It’s no longer cockroaches and mexicans you have to worry about – it’s the international market

The Great Migration to the Gold Coast may be over as southerners bail home, souring over soaring rent prices – but there’s a new market ready to take their place.

Are we about to see the Great Reversal?

Here on the Gold Coast, rents are still soaring as interstate migration booms, but some in our city are beginning to wonder just how long it will last.

In the bitter depths of prolonged pandemic lockdowns, southerners were more than willing to take a gamble on a better life in sunny Queensland – with the Coast the pick of the bunch.

Given the sudden swing towards the safety of working from home, many migrants brought their jobs – and their wages – with them.

Back to whence you came southerners! Picture: Steve Pohlner

It’s the reason why 44,000 people migrated to Queensland in the 12 months to March 2021, and at least partly accounts for predictions that our city will hit the one million mark in just over a decade.

But while Covid cases continue to hit peak levels, lockdown life is well and truly over. State and national borders are open and it’s back to business as usual – and many bosses want us back in the office.

So where does this leave the thousands that have so recently called the Coast home?

Many have left friends and family behind and now may need to quit their jobs if they are to continue their seachange.

But can they really afford to?

Speaking to a Sydney-based associate recently, I was unsurprised by their metropolitan salary of almost $200k, but truly shocked that the rent paid for a three-bedroom apartment in a trendy location was just $750 per week.

Transfer our Sydney-sider to this city and you can halve their wages and double their rent. Quite simply, life on the Gold Coast doesn’t always add up for our newest residents.

Indeed, it’s already a negative-sum game for many locals.

The Bulletin reported that families are being forced out of the Gold Coast by cashed up older southern migrants, who are snapping up property despite soaring prices.

And thank goodness, we’d like our gorgeous sunrises back to ourselves thanks. Picture: @burleighsunrise

New data shows enrolments in state primary schools dropped 2.65 per cent in six months, while the number of people aged 60 or over jumped 20 per cent in five years.

While property purchase prices are finally beginning to fall, it’s a different story for the rental market – where the weekly rates seem to climb higher every day.

So now it’s a question of whether our southern migrants will continue to call the Coast home.

Yet even if they decided to turn tail and fly back south, it’s not time to break out the champagne just yet.

Because international demand is only just beginning.

PRD Chief Economist Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo, who released the 2022 edition of PRD’s Australian Economic and Property Report this week, says long-term overseas visitors to Australia have increased from 2330 people in April 2021, to 29,380 people in April 2022.

Similarly, the number of international students arriving in Australia increased from 260 in April 2021, to a massive 21130 in April 2022.

“Suffice to say, international migration has come back and will continue to do so given Australia’s comparative resilience to Covid-19,” she says.

And the Gold Coast is already high on the wish-list for our overseas arrivals.

Just ask Fiona Rennie-Underwood, who runs RelocateUs Gold Coast, an agency dedicated solely to those moving to our fair city.

Pack ‘er up boys.

While she says in her 10 years of operation she has never been so busy as the last few years fielding demand from southern migrants, the focus is now turning to international clients.

“I’m getting huge interest from the UK and the USA,” she says.

“The Gold Coast is on their radar and they’re being sent by big businesses to set up satellite sites in Australia. We’re the next big thing … again.”

While that may not be the news that locals searching for rental properties may want to hear, Fiona does have a word of advice … although it will cost you.

“There are a lot of people out there in the rental market doing 30 inspections and they can’t get a property,” she says.

“I have a hit rate of four inspections. So if locals want to win at that game and not see another southerner - or international arrival - move in, they should call me. I know all the secrets.”

Perhaps it’s worth the cash to see Gold Coasters finally turn the tables in a true reversal of rental fortune.