Demographic data released this week from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows a rapid rate of population growth driven by migration.
Overseas and interstate migration remained the key drivers for population growth, in turn driving housing demand, according to CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher.
“Whereas natural increase removes older people and adds younger people, interstate migration and overseas immigration brings a new person or family to a region of the country and these people need to be housed,” he said.
The largest sources of permanent arrivals to Australia were India (22,180 people), China (18,050 people) and New Zealand (11,740 people).
NSW and Victoria are the most popular states for most overseas migrants.
“This isn’t really a surprise when you consider that those two economies are the strongest nationally.”
While migration into Victoria is at an historic high, the outflow of residents from Western Australia is also at an historic high.
“By combining net interstate migration and net overseas migration we can get a picture on total net migration across the states and territories,” Mr Kusher said.
Mr Kusher said, “Migration trends show a clear preference for overseas migrants to settle in either NSW or Vic while interstate migrants appear to be turning their backs on NSW and WA and choosing to move to Vic and Qld.”
“NSW is likely to be less attractive for interstate migrants due to the high housing costs while the ongoing weak housing and economic conditions are the main deterrents in WA.
“Victoria is particularly attractive to migrants because wages are similar to those in NSW but housing is much cheaper while the economy is performing similarly strong. Qld appears to be growing in popularity again largely due to the fact that housing is much cheaper than NSW and Victoria and lifestyle housing markets in South-East Qld seem to be seeing resurgent popularity,” he said.
Auction preview and market wrap-up
This week, the number of auctions scheduled to take place across the combined capital cities will fall, with 1,820 auctions currently being tracked by CoreLogic, down from 2,355 last week. Although volumes are down this week, current levels are significantly higher than the same week last year, when auction volumes were quieter due to the Federal Election. Randwick in Sydney is the busiest individual suburb for auctions, with CoreLogic tracking 17 auctions so far this week. Following Randwick is Blacktown, also in Sydney, and Reservoir in Melbourne, each with 13 scheduled auctions.
The final clearance rate across the combined capital cities continues to fall for the 5th week in a row, with last week recording a final clearance rate of 66.5 per cent, down slightly from 66.7 per cent the previous week.
