The city Australians are fleeing as the cost of living crisis becomes unbearable – but here’s where they’re NOT moving to anymore

Australians are fleeing overcrowded Sydney in droves but fewer of them are now moving to the Gold Coast and Perth.

High levels of overseas migration are adding to housing pressures, causing Sydneysiders to search for more affordable housing in other states.

But states with lower rental vacancy rates and faster house price growth, like Queensland and Western Australia, are now seeing a slowdown in new arrivals from overcrowded parts of Australia. 

The big exodus from NSW is continuing with 29,505 fleeing the state in the year to September, when arrivals were subtracted from departures.

Over three months, however, the 5,669 departure rate was the smallest since mid-2022. 

Fewer people are now leaving Sydney, leading to a slowdown in Australians moving to south-east Queensland. 

During the year, 28,801 Australian residents moved into Queensland, on a net basis, from the other states and territories.

But a closer look at the Australian Bureau of Statistics population data showed that in the three months to September, 5,714 people moved into the Sunshine State.

This was the lowest quarterly, net interstate migration number since March 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

While Queensland gets the biggest influx of Australians from other states, its overall population growth pace of two per cent is in fact lower than Victoria’s 2.1 per cent level.

Victoria housed 882 new arrivals from other states, on a net basis, over the year.

But the state that is home to Melbourne received 112,376 new overseas migrants over 12 months, which was second only to the NSW intake of 120,073.

Queensland by comparison received just 64,000 new foreign arrivals. 

New South Wales, the biggest recipient of overseas migration, had a weaker population growth pace of 1.4 per cent.

This was well below the national average of 1.8 per cent by virtue of the big exodus to other states. 

Western Australia had the biggest population growth rate of 2.5 per cent with 8,974 moving there from other states over the year.

But in the three months to September, just 1,469 people relocated there from other part of Australia – marking the weakest quarterly number since September 2021 when WA was closed for Covid. 

Western Australia had a net interstate exodus from September 2013 to December 2019 following the end of the mining boom.

NSW, however, has had a net interstate exodus in data going back to 1981.

In 1989, when interest rates were at 18 per cent, the state lost 42,475 in a year when the state was home to 5.75million instead of 8.5million.

Australia’s population surpassed the 20million mark during the December quarter of 2004 and is now home to 27.3million people – with the nation home to more than a third more people in just two decades.

The net overseas arrival rate of 379,800 in the year to September was almost four times the natural increase of 104,200, covering births minus deaths.

The intake of permanent and long-term foreigners marks a moderation from the record-high levels approaching 550,000 in late 2023 but it’s still significantly higher than the 260,000 level for 2024-25 forecast in the May 2024 Budget.

The Opposition’s immigration frontbencher Dan Tehan said high overseas immigration was putting pressure on housing. 

‘Labor’s Big Australia policy continues to put massive pressure on housing, infrastructure and services,’ he said. 

‘Labor always makes a mess out of immigration. People keep asking me: where will all these migrants live? Clearly Labor has no answer.’

States getting a bigger influx of interstate migration have some of Australia’s lowest rental vacancy rates, with the level at just 0.6 per cent in Perth and only 1 per cent in Brisbane, SQM Research data showed.

Both are well below the Sydney level of 1.5 per cent and the Melbourne rate of 1.8 per cent. 

The states with the strongest interstate migration have some of Australia’s fastest house price growth with Perth values climbing by 13.9 per cent in the year to February, ahead of Brisbane’s 8.6 per cent growth pace, CoreLogic figures showed.

Some of the data, however, is baffling.

Tasmania has the weakest population growth of 0.3 per cent and an exodus of 1,965 to other states, but Hobart’s rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent is the equal lowest among the state capitals.

House prices in the Tasmanian capital fell by 0.3 per cent over the year. 

South Australia has a particularly weak population growth pace of 1.2 per cent, with 1,554 leaving for other states over the year. 

But it has a tight rental vacancy rate of 0.7 per cent and had an 11.5 per cent annual increase in house prices.

The Northern Territory had a weak population growth pace of 0.7 per cent.

Its 3,707 net interstate departures was higher than the 3,256 influx of new overseas arrivals.