Pandemic still driving Aussie homeowners to regional areas: bank report

The trend for Australian homeowners to move from capital cities to regional areas during the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing, according to a report released on Thursday by the nation's biggest bank.

The latest Regional Movers Index (RMI) by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which covered October to December 2021, showed that net migration to country districts has been more than double the levels recorded during the two years prior to the pandemic.

The RMI, which was compiled in collaboration with the Regional Australia Institute (RAI), was based on relocation data collected from about 10 million CBA customers.

CBA executive general manager of regional and agribusiness Paul Fowler said the report showed homeowners had "really embraced Australia's regions" and he predicted that ongoing flexible work arrangements would likely result in the trend continuing.

RAI chief economist Kim Houghton said it was pleasing to note that many of the regions with the highest growth rates were inland towns, instead of the long-popular coastal destinations.

"It looks like the pandemic is changing some long-established movement paths, which is a good sign for more balanced population growth across Australia," Houghton said.

While net migration to the regions remains strong, the number of people moving to the regions in the latest RMI was down 10 percent compared to the previous quarter.

The report's writers said that was partly due to the high movement already seen in previous quarters, as well as seasonal conditions, and accelerated regional housing price growth.

Looking at the full year, the Gold Coast region in the state of Queensland remained the most popular destination among "big smoke" movers in 2021, welcoming 11 percent of all people who left capital cities.

The nation's two largest capitals experienced the most net outflows throughout last year, with Sydney in New South Wales (NSW) having 53 percent net outflow, while Melbourne in Victoria recorded 46 percent.

Throughout 2021, NSW absorbed 50 percent of the net inflows of people moving to regional areas, while Queensland and Victoria each picked up 20 and 21 percent of the inflows respectively.

Meanwhile, the areas with the strongest annual growth in migration through 2021 were in Queensland and South Australia (SA), with SA's Port Augusta topping the list (54 percent growth), followed by Queensland's Douglas and Western Downs regions both recording almost 50 percent growth.