C-change: City-slickers headed for the coast and country amid COVID outbreak
Leaving the big smoke has gone from far-fetched fantasy to a genuine future for more families. And there are good reasons for it.
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We’ve had sea change and tree change, now say hello to C-change.
Working from home has city folk around Australia rethinking the need to remain in COVID capitals at all.
With more employers also weighing up decentralisation, leaving the big smoke has gone from far-fetched fantasy to a genuine future for more families.
If you have browsed residential properties in the regions since March, you are not alone, says Liz Ritchie, CEO of the Regional Australia Institute (RAI).
“Undoubtedly we believe that the sentiment has shifted like never before. This is an extremely unique time in history for regional Australia,” Ms Ritchie says.
The long-planned May launch of RAI’s Regional Australia Council 2031 (RAC2031) – with foundation members including CBA, Telstra and TransGrid – coincided with the national lockdown, accelerating priorities around creating settings that enable people to work and prosper anywhere.
“Previously, if you were to say to your boss, ‘Oh, I’d like to relocate’, well, you’d be off the list for promotions. Now you’ve got this completely different playing field,” Ms Ritchie says.
“When you start looking at the economics behind it, it just makes so much sense. How many years have we been debating the notion of better regional development, the concepts of decentralisation, more infrastructure?
“What we now have is an opportunity (for) regionalisation. Changing mindsets about what work looks like, how work is done – we’ve done it overnight.”
Indeed, a July Humaniti survey of 1263 members* found 177 people – a full 14 per cent of respondents – were considering moving from a city due to COVID.
As well as inland hubs, coastal towns are also calling including Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, NSW’s Northern Rivers, Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and South Australia’s Limestone Coast.
The siren song is particularly strong in celebrity favourite Byron Bay, according to local realtor Christian Sergiacomi of Pacifico Property.
Mr Sergiacomi says the pure volume of purchases exceeds anything he has seen in his 11 years there.
“The day the lockdown was released, the phone went off the hook. This period of six weeks would equate to almost a year’s sales,” he says.
Mr Sergiacomi says the biggest driver of change is remote working.
“The new room to look for when they come into the house is, ‘Where is the office?’ I would say 90 per cent of them are people that found COVID forced their hand to work remotely. It’s across the board.”
Indeed, when COVID hit Australia, a pre-existing medical condition meant immediate isolation for Mark Barrett, managing director of a boutique creative agency.
Mr Barrett didn’t leave the city apartment he shared with husband Chin-Chuan Lee for nearly three months.
Something had to give – and it turned out to be their cosmopolitan life.
“We were always talking about moving to the mountains,” Mr Barrett says.
“We ended up doing it just so I could get out into the light and out of the apartment. We ended up packing up and buying a little house.”
Nearly three months later, the couple is loving it – but not as much as whippet Mr Pip and French bulldogs Coco and Poppy, who are delirious with joy about their garden upgrade.
“I think COVID redefined how a lot of people work. I still very rarely go into the village, because I’m very cautious of the big C. But it’s just absolutely mind-changing from a wellbeing perspective. What it’s done for me has been amazing,” says Mr Barrett.
The ability to work from home was the missing piece of the puzzle for him, while Mr Lee was one of countless hospitality casualties in lockdown.
The relocation has the barista back feeling, well, full of beans.
“He’s got himself a full-time job in the mountains. It’s only a four-minute commute for him, so the quality of life is much better, and he’s enjoying being back in the workforce,” Mr Barrett says.
“Our pastimes have changed a lot. We’re discovering the joys of owning a house and planting the garden, renovating the house ourselves, painting and all those things.
“Redefining how we live, what we do and what we enjoy has actually been a really nice journey since we moved.”
The ABCs of C-change
They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Liz Ritchie, CEO of RAI, says there’s never been a better time to leave COVID hot spots behind.
Here’s why our regions are raring to go:
1. Affordability
“They’re dreaming of the chance when they can buy their home, and right now they can’t. The median house price in Sydney I read is $1.1 million and it’s $900,000 in Melbourne. It’s completely out of reach for the average salary of $85,000 in our metropolitan cities.”
2. Health and wellbeing
“It’s a more relaxed and balanced lifestyle – consistently regional people score higher on wellbeing and happiness indexes.”
3. Community
“Greater community ensures that personal, human connectivity that is so lacking in metro areas.”
4. Career opportunities
“It isn’t just simply about people bringing their own jobs. We know right now, even in the pandemic, that there’s 30,000 job vacancies. And they’re good jobs, the majority are professional roles – there is career advancement.”
■ Last month’s Humaniti survey reveals remarkably similar reasons for 14 per cent of 1263 respondents considering a COVID-inspired change:
Better quality of life – 65 per cent
Cheaper housing – 59 per cent
Less stress – 55 per cent
A quieter life – 58 per cent
*Source: Humaniti is a personal finance app that rewards users for participating in market research.
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Originally published as C-change: City-slickers headed for the coast and country amid COVID outbreak