Tens of thousands of millennial parents are fleeing Sydney and piling into south-east Queensland during the nation’s housing crisis.
The Sunshine State is among Australia’s best performing property markets with house prices still going up by annual double-digit figures despite interest rates remaining high.
Higher-than-expected levels of overseas migration have also led to a big exodus from Sydney, by far Australia’s most expensive property market with a median house price approaching $1.5million.
The number of people fleeing Sydney is now almost identical to the number piling into Brisbane and the Gold Coast – and other parts of the Sunshine State – as millennials raising children chase a better lifestyle for their money.
Mother-of-two Arianne Endrizzi and her husband Chris, both 36, swapped a two-bedroom Hornsby unit in Sydney’s north four years ago for a five-bedroom house with a pool, set on a third of a hectare at Palm Cove, near Cairns in tropical far north Queensland.
‘We haven’t looked back, we love the lifestyle, we love the sunshine, we love the outdoor activities,’ Ms Enrizzi told Daily Mail Australia.
The $1.1million they spent on a dream tropical home near the water would hardly buy a typical house in western Sydney – let alone a large acreage.
‘More bang for your buck in terms of lifestyle and affordability,’ she said.
Tens of thousands of Australians are fleeing Sydney and piling into south-east Queensland during a housing crisis (pictured are schoolies at Surfers Paradise)
Arianne Endrizzi (right) and her husband Chris Endrizzi (centre) swapped a Hornsby unit in Sydney’s north four years ago for a five-bedroom house with a pool set on a third of a hectare at Palm Cove, near Cairns in far north Queensland (they are pictured with Arianne’s mum Susan Putnam, left, and Arianne’s son Chase)
‘That same block in Sydney would be completely out of reach.’
The working parents enjoy living in a town with beachside markets that is only a short drive to either Port Douglas or Cairns.
‘With Palm Cove, sunny beaches, warm weather, it’s just a slower pace of life which contrasts with Sydney,’ she said.
‘It also coincided with our family changes because I became a mum to two young children so it just provided an idyllic setting for raising a family – strong sense of community and a beautiful natural environment.’
Ms Endrizzi is a fashion model while her husband is a resources industry machine operator who regularly flies to the Northern Territory for work.
They also make a living from three investment properties in south-east Queensland.
Her baby boomer mum Susan Putnam, 70, has since moved in with them on the sprawling property, when she became a grandmother to Chase, two, and Aurora, one, after previously sharing an apartment with her daughter.
Married mum Anne Crarey, 43, moved to the Gold Coast with her seven-year-old son in 2021 from Wantirna in Melbourne’s east to escape Victoria’s cold winters, after noticing a price surge in south-east Queensland’s property market.
The $1.1million they spent on a dream tropical home near the water would hardly buy a typical house in western Sydney – let alone a large acreage (pictured are Arianne and Chris Endrizzi with Nero, their 11-year old Italian mastiff)
‘My husband’s family all lived on the Gold Coast – we had every intention of moving to the Gold Coast when my son was going into Prep, however we ended up moving 18 months earlier due to watching the housing prices go up every single month so we decided to make the move rather than wait,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I feel like the move has allowed me to relax a little bit more.
‘I’m able to have a bit more of a work-life balance and be more available to my son based on not having to be stuck in hour-and-a-half traffic each way to work.’
She was able to relocate north as the executive general manager of property services with Little Real Estate, which has offices in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
‘I wanted my son to be able to play outside in winter and not have to worry about rugging up in layers and layers of clothing,’ Ms Crarey said.
During the last financial year, 30,865 residents fled New South Wales for another state, on a net basis, as 29,910 moved into Queensland, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday revealed.
Western Australia was the only other state to see a big increase in net interstate migration with 9,742 moving in.
Perth, the capital of the resources-rich state, also has Australia’s tightest rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent, which is almost half Brisbane’s 1.1 per cent level and the national average of 1.4 per cent, new SQM Research data showed.
Anne Crarey, a 43-year-old married mum with a seven-year-old son, moved to the Gold Coast in 2021 from Melbourne to escape Victoria’s cold winters, after noticing a price surge in south-east Queensland’s property market
WA also had Australia’s strongest population growth pace of 2.8 per cent – well ahead of the national average of 2.1 per cent.
Victoria, Australia’s worst performing property market, actually saw a net increase of 664 new residents from interstate with Melbourne houses and units now more affordable than they are Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth.
Ms Crarey predicted rate cuts next year would revive Melbourne’s sluggish property market, and overcome the effects of the state government’s investor land tax given the Victorian capital gets a big influx of overseas migration, including international students.
‘That’s where we’re going to start seeing some moves in Melbourne, that’s when I feel like investment will come back into Melbourne,’ she said.
‘I don’t think it will change too much in Queensland; Sydney, we’ve just got to watch and see.’
Intriguingly, Victoria’s population growth pace of 2.4 per cent was stronger than Queensland’s 2.3 per cent level.
NSW had a below-average 1.7 per cent growth pace, owing to a big interstate exodus but a big overseas inflow.
In most of Australia, more residents were leaving for another part of Australia than moving in.
South Australia had a net outflow of 1,569, despite Adelaide house prices still posting double-digit annual growth, producing a weaker population growth pace of 1.4 per cent.
Tasmania, a poorly-performing real estate market, had an exodus of 2,557 and Australia’s weakest population growth of 0.3 per cent.
The Northern Territory, Australia’s cheapest housing market to buy a house, saw 3,775 people leave, leading to a weak 0.8 per cent population increase.
This occurred as 1,550 residents fled the Australian Capital Territory, which had a below-average population growth pace of 1.7 per cent.
Australia’s population grew by 2.1 per cent in the year to June with 445,600 overseas migrants moving in, a level more than four times the net birth rate of 106,400.
The intake was also 50,600 higher than the May Budget forecast of 395,000 for 2023-24.
Sydney received the biggest share of permanent and long-term foreign arrivals with 142,473 moving to NSW, which received almost a third of the national intake.
Melbourne also received a big influx of new migrants, with 142,473 foreigners moving to Victoria, ahead of Queensland’s 74,932, South Australia’s 23,273, Western Australia’s 58,082, Tasmania’s 3,820, the Northern Territory’s 3,643 and the ACT’s 6,523.
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