Some areas were largely unaffected by the price tumbles of 2022
Regional Australia’s property values remain strong in many areas despite the downturn hitting the nation’s cities, according to new data from Proptrack.
House prices declined steadily throughout last year in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with values tumbling by as much as 14%, according to a report by The Australian. However, the housing boom continued in many regions and some outer-ring suburbs.
While the property market skyrocketed between 2020 and early 2022 thanks to record-low interest rates and high demand, prices plummeted in the second part of last year thanks to eight consecutive rate hikes. However, those price falls weren’t evenly distributed, according to PropTrack.
Some areas, including regional NSW and Victoria, were largely unaffected by the price falls, according to PropTrack economist Angus Moore.
“I think there are two things going on here. One is the after-effects of COVID-19 – the preference shifts that happened during the pandemic to people wanting more space being less tied to the inner city,” Moore told The Australian. “The other thing that we’re seeing is that some of these regional areas are a bit more affordable than places like inner-city Sydney and inner-city Melbourne. We’re probably starting to see some buyers having to look outside of where they might have otherwise, simply because they can’t afford those inner-city areas anymore.”
This regional resilience is perhaps unsurprising, with recent CoreLogic data suggesting that regional areas were better-suited than capital cities to weather the housing downturn.
The Hunter Valley, Murray, and Riverina regions of NSW, Shepparton and the northwest regions of Victoria, and Toowoomba and Townsville in Queensland have seen some of the strongest performance during the downturn, with properties holding at peak prices as of November, according to The Australian.
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While Adelaide fell 0.18% from its peak in December, Moore said that smaller capital cities had also remained resilient thanks to high demand and low supply.
“The other thing we’re seeing is, as we went through the pandemic, that smaller capitals – particularly, at the moment, Adelaide – are holding up a bit better than some places like Melbourne and Sydney,” he told The Australian. “One of the things that has changed in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra is that there’s now more properties for sale than has typically been the case over the past decade.”
Rachel Laurie, principal at Ray White North Adelaide, told The Australian that the market across South Australia was booming.
“People in South Australia are buying because they see the value in our lands – like, where can you get a block of land line at a marina in Port Lincoln for $190,000 to $250,000, and you’re right on the water with your own beachfront and waterfront?” she said. “You can’t get that anywhere else, probably, in Australia.”
According to recent figures from CoreLogic, regional SA was a standout for growth in 2022, with values up 17.1% over the year.
