Many Australian residential property regions are on the cusp of huge booms and investors should take advantage, according to property expert Simon Pressley.
The leading national residential property market analyst revealed the positive upcoming trends and the window of opportunity that has presented itself to property investors, describing ‘exciting times ahead’ for a number of Australian cities and regional areas.
“In Western Australia, Karratha is a mining story. In South Australia, Mount Barker and Mount Gambier are going crazy at the moment and that’s an agriculture and tourism story in a location quite away from congestion. Whyalla is expanding significantly and that’s a manufacturing story,” Simon told KnowHow founder Bushy Martin on the Get Invested podcast.
“In New South Wales, Orange has gone crazy with double digit price growth, and it’s most of the coastal locations north of about Port Macquarie, so I’m referring to Byron Bay, Ballina, Coffs Harbour, Tweed Head. All those markets have double digit pace right now.
“In Victoria … Warrnambool is strong and Mildura is also strong.
“Queensland – most of the state [is good], Townsville was starting to grow before COVID and is quite strong, Cairns we had some question marks over when COVID hit but I’m pleased to say its held up firm and prices are going. Hervey Bay is solid and Noosa is right up there. Almost all of Sunshine coast is strong, and Gold Coast had a few problematic months but it has seemed to settle down quite nicely.”
Simon also particularly emphasised the prospects for property investors in Tasmania.
“All of Tasmania is on fire at the moment. Their property markets are going crazy. Launceston is arguably the hottest market in Australia. Hobart, a bit of a pause button for a few months, and now it’s really gone back up,” he said.
Simon said this trend is supported by the increased movement to regional areas as more people change their work situation.
“There’s already anecdotal evidence that [people] have not only decided to work from home, but when they made that decision, the question was well where do they want their home to be. And so they have in a lot of places already sold where they were living and completely left town and they’re going far and wide all over Australia,” Simon said.
“But what they’re doing is reviewing what size mortgage they want, so some people with a big expensive mortgage in Sydney or Melbourne have questioned whether they really want that financial pressure and have relocated and worked from home in a completely different part of Australia.”
He also said that many are moving forward their retirement plans.
“They might still be working, but they might be working now in that ideal location that they saw themselves already in 5, 10, 15 years time. They’re doing that now and enjoying that lifestyle. So we are seeing this right around Australia in a number of real estate packs,” Simon explained.
While the future is mostly positive in Australian property, Simon does hold concerns for Melbourne and Sydney.
“We said this actually before I had started our 2020 property market outlook, which we released on New Year’s Eve … back then, we described Sydney and Melbourne as having the weakest fundamentals of our capital city markets … and that was nothing to do with the coronavirus,” he said.
“Now we layer in the coronavirus impact on those existing fundamentals, and Sydney and Melbourne are becoming even more vulnerable. Why? Their economies are more reliant on international (activity), whether it’s students, whether it’s tourism, whether it’s overseas migration. And it’s the germ itself, it spreads and breeds and congests to that city side … and I’m particularly concerned about Melbourne because the economy was locked up for months.”
To manage the balance of opportunity and risk, Simon encouraged investors to diversify.
“I would look outside of your hometown … Too many property investors live in a city and then buy a property investment in the same city, and you’d put all your eggs in one basket. So take advantage of all of Australia,” he said.
Listen to the full interview here.
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