Sydneysiders head to Brisbane as exodus continues

The net loss was the result of 41,800 arrivals (down from 46,800 in the September 2019 quarter) and 53,000 departures (up from 52,400 in September 2019) to non-capital city areas. According to ABS, Brisbane gained the most people through net internal migration (3,200), while Sydney lost the most (7,800).

Similarly, CoreLogic’s latest data showed the property market as a whole had reached a new peak, with regional towns outpacing Australia’s capital cities. 

The numbers revealed that capital city increases ranged from 0.4 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne to 2.3 per cent in Darwin.

Regional areas recorded an average 1.6 per cent increase last month, and were up 7.9 per cent over the year, while the combined capitals rose only 1.7 per cent over the past year.

Propertyology’s head of research, Simon Pressley, explained that, while the capital cities are being hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, regional Australia has not suffered the same fate on the health front.  

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 [were] 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.