Sally and Peter Tullet are selling their Newport home to move up the coast. Picture: Adam Yip
They’ve been living the last three years in a character-filled home they had admired for years before moving in, but Peter and Sally Tullet have decided after a major renovation that it’s time for a treechange.
The couple have just purchased a 32ha macadamia farm in the Byron Bay area and will be moving there once they sell their Newport house on Crescent Rd at auction tonight.
“I put my dream kitchen into the house, but it will be for someone else — an opportunity came up that we just couldn’t pass,” Ms Tullet said.
They’re part of a growing wave of Sydneysiders seeking out properties in locations they once dismissed for being out of reach or too insular.
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The opposite is occurring across inner city locations once prized for being close to the CBD: many buyers are viewing the pricier housing and smaller property sizes with caution.
This has resulted in a mismatch in price growth across regions.
Data from SQM Research revealed unit prices in the Sydney CBD have dropped by nearly 10 per cent over the past three months.
The Byron Bay area is becoming popular. Picture: Brook Mitchell
Prices in regional NSW have continued to grow, while prices in further-flung Sydney suburbs also had a rise – including in northern beaches enclaves Newport and Collaroy, where the increases over the three months were 14.5 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively.
There was also strong growth over the past year in the Illawarra region, with average growth of 10.7 per cent, and in the Southern Highlands, where growth was 5.3 per cent, according to CoreLogic.
“Being in lockdown made us realise, ‘what are we waiting for?’ We decided if we didn’t (move) now it would have to be in a few more years so we just did it and got what I’d say is a hobby farm,” Ms Tullet said.
“We also wanted more space. I feel like the land is in my DNA. We are looking forward to starting our next great chapter.”
Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said buyers were likely prioritising space after being cooped up at home for much of the pandemic.
Most of the local government areas with the strongest growth in prices over the past three months were in regional areas, especially “white-collar nomad driven” markets like Byron Bay, she added.
Increased work from home arrangements may have also encouraged buyers to seek out “lifestyle” locations near beaches or national parks, she said.
Sally and Peter Tullet will move to the Byron Bay area. Picture: Adam Yip
“It’s clear that a longer commute doesn’t bother people as much as it might have before, which makes sense if you’re only going into the office once or twice a week,” Ms Conisbee said.
She added that, in Sydney, this trend was particularly evident in the northern beaches. Newport had Sydney’s most popular listings over the past year measured by the average amount of buyer engagement the homes attracted online, with Collaroy close behind.
LJ Hooker-Palm Beach agent Gordon Spring said there has been a recent influx of buyers into the northern beaches from areas such as Summer Hill and Leichhardt in the inner west. Many were professionals who worked in the CBD, he said.
The Illawarra region has been popular.
“Lifestyle is paramount to these people,” he said. “No one was really sure how the pandemic was going to play out in February but now that it has become a bit clearer and it seems working from home will be more of a permanent thing, people want to live somewhere with a bit more space for their families. You get a bit of everything up here.”
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