Every council area outside of Sydney, except for two, recorded double-digit price growth in the year to June.Property listingsThe housing boom in regional NSW has begun to lose steam, new data shows, but prices are still rising in regional areas and experts say they may escape Sydney’s downturn.
While the annual rate of growth peaked in March 2022, the regions have escaped a quarterly fall in prices for now, unlike Sydney, and experts say lingering demand may sustain their boom time values for a while longer. Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the housing boom in regional NSW had begun to slow down like the rest of the country.“Regional NSW is showing what we’re largely seeing across Australia and that is a slowdown in momentum. But prices are going to hold up better in regional NSW than Sydney,” Powell said.
KPMG demographer and urban economist Terry Rawnsley said the regional housing boom has started to slow because the population growth underpinning it has also stalled. He said while markets within an hour or two drive from the city may have all the fundamentals for long-term growth and hold their values, towns further away may experience losses in coming quarters.
He said many Victorians north of the Murray moved to NSW because of more relaxed pandemic-era restrictions, cheaper stamp duty than Victoria and more land releases than Echuca, which is located in the Campaspe Shire Council, which recorded less than half the house price growth that the Murray River Council did.“The Moama people had better COVID lives than we did,” Miller said, who works across both states.