City exodus: Mackay named affordability hotspot

‘While the pandemic might not have started it, it certainly has helped drive one of the biggest trends in Australian real estate to new levels’

A concept image of part of the Mackay Waterfront Priority Development Area.

MACKAY has been named one of three property affordability hotspots in Queensland as buyers abandon big city life for a lower mortgage and better lifestyle in the regions.

Property expert Terry Ryder, from hotspotting.com.au, believes the exodus identified in a Property Investment Professionals of Australia survey has been bolstered by technology advancements and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and will not slow down anytime soon.

"The exodus to an affordable lifestyle has been quietly gathering pace for several years now and while the pandemic might not have started it, it certainly has helped drive one of the biggest trends in Australian real estate to new levels," he said.

"While pre-COVID living in a regional town and working for a city-based company may have seemed impossible, the lockdown phase has shown both employees and employers they can effectively work from home and no longer need to battle peak hour traffic to be productive.

"Zoom or Skype meetings, a quiet room and a reasonable internet connection are all many need to get their job done.

 

Mackay Waterfront Priority Development Area.

 

"As many have discovered during the pandemic, it doesn't really matter if that quiet room is the suburbs or a couple of hundred kilometres away in an affordable regional city."

The PIPA survey found the top locations for buyers to migrate to were regional NSW (21%), regional Queensland (18%), Brisbane (16%) and regional Victoria (14%).

Mr Ryder said regional towns not only offered a more relaxed lifestyle than many inner-city suburbs, but would also offer owner-occupiers and investors much more bang for their property buck.

He said buyers priced out of Brisbane were finding affordable property on the Sunshine Coast, in Mackay and in Townsville.

"Property owners can sell up in a capital city and buy something of the same standard in a regional or lifestyle area for half the price - and either significantly reduce their mortgage or find themselves mortgage-free with money left over," he said.

"That's a very appealing proposition particularly for young people starting out who are looking for a realistic way to enter the property market.

"The more government pours money into improving transport connections to regional towns, the more this trend will take hold and the big infrastructure spend evident in the federal budget provides evidence that there is plenty more of this to come."

 

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But in the hotspotting.com.au 2020-21 report into the Top 5 Queensland Regional Hotspots, Mackay has not made the cut.

Instead, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Gympie, Townsville and Rockhampton have been highlighted with Mackay mentioned in passing.

"This is the strongest regional Queensland market in the six years we have been conducting our quarterly surveys of sales activity and prices," the report said.

"The number of rising markets is the highest recorded, by a considerable margin, and property values are growing.

 

Aerial of Mackay. Picture: Zizi Averill

"We have identified 72 locations with rising sales activity - a remarkable result in the year of the pandemic.

"There are seven regional cities with five or more suburbs with forward momentum in sales activity: the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Townsville.

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"These cities, plus smaller regional centres like Gympie, Emerald, Warwick, Kingaroy and Dalby, all have markets trending in the right direction for sustained price growth.

"Rockhampton, Gladstone, Mackay and Townsville each has between five and seven suburbs with rising momentum.

"A number of Central Queensland (suburbs) are rising, including Mackay (where Andergrove, Blacks Beach, South Mackay and North Mackay have all recorded double digit annual growth) and Rockhampton (where Berserker has led the growth with a 27% increase).

"Central Queensland resources towns like Moranbah (up 23%) and Clermont (up 10%) are also recovering, albeit from a very low base."

 

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