Why these young Australians are ditching Sydney for good

A growing number of residents, fed up with it, decide to leave overpriced Sydney for good amid the city’s worsening housing crisis.

Figures show that 129,000 residents have left New South Wales for another state since the year to 2022.

With 83,000 entrants off the highway, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows NSW has suffered a net loss of nearly 38,000.

Sydney’s median house prices are $1.23 million, putting them out of reach for even above-average income earners and forcing many to live far from the city centre.

Meanwhile, Sydney has overtaken Canberra as the most expensive city to rent in Australia, with a median of $699 per week in the last quarter.

Rising rents have prompted a growing number of Sydneysiders to start new lives in other states, and many have decided to settle in sunny Queensland.

After living in Sydney all her life, 26-year-old Lilly finally got tired of the exorbitant prices and decided to move to Brisbane in 2018.

She told Daily Mail Australia that she has never looked back since and doesn’t see herself moving back to Sydney any time soon.

Lilly had been paid $550 a week to live in an apartment in Alexandria, south Sydney, while working for a PR firm in Potts Point.

It took her an hour each day to commute to and from work, where she found the environment becoming increasingly competitive and stressful.

“The cost of living became unsustainable,” she recalls.

Lilly knew she wanted to live somewhere warmer and moved to Brisbane where she knew life would be more affordable.

Upon landing, she noticed an immediate change in her mood. Strangers smiled and said hello in the street – something she had ‘never’ experienced in Sydney.

Lilly decided to split the rent for a $450-a-week two-bedroom apartment in the CBD, in a complex with three pools, a gym and a relaxation area.

In 2021, Lilly moved into a one-bedroom apartment, paying just $320 a week.

When the owners put the apartment up for sale, Lilly, who was 25 at the time, realized she could afford the down payment on the property, which was listed for $340,000.

She decided to make an offer and it was accepted.

“When I left Sydney I never thought I’d own it,” she said.

Living in Brisbane for three years had saved her the money. By comparison, when she lived in Sydney, she never seemed to have ‘money’.

Lilly believes Brisbane has many benefits, including good jobs, warmer weather and a better work-life balance.

She added that people were generally friendlier and more relaxed, and work environments were generally less stressful and competitive.

However, public transport was not as good as in Sydney, with people usually having to drive, take Ubers or walk to their destinations.

The 27-year-old admitted she could understand why people called Brisbane a ‘big country town’ and joked that ‘everyone knows everyone else’.

‘I think Brisbane is a relaxed city,’ she said.

“We are becoming an increasingly important player, especially with the Olympic Games approaching. My advice to people considering moving is to visit first.

“You’ll be pleasantly surprised what it’s really like.”

Lilly added that Brisbane, like everywhere in Australia, was hit by the rising cost of living, but her city was generally more affordable.

“You can really spend the money you earn here,” she said.

NITV Jennetta Quinn-Bates announced on Twitter last week that she was leaving Sydney for good as rents continue to rise.

She said she was tired of paying someone else’s mortgage.

“I don’t pay a mortgage for rent.”

Ms. Quinn-Bates said a number of people in her building had been hit by rent increases from $100 to $400 with just three months’ notice.

“So many people in my building have moved or been hit with $100-400p[er week rent increases. Landlords are just giving three months’ notice so they can up everything,’ she explained.

‘I’m going to miss Sydney. I’ve loved it here in Potts Point! But, I am really disheartened by the way people are being treated, people of all ages, the young, the elderly and in between,’ she explained.

‘It’s really sad. Sorry to anyone whose had these experiences since it became a landlords world,’ she wrote.

Dr Tony Matthews, a Brisbane-based senior lecturer in urban planning from Griffith University, told Daily Mail Australia that while international migrants usually settled in NSW and Victoria, domestic migrants usually moved interstate to Queensland.

He said the government had been responding to ‘enormous population pressures’ for 50 years and planned to build thousands of new homes across the state.

Moreton Bay, north of Brisbane’s CBD, is one of the areas being heavily developed as Aussies look to secure ‘affordable coastal living’.

‘Historically, it has been older people who sell up down south and move to Queensland where they can be mortgage free at 50, enjoy less commuting, less stress and better weather,’ Dr Matthews explained.

‘It’s now more of a mixed bag.’

Dr Matthews said the pandemic had normalised remote working, with a lot of young professionals using Covid as an opportunity to move their family interstate.

He said many professionals would keep their role in Sydney and Melbourne while living in Queensland for several years before deciding to stay or return south.

For international migrants, NSW and Victoria were always going to be the first choice as those states offered diverse economies and better opportunities to study, he said.

But for those who have spent their lives in southern states, Queensland offers cheaper housing, milder weather and, most importantly a change in pace.

‘It’s people living in very modest houses in Sydney getting much better deals in Brisbane for the same price and getting better weather for free,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘If you find yourself living way out in western Sydney, because that’s where you can afford to live and then needing to work in the CBD and commuting for an hour and a half or two hours each way every day, that’s extremely bad for your health.’

However, Dr Matthews said southeast Queensland’s perceived ‘affordability’ was not the reality for many tenants.

An increasing number of people are moving further up the coast into more affordable regions like Bundaberg and Townsville.

‘You have to go more regional unless you have seven figures,’ he said.

‘It’s very hard these days to get ‘affordable coastal’.’