Regional Australia Institute report claims fewer people chose to move to Lismore

The mayor of a Northern Rivers hub says her town’s population is stabilising despite data showing a decrease in new arrivals. See the region’s hot spots.

Economist Dr Kim Houghton says the most recent Regional Movers Index report shows fewer people are coming into Lismore to live than a year ago.

Migration to Lismore has stalled during the pandemic while other Northern Rivers areas have been boosted by a sustained influx of people moving from metropolitan areas.

Data from the Regional Movers Index shows the influx of people moving into Lismore decreased by three per cent between September 2020 and September 2021.

The index, which is compiled by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Regional Australia Institute, also shows migration data for Lismore at negative seven per cent for the July-September quarter.

The index is based on Commonwealth customers who change their address in the bank’s systems.

Data from the same report shows most other Northern NSW areas experiencing an increase in the amount of people moving in.

And while in Lismore the numbers are in the negative territory, Byron Shire went up by 33 per cent, according to the most recent report.

Regional Australia Institute chief economist Dr Kim Houghton said the report did not say people were leaving Lismore, but that fewer people were coming into the area to live than a year ago.

“We don’t know exactly what the numbers are, because of confidentiality and privacy reasons from the Commonwealth Bank, but we know that we have around 140 local government areas that have more than 100 people moving in this last quarter, and Lismore is in the middle, so the numbers are likely to be somewhere in the range of 150 to 250 moving in a year,” he said.

Regional Australia Institute chief economist Dr Kim Houghton.

“Lismore has probably had its peak in terms of its influx maybe a year or two ago, and now it’s running at a slightly lower level.

He said there were “lots of other places” like that across the country.

“It could be affected by the perception of housing availability, climate comfort and liveability,” he said.

Lismore mayor Vanessa Ekins said people moving from metro areas tended to move to coastal areas.

“When people retire, they move to the coast, that’s what people in Australia do, they can afford to sell out their assets and I think that’s what’s happening here and it’s pretty normal,” she said.

Lismore City mayor Vanessa Ekins.

Ms Ekins noted that the report also stated that 70 per cent of people who moved in Australia went from a capital city to another capital city.

“20 per cent of people who moved went from a regional area to another regional area,” she said.

“Only 3.5 per cent of Commonwealth Bank customers moved from a capital city to a regional area, so for Lismore we are talking about 40 people less, and that’s not a lot.

“But if you look at population statistics over the last 10 years, in 2017 Lismore lost over 100 people and that was the year of the flood, but since then, things have gone back to a stable population.”