Home Values Crash in Regional Hotspots

The regional housing boom, driven by the pandemic, has bust with regional markets that had the strongest value growth among the fastest to decline.

According to Corelogic’s Regional Market Update, which examines Australia’s 25 largest non-capital city regions, house values in six of the most popular lifestyle markets recorded falls of 6 per cent or more last quarter.

This includes NSW’s Richmond-Tweed, down 11.7 per cent, the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven, both down 7.1 per cent; and Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, also down 7.1 per cent and the Gold Coast, down 6.4 per cent.

Also in NSW, the Illawarra declined 6.1 per cent, and Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, down 6.0 per cent. 

Only Central Queensland (0.1 per cent), SA’s South East (0.0 per cent) and WA’s Bunbury (0.0 per cent) did not decline.

House values in Richmond-Tweed (-7.8 per cent), Illawarra (-1.9 per cent), and Ballarat (-0.5 per cent) are also below the levels recorded this time last year, while values across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie are flat year-on-year.

Regional NSW dominated the worst performing house markets across a range of metrics, including Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven’s largest decline in sales volumes (-27.5 per cent) and the highest vendor discounting rate (-4.9 per cent), while the New England and North West region clocked up the longest time on market at 43 days.

Corelogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said value declines initially seen across the more expensive capital city and regional markets have become more geographically broad-based over the three months to October, with 87.8 per cent of the regional house and unit markets analysed recording a quarterly decline in values. 

▲ Armidale in NSW: the New England and North West region clocked up the longest time on market at 43 days.

“Consecutive interest rate rises, persistently high inflation, and waning consumer sentiment saw the pace of value declines accelerate across regional Australian property markets,” Ezzy said.

“It is unsurprising the Richmond-Tweed region recorded the strongest decline in house values.

“Throughout the Covid period, values skyrocketed, rising more than 50 per cent and taking the median house value to more than $1.1 million.

“However, the impact of this year’s floods, coupled with seven consecutive rate rises, has seen house values fall in the region by nearly 16 per cent since April.”

The best-performing regional house market was SA’s South East, where values are 21.7 per cent higher over the past year, followed by the Riverina (20.5 per cent), and New England and North West (19.8 per cent).

Townville had the highest growth in sales volumes (21.6 per cent), while Toowoomba had the shortest days on market (13).