Rising property prices means bush comes before beach for those looking to move

With house prices rising in regional coastal areas, a treechange could beat a seachange for those looking to get out of the cities.

The popular seachange town of Noosa Heads has a median house price of $2.027m. Picture: Brad Fleet

Rising house prices in regional coastal areas are forcing some capital city escapees to choose the bush over the beach when they ­relocate, according to the latest McGrath Report 2023.

McGrath Estate Agents chief executive John McGrath says living by the beach is a traditional choice but the “beach first” mentality is shifting as many home buyers find better value for money in inland regions such as the NSW Hunter Valley and parts of Central Queensland.

“I think this trend will continue,” Mr McGrath told The Weekend Australian this week. “Working from home has created an opportunity for a lot of people, it’s a great trend.”

Mr McGrath says many people once dreamt of moving to NSW’s Mudgee wine region, but instead of waiting until they are 65 or 70, Covid has brought forward their move.

“People are living their dream life much earlier,” Mr McGrath said, adding that most people chose a location within two to three hours of a capital city.

“That is why there is such a strong preference for places like Berry and Bowral in the south, and Mudgee in the west, as it’s a great wine area, and Orange and Bathurst.”

Mr McGrath noted that while once it was Bowral and the Southern Highlands, buyers were now prepared to get that extra value for money by going further out.

He said a good home in Bowral would cost more than $2m, but people could drive an extra hour out to Mudgee and get a good home for $1.25m. “It’s not as if you are going to be driving to Sydney every day from Mudgee,” he said.

Areas such as the NSW HunterValley offer better value.

Mr McGrath said many regional areas were also more ­affordable than popular seachange towns such as Noosa Heads, where the median house price was $2.027m, compared with regional Queensland at $569,062.

He said in Byron Bay people were paying a median house price of $3.15m, which was $2.37m more than the rest of regional NSW.

Mr McGrath said house prices in towns all along the coastal fringes had skyrocketed in the past two years, in some cases to be on par with prices in big cities.

“The affordability constraints have forced many capital city escapees to look elsewhere, and many are choosing bush over the beach,” he said.

For instance the NSW Hunter Valley recorded an annual price growth rate for houses of 34.3 per cent to April, making it the best performing non-capital city housing market in the nation and outstripping popular coastal regions such as Shoalhaven on the state’s south coast.

“Central Queensland, where many city dwellers from the southern states have also moved, recorded the largest uptick in sales volumes for houses of 42.9 per cent in the year to February 2022,” according to the report.

“It shares this record with the New England and North West ­region of NSW, which offer large blocks in rural settings.”

Other strong regional performers in terms of sales volumes in Queensland were Townsville (which was up 41.2 per cent in the year to February), the Greater Whitsundays (up nearly 41 per cent) and Cairns (up 35.6 per cent).

McGrath Estate Agents chief executive John McGrath.

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal that for the 2020-21 financial year populations across regional Australia increased by 70,900, or 0.9 per cent. while the number of people living in capital cities fell by 26,000, or 0.1 per cent.

The McGrath report reveals that the top five local government areas by growth in migration last year were Queensland’s Western Downs with 48 per cent growth; South Australia’s Mount Gambier with 44 per cent growth; and the region of Banana in Queensland with 40 per cent growth.

“In 2020-21, regional NSW welcomed an extra 26,800 residents, regional Queensland an extra 24,100 and Victoria an extra 15,700. Populations in the regional areas of South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia grew by between 1000 and 2000 people,” the report says.

Of the cities, the biggest population losses occurred in the local government areas of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Stonnington, as well as areas around universities such as Monash.

In NSW, the greatest population drops occurred in Sydney, Mosman, Willoughby and North Sydney.

At present the regional median house price in NSW is $775,792, which is almost half the median house price in Sydney of $1,346,193.

In regional Victoria the median house price is $627,942 compared with Melbourne at $964,950.