Top regional towns tipped for growth in 2021
It has been over 12 months since Australia’s first reported COVID-19 case, and while a lot has changed, the fundamentals of property investing remain the same, an expert has said.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Smart Investment Property Show, Propertyology’s head of research and REIA hall of famer Simon Pressley explained that with property markets “going nuts”, it’s important to remember that property is not a tradeable commodity that can be bought in the morning and sold in the afternoon.
“The transaction costs to buy and sell property are significant. So, we’re making decisions with a five, 10, 15-year outlook in mind,” said Mr Pressley.
According to Mr Pressley, property investors need to go back to the basics.
“Does it have a stable population? Does it have a diverse economy? If it is a one industry tourism town, it may well do very, very well for the next couple of years. But how will it perform over the course of the next two years if something happens with tourism?” are just some of the questions Mr Pressley advised investors to ask themselves before making a purchase.
“We need to find communities that have a stable population. We’ve said before that it’s got nothing to do with the size of the population, but is the population stable? You know, look for locations that have a diverse economy, look for a big bunch of evidence that gave us confidence that that local economy is expanding,” Mr Pressley noted.
Regions tipped to dominate the game
He explained that while parts of Australia are struggling under the strains of COVID, other parts are seeing their local property markets flourish.
And while certain regional towns may have emerged as the big winners, Mr Pressley encouraged investors to consider every town and city in Australia.
“You owe it to yourself, not to me or anybody else, you owe it to yourself to consider 100 per cent of your options. I’ve invested in capital cities before, I live in a capital city, I’ll invest in capital cities again, but there are a lot more regional options for me than capital cities.
“You’ve only got eight capital cities. So, the reason I guess we talk a lot about regions is because there are 200 of the bloody things,” he noted.
Mr Pressley is bullish the regions will continue to dominate the property game for years to come.
“I am absolutely certain that just as we saw in the last five years before COVID, the best-performed property markets were not capital cities – they were regions and there was lots of them. And I’m absolutely certain that in the next five years, the best-performing property markets will again be regions. Maybe not the same ones as the last five years, but they will be regions. Mark my words,” he said.
Among those tipped to post considerable growth are:
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