As city-dwellers flee for the comfort of a slower paced life, a debate has reared up. Which is better, the beach or the bush?
Pete Wargent, co-founder of BuyersBuyers.com.au says “we’ve clearly seen that both coastal and hinterland areas have seen a significant increase in buyer interest, and it’s clearly picked up even since February and March. But not all areas have experienced the same consistent demand over time”.
“For property buyers with a medium-term outlook, it’s mostly been the coastal lifestyle locations around Australia which buyers keep on coming back to,” Mr Wargent said.
RiskWise Property Research CEO Doron Peleg has identified the key areas to buy and what to expect once the property market stabilises in a post-pandemic era.
“Australians have had a taste of working from home over the last few months, and are now able to continue to work remotely, and it’s these buyers who are now seeking lifestyle properties and avoiding higher density locations” Mr Peleg said.
Mr Wargent noted hinterland property had been phenomenally strong this year in some cases, especially since stock levels have been so low.
“That said, we know that proximity to water tends to be a huge drawcard in Australian property, and demand from sea changers has been consistently strong for a sustained period now,” he explained.
“At the individual property level, it’s always hard to go past the inherent scarcity of coastal property, and in particular water views.”
“Before COVID-19 hit, there was already a strong trend of sea- and tree-change homebuyers looking for the best of all worlds – lifestyle, accessibility to employment hubs and affordable housing,” Mr Peleg explained.
“These include areas of southeast Queensland such as the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, just over the NSW border in Byron Bay and further south on the Central Coast, in areas such as North Avoca, Terrigal and Wamberal.
“Then there’s also sought-after locations such as the Hunter Valley, Wollongong and the South Coast, and in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, and Ballarat.”
RiskWise has undertaken an analysis of popular treechange and seachange regions to determine which will deliver the stronger price growth in the next few years. The results showed that over the past five years seachange areas delivered more than double the price growth than treechange areas (36 per cent to 18 per cent respectively).
“However, treechange areas in general are significantly more affordable with a median price of $410,849, while seachange tends to come with a higher median price tag, at $742,528,” Mr Peleg said.
