The hunt for rural and regional real estate goes on
City buyers are flocking to coastal hamlets and country villages with agents reporting some properties are snapped up before they even hit the market. It’s a Covid trend that’s not going away anytime soon.
City buyers are flocking to coastal hamlets and country villages in droves, with agents reporting that some properties are being snapped up before they even hit the market – and they’re talking anything from multi million-dollar lifestyle farms to stratospheric agricultural holdings. It’s a Covid trend that’s not going away anytime soon.
“In Cowra in the NSW Central West, as soon as a house comes on the market it is sold,” says veteran rural agent Chris Meares, opining about the popularity of the vineyard-encased township, a long 305km drive west of Sydney. “There is a very active rural residential market that is continuing.”
For interior designer Ingrid Weir, there are many reasons people are fleeing cities to head to the coast, central western NSW or the foothills of Victoria’s Great Dividing Range.
“I am city based and I lead a busy lifestyle with my interiors business. For me to go to a rural area is a fantastic refresh and reset,” says Weir, daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Peter Weir.
Weir purchased an old stone schoolhouse in the gold rush village and artists’ colony of Hill End in the NSW Central West 10 years ago and visits it to stay for weeks on end – as often as seven times a year.
“Hill End has its own sort of magic. It’s the light, the kangaroos coming through the streets, and the artists living there; people just fall for it,” says Weir, who has just published a plush interiors book, New Rural, written for aspiring tree-changers.
“There’s a fresh energy to rural locations; it’s definitely changed. There are stores with fabulous homewares, fantastic coffee in Mudgee, there’s vineyard tourism. There’s a lot going on, there’s a vibrancy.”
Weir advises aspiring tree-changers to hunt down real estate within two hours drive of a major city, plumping for the scenic village of Berry south of Sydney, the NSW Southern Highlands, and the old Victorian goldfields and spa towns such as Daylesford and Castlemaine.
Over the past year, luxury rural agent Deb Cullen of Cullen Royle Real Estate has had so many people reach out to her to find a regional homestead they are now saying they will buy vacant land as a last resort.
“They say to me, I am waiting for the perfect house; it is not there. And so they say, find us land and we will create our own estate,” says Cullen, adding that people want views of either the sea or beautiful rolling hills.
“Some people want bigger parcels for animals and stock, others just want veggie gardens and beautiful vistas,” she says, noting that the favoured locales include the NSW North and South Coasts as well as the State’s Central West, from the back of Lithgow west out to Mudgee.
“The NSW Central West has always been a bit quieter. Now it is sought after,” she says, adding that prior to Covid everyone had to be close to Sydney but that’s not so much the case now. “A lot of people are choosing to work part of the week from home.”
“We have people looking at the up to $20m mark ... and we have a few in the $15m to $20m range that are quietly on the market,’’ says Cullen, who has just sold the fabulous 1912-built sandstone mansion Lidsdale House, set on 20ha north of Blackheath in the NSW Blue Mountains, for $2.4m on behalf of Centennial Coal.
Melbourne-based interior designer Mim Fanning, founder of Mim Design, loves the idea of rural living and notes that since Covid she has won plenty of rural commissions.
“I love the idea of space, open view lines and open aspects on larger properties,” she says, adding that she is designing house interiors near Yarrawonga on the Murray River, the hinterlands near Byron Bay and Victoria’s Flinders, a seaside town on the Mornington Peninsula, where she has done the interiors for Horizon Flinders. “We are definitely getting more coastal properties during Covid and definitely more regional inquiries as well,” she says.
In his just-released 2022 McGrath Report, celebrity agent John McGrath likes rural areas such as the NSW North Coast, as well as Avoca on the NSW Central Coast. McGrath’s Terrigal office is presently marketing a new-build house and pool overlooking North Avoca with a $6m price tag. Set back from the ocean, the Warren Ave property will be completed next year and is already attracting interest from scores of Sydneysiders keen to relocate north of the city.
McGrath’s top picks also include the secluded pocket of Booker Bay near Ettalong, where he says prices are still relatively affordable for a gorgeous backwater.
In Victoria, he opts for Ballarat, a 90-minute commute from Melbourne, saying there’s a range of housing choices, from prestige homes around Lake Wendouree to affordable new family estates.
In Queensland, McGrath’s top picks include Bonogin on the Gold Coast, which is a newcomer to the Coast’s million-dollar club, and the coastal hamlet of Currimundi on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.
Chris Meares of Sydney-based rural agency Meares & Associates says there is continuing demand for rural property, with the coast the first port of call for many.
“The obvious pecking order is the coast is number one, then the larger centres, being the likes of Orange, Dubbo, Tamworth, and Armidale. Those are the established centres; there is considerable growth there,” says Meares.
For him, most of the migration to rural areas during Covid last year was from those in the lower financial bracket. These days the upper end, cashed-up buyers are coming in and they are much more selective about properties.
“There is a continuing demand for rural areas. When the drought finished there was a set of coincidences – the rain started, commodity prices became strong, the cost of funds was cheap ... all of those things came into line,” he says.
“I always thought there must be a time when the market becomes static and starts to decline. I can’t see that happening … I think it will continue at this rate for the broadacre farms.
“While prices for the lifestyle farms are going through the roof, you could argue there’s still more upside in the market.
MORE:The List: Top 35 Mansions
“There is a very strong group of 20-45 year olds with young families – they are migrating.
“You would argue a percentage of them would work remotely and stay in their jobs ,while the other percentage of people will look for new opportunities and new businesses in these remote locations. The Central West NSW town of Orange is a classic example, you’ve got computer workshops that rent space, all those tech opportunities, which are very portable ... A lot of people are looking for an alternative lifestyle.”
Beyond rural and regional locations, some buyers are making life changes, moving across the continent.
Take rich listers, and co-founders of technology marketplace Envato Collis and Cyan Ta’eed. Together worth around $454m, they have recently made a major move from Melbourne to Darwin saying they want to be closer to their philanthropic projects while remaining directors of their digital media content site.
“Darwin and the Northern Territory have turned out to be a wonderfully multicultural mixing pot of warm, open-air markets and events, welcoming people who are used to new faces coming and going, a big First Nations community with strong connections to country, and a sense of wilderness that is both remote and close,” Collis Ta’eed told The Australian in an exclusive interview.
“If you like the warmth, then the tropics are amazing,” he says.
“Before arriving we had the idea there were just two seasons in Darwin – wet and dry. But living here we soon learned that the people of this landmark have six seasons a year, every one of which has its unique characteristics. It turns out the part of the wet season we arrived in was the aptly named ‘Banggerreng’ or ‘Knock ‘em down storm season’.”
Who knew?
More Coverage
