While a lot of media attention is focused on what is or isn’t happening with Sydney property prices, other parts of New South Wales continue to perform extremely well.
Late last year, along with the comparison website Canstar, I analysed the price growth prospects in all the major markets across Australia – the 8 capital cities and 6 state regional markets.
I used a range of different metrics to determine the markets with the best prospects for price growth in 2022.
Of all those 14 market jurisdictions, Regional New South Wales come out on top as the No.1 ranked market in Australia.
And that ranking really should not surprise.
The biggest single force impacting real estate at the moment is the trend I call the Exodus to Affordable Lifestyle, with people moving from the big cities to regional areas for a better and more affordable lifestyle.
And the most significant contributor to that trend has been people leaving Sydney and moving to Regional NSW.
It’s been happening for many years and continues to be a major trend.
Regional NSW offers city refugees a lot. There are many good solid regional cities in New South Wales that have all the things that those internal migrants look for, in terms of infrastructure, amenities and lifestyle.
They have strong diverse growing economies which are creating jobs, growing populations and there is plenty of infrastructure spending.
All of this is underpinned by prices that are much more affordable than those in Sydney.
Sydney’s median house price is close to $1.5 million and the median for apartments is above $800,000.
But many attractive regional centres in NSW have median house prices around $500,000 or $600,000, sometimes much lower.
I’m thinking about regional centres like Orange, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Albury-Wodonga, Nowra and Goulburn south of Sydney, coastal cities like Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie, and the towns of the Hunter Valley.
There are many New South Wales regional towns along the route of the Inland Rail Link, which is currently under construction, and will eventually connect Melbourne and Brisbane via regional New South Wales and Queensland. Prices are growing strongly in those regional centres.
With the New South Wales government establishing renewable energy zones throughout the state – encouraging the development of solar farms, wind farms and other alternative energy projects- many regional NSW centres are benefiting from that investment – places like Tamworth and Armidale in the New England region.
There are also larger regional cities like Newcastle and Wollongong, which are more expensive but still very affordable compared to Sydney.
In all these strategically located town and cities, property prices are rising strongly.
The latest population data shows us that the Exodus to Affordable Lifestyle trend continues.
The trend is really about finding affordable property and improving lifestyle, enabled by technology which allows people to work remotely effectively.
Regional NSW is benefiting from this trend, more so than most parts of Australia.
So I expect to see continuing good performance of markets in these areas and investors can do well, provided they select their locations intelligently.
Our new May edition of the Top 5 NSW Regional Hotspots report features my top picks, within this strong market, for future growth through 2022 and beyond. Get Your Copy Today!
