How much it costs to live in the top Victorian tree-change towns for wellbeing

Victoria’s best regional areas for wellbeing boast anything from snow-covered mountains to ocean views – but they are also among the most expensive to buy a house.

The Surf Coast, Alpine, Macedon Ranges (some of which falls within the Greater Melbourne boundary), Greater Geelong and Golden Plains local government areas scored the highest among the state’s regional areas in the 2023 Cities and Regions Wellbeing Index by SGS Economics and Planning.

People buying second homes, or holiday homes, were mostly moving to the Surf Coast in 2023.Credit: Mark Chew/Visit Victoria

The report evaluated the overall wellbeing of each local government area across Australia by assessing its economy; income and wealth; employment, knowledge and skills; housing; health; equality, community and work-life balance; and environment.

“These areas of regional Victoria perform reasonably well on overall wellbeing,” SGS Economics and Planning senior associate Michelle Tjondro said.

“But what I can see as well is that these areas tended to perform less well on the housing dimension,” she said.

The report’s housing indicator considered the area’s rental affordability and its rates of homelessness and overcrowding, not home values, which were considered in the income and wealth indicator.

The four most expensive areas to buy a house in regional Victoria on Domain data for the March quarter were also in the top five for wellbeing. They included the Surf Coast, which had a median of $1,315,000, Macedon Ranges ($909,000), Alpine ($785,000) and Golden Plains ($755,000). Greater Geelong was not far behind. It was the eighth most expensive area with a median house price of $710,000.

Tjondro said part of the report’s aim was to highlight the high cost of housing in areas otherwise good for the wellbeing of its residents.

“It’s about how living in rental stress over a prolonged period of time can really impact the way you might budget for your access to health services or your access to education or further educational attainment. And so there you can start to see that your housing situation can impact other dimensions of objective wellbeing over time,” she said.

Despite the strong results for the above regional areas, city areas tended to score higher for overall wellbeing than those outside the metro areas.

“The urban regional divide was really driven by the difference in economic performance, but also the difference on the health dimension,” Tjondro said.

“We know that in capital city areas there’s a denser coverage of health services – they’ve got more options as well. So people can understand where the better quality health services are located. Often in the regions you just don’t have that choice,” she said.

“There were definitely pockets in regional Australia that performed quite well. For example, the Surf Coast came in at 52 overall across Australia.”

Lorne-based Great Ocean Road Real Estate agent Karen Stribling was unsurprised by this result. “There’s more space, a community feel – it has such unique beauty,” she said.

Stribling said since pandemic lockdowns attracted an influx of city-dwellers to the beachside spot, more of them were spending time there throughout the year than pre-2020.

“Younger families are enjoying their holiday homes for 12 months of the year. Rather than going to Europe, they’re coming here even in the winter months.”

Conversely in the Alpine region, Zirky Real Estate principal Cristina Smit said holiday homeowners who bought for the snow season were still coming up when the mountains thawed out.

“They buy it for the winter, but they fall in love with the summer,” Smit said.

The Macedon Ranges was in the top Victorian tree-change towns for wellbeing.Credit: Paul Rovere

Though both these spots attracted a slew of holiday homeowners, it was different in the Golden Plains shire – just inland from Geelong and the Surf Coast.

The area had continued to see people permanently moving from the outer western suburbs of Melbourne in the years since lockdowns ended, said Owen Sharkey of First National Golden Plains.

“Life is a bit slower, more laid back. There are smaller schools and you can walk anywhere around all the little townships,” Sharkey said.

Despite murmurings – or even outright mandates – from employers about getting workers back to the office, all three agents said they continued to see buyers from the city using the regional spots as their base, only commuting to the office one or two days a week.

However, Tjondro said the research showed not all regional areas were as attractive, and it highlighted the need for better infrastructure outside of Melbourne and other capital cities.

“People aren’t necessarily going to be moving into some of these areas if there’s not the right housing available that meets their needs. So it has to be affordable, it has to be available, and it has to be the right dwelling type to suit their needs,” she said. “It’s also about the social infrastructure, like schools, childcare and things like that.”