Anywhere but Sydney!

For more than four decades, Sydney has been losing more people to the rest of Australia than it gains, data provided to the Sydney Morning Herald shows. 

“Sydneysiders have some issues,” social researcher Mark McCrindle told the Sydney Morning Herald in an article published Monday. “Obviously it’s a great city and there’s a lot to like, but there’s a lot that’s a bit of a pain for locals.”

There are a number of things that contribute to this drain – the cost of living, job availability, traffic and commuting, and, of course, property prices.

Despite the recent dip in property prices across Australia, Sydney remains the most expensive city to invest in. According to the SMH article, McCrindle and his team found out that when asked to nominate the greatest challenges of living in Sydney, 59% of respondents cited the cost of housing.

We have been warned

The soaring property prices in Sydney could spark a new wave of migration into south-east Queensland, according to research conducted by Macquarie Bank late last year. And that is most likely what’s happening now.

“Sydney house prices are nearly double those in other capital cities, and job creation in Queensland is on the rise,” the Macquarie team noted. “However, probably the most important aspect of this is not the number of people moving, but the fact that they are asset-rich.”

About 130,000 people are projected to move to the north over the next three years, bringing with them a large transfer of wealth, wealth that has been built by Sydney property prices over the past decade.