The Regional Australia Institute, Australia’s only independent think-tank focusing on the regions, has released its December 2024 Regional Movers Index Report finding a continuing uptick in tree- and sea-changing in Australia.
“The desire for regional living remains strong, with 32% more people moving from big cities to regions than in the opposite direction, building on pre-existing data, which shows the nation’s migration patterns are changing,” RAI CEO Liz Ritchie.
The report details the internal migration of people from urban to rural Australia, tracking hotspots and trends, and is sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank.
In NSW, the report shows that most desirable local government areas for Sydneysiders to move to are Lake Macquarie, Maitland, and Cessnock in the Hunter. The other two of the top five were Shoalhaven and Port Macquarie, long favoured as retirement destinations.
NSW still retains the vast majority of all urban flight in Australia, with a whopping 71% of all net regional inflows – that is, people fleeing the metropolitan centres – with Sydneysiders alone accounting for 59% of the net city outflows.
While this figure is down from the December 2023 rate of 65%, it still represents a significant proportion of the urban flight.
Ritchie also noted that much of urban-to-regional migration was to areas which also saw high rates of regional-to-regional migration, like the Greater Bendigo and Maitland areas.
In a statement released today, the RAI notes that “The December 2024 quarter saw a seasonal reduction in internal migration across all mover types, as people tend to stay put in the last three months of the year, with capital-to-regional migration as measured by the Regional Movers Index (RMI) down by 11%.”
This may also be due to the slight dip in Sydney house prices, as CoreLogic’s data shows, making housing slightly more affordable for those in the city, or selling up and moving out less attractive over the Christmas break.
Despite these lower figures, capital-to-regional migration remains some 8% higher than before COVID, and still 3% higher than a year ago.
Queensland’s Sunshine Coast region remains the biggest draw, experiencing a continual influx of metro migrants over nine consecutive quarters.
“The lure of the Sunshine State has long attracted both city and regional movers, with the latest RMI proving the appeal of a scenic and often more balanced lifestyle extends beyond metropolitan areas, bringing renewed economic and social benefits to other areas of the state,” Josh Foster, the CBA’s Acting Executive Manager for Regional and Agribusiness Banking, said.
With a federal election due to be called any day now, Ritchie said that decision-makers should take note of the growth of the regions, and that regional areas need to be prepared for greater populations.
“It’s critical that decision-makers note this important, contemporaneous data to ensure plans can be made, both now and into the future for these growing communities. The better we are able to project Australia’s population movements, the better we can prepare for them, ensuring the needed skills and services are in the right place, at the right time,” Ritchie said.
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