Regional Queensland has been the biggest winner in the flow of people moving from south of the border to the warmer, more affordable communities according to the ABS latest figures.
The Finishing Touch, a national company which helps people through the process of packing up to arriving at a new home, reaffirms that finding.
The last year has been its busiest to date, says chief executive officer Susan Williams.
“We are seeing activity levels not seen for many, many years,” Ms Williams says.
“Our business of helping people move into the Coast area is up by 55 per cent in the past 12 months alone, continuing a strong growth trend of recent years.”
For every four clients they move, only one is booked to head out of the Coast, the rest are heading in.
Their Coast clients are predominantly from Melbourne and Sydney with most moving into houses and acreage.
“We have baby boomers retiring or pulling forward plans to semi-retire and do remote working, families who have decided to move now after being unable to move due to COVID restrictions, high net worth clients who are rationalising their various properties and deciding to spend more time in the area and ex-pats returning from overseas,” Ms Williams says.
“Many of them are familiar with the Coast, having holidayed there often. Their expectations include access to a wide range of professional and trades services, which they have typically enjoyed in their prior, perhaps larger cities and suburbs.
“This can bring the occasional challenge when inner city ‘on demand’ clients from say larger capital cities meet a more relaxed Queenslander approach to provision of services or an inability to instantly respond due to peak demand, which doesn’t seem to be abating on the Sunshine Coast.
“For families, we see regularly that quality schools and modern sporting facilities are very high on their priority lists for choosing particular homes.”
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These Southerners are moving into a range of suburbs including Peregian Springs, Palmwoods, Sippy Downs, Buderim, Maroochydore, Minyama, Beerwah, Mooloolaba, Golden Beach, Twin Waters, Buddina and more.
In several situations TFT clients have initially had to move into rental accommodation or Airbnbs as government restrictions or property availability constraints have slowed the moving process down.
But with feature rich Coast areas offering parks, walking tracks, golf courses, beaches, tennis courts and little congestion and traffic, the move is worth it says Ms Williams.
