Australia's super-affordable sea and tree-change towns booming again
A three-bedroom stone cottage on 1500 square metres of land, with the potential to subdivide and redevelop for $330,000. A meticulously renovated home with three bedrooms and a huge deck for entertaining for $415,000. A four-bedroom double-brick house in a private cul-de-sac close to town for offers from $599,000 …
With prices like those, is it really any wonder that tree-change spots throughout Australia are back to boom times, flooded with investors and potential owner-occupiers eager to snap up affordable bargains?
The latest Domain House Price Report shows that the regional centres are soaring, with an astonishing 75 local government areas clocking up double-digit growth over the past year – and 21 of those showing price jumps of over 20 per cent.
“When you look at some of the regionals, the core attractions are things like the affordability, lifestyle revival and economic resilience,” says Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell.
“Some of the places with the biggest price growth are sea-change and tree-change destinations, while others are resource-rich and employed-anchored markets. So a lot to do with these movements is about jobs growth and localised economies, doing well in lifestyle, resources or agriculture.”
Charters Towers, the old gold rush town in Queensland, 130 kilometres south-west of Townsville, showed the biggest jump in prices nationally, of a staggering 34.3 per cent over the past 12 months. It now sits on a record median price of … just $342,500.
| State | LGA | Sept-25 | Sept-24 | Annual change |
| QLD | Charters Towers | $342,500 | $255,000 | 34.3% |
| SA | Port Pirie | $332,500 | $248,000 | 34.1% |
| QLD | Central Highlands | $427,500 | $330,000 | 29.5% |
| WA | Manjimup | $515,000 | $400,000 | 28.8% |
| WA | Collie | $490,000 | $385,000 | 27.3% |
| QLD | Hinchinbrook | $360,000 | $285,000 | 26.3% |
| WA | Albany | $725,000 | $575,000 | 26.1% |
| WA | Northam | $499,500 | $400,000 | 24.9% |
| SA | Adelaide Plains | $780,000 | $625,000 | 24.8% |
| SA | Renmark Paringa | $447,500 | $360,000 | 24.3% |
| TAS | Latrobe | $655,000 | $530,000 | 23.6% |
| QLD | Whitsunday | $640,000 | $522,000 | 22.6% |
| TAS | George Town | $443,500 | $362,500 | 22.3% |
| SA | Port Lincoln | $550,000 | $450,000 | 22.2% |
| WA | Greater Geraldton | $550,000 | $450,000 | 22.2% |
| QLD | Burdekin | $347,000 | $285,000 | 21.8% |
| SA | Murray Bridge | $560,000 | $460,000 | 21.7% |
| QLD | Gladstone | $590,000 | $490,000 | 20.4% |
| TAS | Huon Valley | $650,000 | $540,000 | 20.4% |
| QLD | Mackay | $643,250 | $535,025 | 20.2% |
| QLD | Townsville | $620,000 | $515,990 | 20.2% |
It’s here that you can buy the best renovated house in town, at 43 Anne Street, with a fully fenced back yard, solar panels and a marvellous deck for summertime barbecues.
“We are so busy here now,” says local agent Ryan James of Gold City Realty. “I’ve got people chasing me for properties from everywhere across the country; a lot of investors and first-home buyers.
“It’s so affordable here, and we’ve got a lot of schools, and plenty of work at the mines and the CopperStream project, the electricity transmission line, and a lot of renewable energy projects. And no traffic or traffic lights. I can leave for work at 7.50am and be there by 7.55am.”
Even cheaper is the second town on the list, South Australia’s historic seaport of Port Pirie in the mid-north of the state, and the site of the massive lead and silver Nyrstar smelter. There, prices have gone up by 34.1 per cent to a median of $332,500 – less than a fifth of Sydney’s $1.75 million median.
“Affordability has so much to do with the boom going on here,” says Brodie Lavis of Lavis Real Estate, who’s selling a $330,000 stone cottage on a huge allotment, with split-system air-con and heating and floating timber floors. “People are trying to get into the market before it goes to the next level.
“We have a lot of first-home buyers and retirees, usually coming from Adelaide and the surrounding area, and investors from interstate. We’ve got medical facilities and good shopping, and we’re only two hours from Adelaide.
“I’ve lived here all my life; it’s a magnificent town and a great community with people looking out for each other.”
Manjimup in Western Australia, 300 kilometres south of Perth, is that state’s most sizzling hotspot. House prices there jumped 28.8 per cent in a year to a median of $515,000. There, offers from $599,000 are being invited for the four-bedroom house at 3 Banksia Place.
“We don’t have much stock on the market, so buyers are having to compete, and we’re probably one of the few offices here to have online auctions,” says Colin Wallbank of Harcourts Southern Forest. “Some of our properties have gone way over the reserve price, some in excess of $100,000 or $150,000; it’s phenomenal.
“We have a lot of mums and dads and first-home buyers coming here, but many are being squeezed out by the eastern-state investors. We hit a sweet spot with price and high rental returns.”
In Tasmania, there is a new star: Latrobe, eight kilometres south of Devonport, where the median house price has soared 23.6 per cent to a record $655,000.
There’s so much activity in the region, says Michael Ziegler of LJ Hooker Devonport, who is currently selling the historic 1900 home with four bedrooms at 75 Hamilton Street and inviting offers of over $820,000.
“There are both investors and people coming to live here from Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Western Australia … everywhere,” he says. “Now the locals are having to compete with them on price.
“We have older homes selling and also a lot of newer dwellings that are more expensive, pushing up the median price.”
Elsewhere in NSW, the most significant regional price rise was in Ballina in the Northern Rivers region. The median there has risen by 17.7 per cent to $1.13 million. A slightly cheaper option is the four-bedroom house that Shae Reuss of LJ Hooker Ballina is selling at 61 Clavan Street, for $950,000 to $1.025 million.
“We’re seeing a lot of people from the Sunshine and Gold Coasts moving here at the moment, because they say it’s getting too busy up there,” she says. “We do have some from Sydney and Melbourne too, and we’ve been getting more investors in the last few months. It’s such a beautiful, family-oriented place to live.”
In Victoria, prices have moved most in Mildura, on the banks of the Murray River, rising 16.8 per cent to a median of $510,500. For sale at the moment is a cute three-bedroom weatherboard home on 750 square metres of land, close to the riverfront, for $595,000 to $654,500 via Mark Thornton of One Agency Mildura.
“We’ve had the strongest demand in the Mildura market in the last 18 months I’ve ever seen,” he says. “The beginning of the boom started in May 2024 when an investor group highlighted Mildura as a place to grow based on the diversity of our industry, tourism, our airport and projected population growth.
“The majority of the buyers are interstate investors, but we’re also getting a lot of people moving here, which is great.
“People are so surprised when they visit. It’s such a green town and there’s so much choice when it comes to restaurants and cafes and shops, and there’s so much to do. The lifestyle is phenomenal.”
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