John Howard, the former prime minister of Australia, visited the gold coast recently and said: the difference of housing prices in different regions in the country will lead more and more residents to leave big cities and move to other cities with housing price advantages, for example, the gold coast is a perfect choice.
"The government should encourage people to migrate to some non-capital cities," Howard said, "this will not solve the housing crisis immediately, but it will have far-reaching long-term implications."
"The biggest problem currently causing the cost of housing in capital cities is that land resources have not kept up with the dramatic growth of the migrant population. But for other regions, such as south Australia and western Australia, there is no such problem. Therefore, the government should actively encourage people to move out of big cities. There are some cities in Australia that are more livable than Sydney and Melbourne.
He revealed that one of his relatives just did that, moving to the gold coast from Sydney where he had lived for decades.
Mr Howard said: "compared to the Sutherland Shire in Sydney, the price of the property in the Currumbin area on the gold coast his relatives moved to is much cheaper, but the quality of the property and the quality of life are very satisfactory."
According to the latest data from the Australian bureau of population statistics (ABS), the population of immigrants of the gold coast is much higher than expected. A total of 16,000 people moved to the gold coast last year, and much of them interstated from Sydney.
As we known, the gold coast has seen an average population growth of 13,524 over the past 10 years. The data of recent years has revealed that the gold coast is the most populous city in Australia except Melbourne. More and more people move to work, study and live here. Good weather, affordable housing and lifestyle are the main factors driving Sydney residents to the gold coast, demographers say.
Tim Lawless，the senior real estate analyst of CoreLogic, reveals: “the great beauty of the gold coast is that it allows people to enjoy life and return to life as it is. It's also because of its unparalleled lifestyle that the city's real estate market has become one of Australia's potential winners.”
Mr Lawless said: "in the past few years, we have seen the real estate market in Sydney and Melbourne growing by 75% to 80%. The people of the two cities went to gold coast to seek a new way of investment after receiving the bumper revenues, and they pursue high quality life style, some seek vacation home or retirement home, others are purely for the real estate investment. And the advantage of gold coast real estate is high cost performance."
By the end of last year, the median prices for a house and an apartment on the gold coast had reached to $620,000 and $400,000 respectively, according to the data from CoreLogic. While up 7% compared with a year earlier, it is still a huge investment opportunity for investors in Melbourne and Sydney.
Of all the areas on the gold coast, the two areas with the best overall sales performance for apartment in 2017 were surfers paradise and hope island, with total sales of 696 million Australian dollars and 541 million Australian dollars.