Buyers heading for hills as flight from city life has bush havens in demand
The flight from city life has bush havens in demand.
Veteran rural agent Chris Meares says the NSW coast, the central west township of Orange, and the state’s Southern Highlands are among his pick of locations for lifestylers relocating from capital cities — a trend that continues unabated due to COVID-19.
“There is no doubt the NSW coast is number one and the Southern Highlands are number two, but both those areas are quite expensive,” says Meares, adding there is better value to be had in other regional centres.
Meares is astounded that a waterfront cottage on the NSW central coast at Blueys Beach, about 280km north of Sydney, just sold for $2.9m. “I reckon that it probably went for $1.7m or $1.8m before COVID, before the upsurge in rental inquiries, this is what is driving it.
“In the lifestyle areas whether it is Orange, the NSW coast or the Southern Highlands, all of a sudden (rentals) are being sought after and rental prices have risen quite dramatically — that is effectively increasing the capital values.’’
Around the nation, city dweller lifestyle buyers can’t beat Toowoomba out of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills and the wine area of Margaret River, south of Perth, according to Meares.
“To me they are the pick of the areas in each state for people making lifestyle moves, all of those centres have the same facilities as you would get living in a suburb of Sydney. All the facilities are there.”
He says the biggest single group moving from the city to the country are people from the medium-priced suburbs.
“It’s more younger people, they are saying we can move to Orange and we can buy a better house with more space and obviously there are job opportunities too.”
Meares says buyers hankering for a rural lifestyle fall into two camps.
“If they are looking at broadacre the factors that come into play include location which is number one, rainfall, soil types, productivity, agricultural factors and transport lines.”
On the other hand, lifestyle buyers want to be close to major centres with a good range of commercial, medical and educational services.
In NSW, the other popular areas for a rural relocation include the Riverina, the area between Cootamundra, Cowra, and Young, and up to the central west where Orange is the capital and is a strong employer given it is home to Newcrest Mining, one of the world’s largest gold producers and the Department of Agriculture.
Key real estate investment areas are the NSW Hunter Valley, Liverpool Plains and New England.
“They are the best of the inner agricultural zone. The market is strong, there is a lack of supply of quality product, but there is a strong demand for properties, half of these buyers are off another farm, the other half are city investors and with the larger properties some buyers are institutional while others are high-net-worth private buyers. For the farming sector there is a return to very good seasons, cashflow picked up dramatically, equity levels have risen and they are in a pretty strong position.”
Meares is marketing the Mayfield Estate, one of Australia’s finest country estates, on behalf of investment banker Richard Thomas and his wife Kathy. The property includes a historic seven-bedroom homestead plus four commercial guest cottages in the farm’s village. Inspired by architect Hardy Wilson — billed as one of the most outstanding architects of the 20th century — the sprawling neo-Georgian Mayfield is one of the great estates of Orange.
In Victoria, Jock Langley, of Abercromby’s, is marketing the 720ha Glengarry Station near Melbourne on the outskirts of the Macedon Ranges which he says is attracting a lot of interest because of its proximity to the city along with its two historic homesteads, reliable water and workers cottages. It will likely fetch from $17m to $18m.
Langley says the trophy Glengarry farm and land on Rosey Road, Darraweit Guim, could be operated as a farm or could be subdivided.
“Regional lifestyle areas around Victoria are going off,” Langley says, adding that looking for a regional lifestyle in Victoria should head to the Macedon Ranges, the Mornington Peninsula, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Bass Coast, which he says is starting to become fashionable.
