Aerial view of Bentley Park housing and home construction. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE
A leading real estate researcher is predicting as many as 30,000 people will flee Melbourne over next two years due to the extended coronavirus lockdown, but a Far North agent says they’re already here.
Propertyology researcher Simon Pressley said the mass exodus would mark one of the biggest ever swings in internal migration in an Australian city.
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“Whether they relocate to a Victorian regional location, such as Bendigo, Wodonga, the Great Ocean Road region, or … completely leave the state, thousands of Melburnians will take action to regain their freedom,” he said.
“People are also starting to understand (COVID-19) is going to be with us for years, and where there’s greater density, there’s greater risk. We know there are people who’ve already left Melbourne.”
Melburnians are reportedly buying one-way tickets to Cairns with the intention of buying property in the Far North. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Bianca De Marchi
Cairns’ Marsh Property principal Chris Marsh said some of those residents who had left Melbourne were already in the Far North.
“We’ve spoken to Victorians that have managed to come up here just after the borders closed, with the intention of holidaying and buying property,” Mr Marsh said.
“They’ve gone into hotel isolation, paid a better part of $1000 for a one-way flight.
“And they’ve said ‘to hell with Melbourne, we’re not going back. I’ve already rung the removalist to pack up my house, we’re buying something up here, we’re living up here’.”
Mr Marsh said he had about 12 “very serious” Victorian buyers, with two sales to Melburnians already since July, and his agency had reported a 40 per cent increase in interest from southern investors since September last year.
“The Victorians do tend to be interested in the more “holiday suburbs” – Palm Cove and Trinity,” he said.
“Most of those comments have been on Palm Cove apartments. They’re apartments that have been holiday-let but they can be resided in as well and we’re seeing mostly people that are semi-retired.”
Mr Marsh the said the Far North was becoming a desirable location for more than just Victorians, after he recently sold three houses sight unseen to a New South Wales couple.
“They’re a couple from Sydney and they don’t plan on moving up for a couple of years, but the Far North is in demand and they’re just forward planning.”
arun.singhmann@news.com.au
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