Records broken as Melburnians leave city for regions

YOUNG FAMILY... John and Chelsea McNamara with their daughter Penelope, at their new home in Kialla. The pair moved to Shepparton from Melbourne via Bendigo, and have no plans to return to the ‘big smoke’. Photo: Struan Jones

IT probably comes as no surprise to us who choose to live regionally, but Melburnians have been fleeing suburbia amid Coronavirus lockdowns and Shepparton has become a lifestyle destination.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows in the three months to the end of June, an average of 127 people a day left the city for somewhere easier to breathe. Those who left in that period luckily dodged the harsh lockdown which gripped the city from early July.

According to the ABS, in the June quarter Melbourne saw the largest change in net internal migration, from –2,200 in the previous quarter to –8,000 in the June 2020 quarter.

Nationwide, the net loss of people through migration from capital cities in the June 2020 quarter (-10,500) was the largest quarterly net loss since these figures began to be recorded in 2001, and Melbourne’s net loss (-8,000) was its largest quarterly net loss on record.

Of the 8,000 people who ditched Melbourne, 5,900 of them moved to other parts of the state, including to regional centres such as Shepparton, Bendigo and Wodonga. Meanwhile, 2,100 of them left for the sunny state, Queensland.

The pattern may explain Shepparton’s housing market, which according to the REIV, has seen a whopping 11.5 percent quarterly increase in the median house sale price – more than double the 5.1 percent increase across the rest of regional Victoria.

Even rental yields are up 4.8 percent, compared to the regional Victorian average of 4.2 percent.

The purchasing frenzy has seen available land gobbled up in the region, even causing anxiety among some buyers, according to Gagliardi Scott Real Estate director, Rocky Gagliardi.

“What we’re seeing now is a shortage of land lots available,” he said.

“The perfect storm of low interest rates, the availability of government grants and booming regional industries has combined to heat up the market and available lots have become scarce.

“Now we’re finding there is anxiety among buyers looking to build in the next couple of years who are realising they could run out of blocks to pick from.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. I was involved in the last building boom and this is unprecedented.”