Population data reveals migration shift to the regions

AUSTRALIA’S migration magnets have been revealed, with some surprising winners and losers of the pandemic-led population shift.

Analysis of population data and real estate transactions by Propertyology shows that 48,202 people relocated away from capital cities to regional Australia in the 12 months to June 2021.

Many of them made the move to Queensland, with the population of the Sunshine Coast increasing by 9 per cent.

Other big winners were Hervey Bay (+6.5 per cent), Gympie and the Gold Coast (+5.2 per cent), Scenic Rim (+5.1 per cent) and Yeppoon (+3.1 per cent).

Cairns’ population grew 0.2 per cent and Townsville was up 0.6 per cent respectively. Propertyology founder Simon Pressley said the “former craze to move to a big, congested and expensive city is long gone”, with 30,424 people saying “goodbye” to Sydney and 34,367 saying “ta-ta” to Melbourne last year.

It comes after the Real Estate Institute of Queensland revealed that Queensland’s vacancy rates had reached record lows with Cairns on a rate of just 0.5 per cent.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said the rental squeeze was being experienced right across Queensland.