Australia property: Sea-change towns where home sellers made the most money

The Age

2 days ago

Lawless said the pandemic, lockdowns and the shift to working from home drove the rapid change in these markets because office workers in cities chose to move to lifestyle locations once they were no longer required to go into work to do their jobs.
The shift delivered a huge windfall for long-time owners, but created a new affordability crisis for locals yet to buy a home, he said.
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'Without a doubt, there's been a huge amount of wealth creation for home owners who have been fortunate enough to own a house in these markets,' he said. 'But if you're looking to get into these markets, affordability has become a real challenge.'
Watts Property Group principal Adam Watts said Noosa's market was no longer booming, but had stabilised post-lockdowns because the area's high prices attracted well-off buyers who had more flexibility to work from home.
'It's better than a normal market. For myself, we're still getting strong inquiry and turning over properties,' he said. 'People are a little bit more frugal with their money, and they want to know they're paying the right price.'
Watts said sought-after pockets in popular suburbs had enjoyed the biggest growth in profits.
Byron Bay Real Estate agent Peter Yopp said his area had taken a hit in the return-to-work slowdown.
'We're seeing a mixture at the moment. There were a lot of high prices paid during COVID, and people have left to go back where they've come from. The market's just not there any more,' he said. 'That feels like a decade ago now. We've gone to the moon and come back. We've been through the ringer and a lot of people are still very transient.'
Efforts to reduce the number of holiday rentals in central Byron had also cut back demand, Yopp said, which had made it harder for some vendors to sell.
'There's definitely not too many making profits at the moment. The only ones who made the really good [profits] are the ones who held for a while or bought in early COVID,' he said. 'The top end is doing really well; you can pretty much name your price. But the mum and dad stuff … anything below $2 million is doing well, but anything above $2 million or needs some work is not doing well.'
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In the Victorian alpine region, the market was buoyed by the rigid stock levels in skiing locations but had seen a fall-off in demand after COVID-era restrictions ended, Zirky Real Estate director Christina Smit said.
Bright, a town at the foot of the region's mountains, had been developed further following the pandemic tree-change trend, she said. 'There's limited stock numbers in alpine resorts … it's not like it was in Bright.'
Smit said greater flexibility to work from home won during lockdowns had permanently boosted demand in the mountain region, as well as a growing reputation as a summer holiday destination.
Long-time residents profited the most from the tree-change boom.
'If they've held for a long time, then yes. They would have seen large growth with the COVID pricing. That growth has held pretty stable now, but we're not seeing that influx in pricing at the moment,' Smit said.