One of the strongest trend for the housing market remains urbanization. And not just in Australia, where the combined capital cities index increased by 9.3 % in 2023 vs + 4.4 % across the combined regional index (source : Corelogic). So, it seems that the strong rebound of regional market during covid was just a one off and we are now back to the previous trend.
I was watching recently some reports which show that we can see the same trend in other countries. For example : - in Italy, where some rural towns sell houses for 1 euro, - or, in Japan, where a lot of houses in rural areas are abandoned once their owners die.
This urban trend looks quite logical as all the age categories are attracted by cities : - of course, there are more job opportunities in urban areas, - it is again more complicated to work from home on a full time basis (most of the companies require again employees to come to the office for several days per week), - even older people seem more attracted by cities for different reasons : closer to family and friends, as well as hospitals and activities in general.
I guess it probably answers the question where people will try to find the next affordable opportunities : it seems that it would rather be with units in cities/suburbs, rather than going into regional areas.
