Sydneysiders are packing up and leaving the city in droves, in search of a more sustainable lifestyle.
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As capital city house prices start to decline, the Illawarra remains strong and it’s largely due to the incoming residents flocking to fill our suburbs.
Kelly Sharp and her fiance Mark Blackmore traded the bustling lifestyle of Maroubra, in Sydney’s east, and are loving it.
“Housing prices pushed us away,” said Ms Sharp.
Their family of four was quickly outgrowing their two-bedroom beachside unit, which eventually led them to pick up a four-bedroom home with gardens, trees and space to move in Figtree.
Ms Sharp said her partner was “really cluey with property” and knew they would struggle to find an affordable and suitable home in Sydney.
Though it took some time to convince her to move.
The prospect of leaving friends, family and a trendy location were concerns for the 42-year-old. After living here for six months she said it was the best idea.
“I love it, it’s so peaceful. It’s quieter, more spacious … and I just had my second yoga class in a week. I’m getting back into the groove,” Ms Sharp said.
“There’s a lot of young families around and a lot of new families I’m meeting that have also moved down from Sydney.”
Illawarra chairman of the Real Estate Institute of NSW Trever Molenaar said the region was always going to be attractive to Sydneysiders, especially in the northern suburbs.
“The closer to Sydney the better,” he said. “That’s why the house prices go up incrementally for each suburb.”
He said having well established infrastructure and plenty of schools were also major drawcards.
“It’s not the rat race like in Sydney, you can actually find a park … it’s a family friendly area, people know each other but it’s not a small town,” Mr Molenaar said.
Meantime investors were always going to see good yields because of the closeness of the escarpment to the ocean, meaning demand was always going to be there.
Domain’s chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson said in his market forecast that greater Wollongong prices would rise by 3 per cent in 2016.
He said factors that strongly influenced this included “seachangers” and “lifestylers” with the number of people commuting to Sydney growing.