DITCHING CITY LIFE
WAVE OF CIT Y SLICKERS TO HIT POST-COVID-19
THE COVID-19 pandemic has extended many Melburnians’ search parameters to include the coast or country, and new data shows Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula are where they are searching.
The realestate.com.au data reflects a 58 per cent increase in demand for regional Victorian properties in the past year – nearly four times the growth of metro demand.
Inquiries on regional listings also jumped 77 per cent in that period.
Suburbs in Geelong and areas extending down the Great Ocean Road dominated Victoria’s top 10 most in-demand regional areas – a result chief economist Nerida Conisbee said was no surprise.
“Regional Victoria has been doing well for a long time,” she said. “In the past three years, the region that has had the strongest price growth (nationally) is Hobart, followed by Geelong.
“There has been a renaissance in Geelong – young people have moved in, done up houses, and so there has been urban renewal in those areas.”
Jan Juc was most popular for those searching for new digs, followed by East Geelong, Aireys Inlet, Bellbrae and Geelong West.
Ms Conisbee said the spike in regional interest was in part thanks to COVID-19 and a societal shift towards living a more relaxed lifestyle.
Working from home and, as such, having less of a need to live close to the city, was another big factor.
“People will return to the office. But there will be a difference in how often, and that does extend the opportunity to live in regional areas,” she said.
Whitford Newtown director Dale Whitford said once Stage 4 restrictions eased in metro Melbourne there would be plenty of city slickers flocking to the coast.
“There will be an amazing amount of traffic on the road to Geelong,” he said.
“In June and July, before Stage 4 in Melbourne, it (the market) was flying.
“People after the first lockdown re-evaluated life, working from home became a reality not a just a dream, and they didn’t want to to be in Melbourne as it’s densely populated.”
Mr Whitford said there had been pent-up demand for property in Geelong and surrounds for the past 10 years, but it had become “more exaggerated” since COVID-19 hit.
Intrapac Property chief operating officer Max Shifman said metro Melbourne’s Stage 4 restrictions had pushed even more people to look at “(getting) out of the big smoke”.
Inquiries for Intrapac’s Quay 2 development in Torquay are at peak levels. And since the strict lockdown laws came into place, Melbourne buyers had outweighed local inquiries, Mr Shifman said.
Eric, 27, and Valentino, 38, recently bought their first home — a two-bedroom townhouse in the Quay 2 estate.
The couple had planned to use the property as an investment while continuing to rent a one-bedroom Melbourne apartment to be close to their jobs in the city. But instead, they moved in two months ago due to COVID-19.
“We got the indication working from home could be long-term, so we took the leap of faith and moved in,” Eric, who declined to provide his surname, said. “The next question is, do we move back to Melbourne (post-coronavirus)? Ideally, we would love to stay.”
Eric said the “silver lining” of COVID-19 had been the chance to move regionally, be close to the ocean, and have enough of space to work at home and adopt a puppy