at households requiring extra bedrooms, mortgage and rental payments in relation to wages and low-income housing stress.

It found several regional areas performed badly for affordability, including Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour in New South Wales and Douglas in Queensland (which takes in Port Douglas).

Cairns, Gympie and Whitsunday in Queensland, Glenorchy in Tasmania and Lismore in New South Wales were also increasingly unaffordable.

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Chief economist for REA Group and realestate.com.au Nerida Conisbee said property in Gympie, a region of 20,000 people about 160 kilometres north of Brisbane, had definitely become more expensive in recent times.

“We have seen quite strong buyer demand in Gympie… We’ve seen a lot of people looking to buy there; a lot of investors are starting to look,” she said.

It was also not surprising the Bond research found the Glenorchy shire - covering several northern suburbs of Hobart including the suburb of Glenorchy by the same name - was increasingly unaffordable for local families to buy in.

Tourism jobs are bringing investors to Hobart and driving up property prices Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“We have seen it very clearly in Hobart over the last couple of years. Hobart has always been the most affordable capital city in Australia but we have seen very high levels of investment coming in from interstate recently.” she said. “There are also many tourism-related jobs on offer there. There are a few factors putting pressure on people wanting to buy; factors leading to pretty strong price growth.”

Property prices in regional cities within commuting distance to capital cities such as Geelong and Ballarat near Melbourne in Victoria, and the central coast and Wollongong near Sydney in New South Wales, were also increasing, Ms Conisbee said.

Property in regional Geelong is increasingly popular because of its comparative affordability. Picture: Peter Begg.

“This is because these places offer affordable housing when compared to the cities and a pretty good lifestyle and are within commuting distance (to jobs in the city). That makes them pretty attractive to people,” she said.

Assistant Minister for Housing and Social Services Sarah Henderson said small lot housing was becoming increasingly popular among buyers. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Assistant Minister for Housing and Social Services Sarah Henderson said affordable housing was fundamental to the welfare of all Australians.

Bond University Faculty of Society and Design senior teaching fellow David Logue said the way we lived was changing, because of housing affordability issues.

“Small lot housing is becoming increasingly popular and is one way things are being changed to suit the main stakeholders. For buyers, you still get your house with a yard. It’s not an apartment, there’s no body corporate and it’s at an affordable price point,” he said.

The geography of housing affordability was something many families were weighing up, Mr Logue said.

“When people move to regional areas it’s usually to pursue a particular job offer or for lifestyle reasons, and they’d have to be good to offset the typically lower wages, employment and career development opportunities. Otherwise it’s to return to existing family around the birth of children to access family support. However, this is now tempered by the greater availability of childcare facilities in cities supported by government incentives and the rising representation of women in professional careers,” he said. “A further group are economic refugees: people typically on fixed incomes from governments or share portfolios who leave cities and move to lower-cost areas to make their incomes go further. These are common in regional coastal areas.”

Data was taken from the most recent 2016 Census and other public sources to score each LGA out of 10 in nine categories: housing affordability, education, community, jobs, wealth, accessibility, work-life balance, safety and health. Each category draws on a number of factors for its score, and each LGA is also given an overall quality of life score, resulting in a searchable online map.