When 30 Cullen Road, Wagga Wagga, sold in August 2024, the current owner was able to pick it up for $450,000.

Just 18 months later, it’s back up for sale with a price guide of $1.15 million.

Admittedly, there are now two homes on the site in the thriving Riverina town in south-western NSW.

Along with the renovated original three-bedroom house at the front of the block, there’s a second two-bedroom dwelling at the back of the block. According to records, the second home cost $174,000 to build.

One has become two at 30 Cullen Road, Wagga Wagga. Photo: View.com.au

Selling agent Anthony Ivey of Ray White Wagga Wagga said the price reflects “where the market is”.

He said a similar dual-residence property of two two-bedroom homes at 40 Cullen Road sold for $1.05 million in December.

The location in the city’s hospital precinct also attracts good tenants for investors.

Ivey, who has been a real estate agent in Wagga for 19 years, said he saw nothing exceptional in the price rises, with the city always attracting good prices.

“Wagga has always been a strong market, ” he said.

Top spot

In fact, the regional city – which has a population of just under 70,000 – holds the title for the highest growth in property prices in Australia in the past three months.

The median home price rose by 8.1 per cent during that period, according to the Cotality Regional Market update. It sits at $665,026.

In the same time, home prices in Sydney, the country’s most expensive capital, rose by just 0.2 per cent.

“That really reflects that there is now a wave of people who are leaving Sydney looking for opportunities in various regional areas,” Cotality’s Australian research boss, Gerard Burg, said.

Unlike during Covid, when prices rose in coastal sea change centres and those within commuting distance of capital cities, it is inland centres that are now getting price bumps.

“What we are seeing is that there has been move towards what you might term tree change, rather than sea change, centres,” Burg said.

He said Wagga Wagga fitted the bill by offering lifestyle and community, along with more affordable prices than in the big cities.

“Places like Wagga are more self-contained, have their own community and affordability,” Burg said.

“For many people, the lifestyle is more to their liking and it just gives greater opportunity.”

That opportunity comes in employment and people, with many attracted to Wagga Wagga by large infrastructure builds such as the federal government’s Inland Rail project – a 1600-kilometre freight railway that will connect Melbourne and Brisbane via regional NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

“There is a lot of infrastructure going on and a lot of people have to be accommodated,” Ivey said.

Tree change or sea change? Wagga Wagga offers both, with Wagga Beach on the Murrumbidgee River. Photo: AAP

Can prices keep on climbing?

Wagga Wagga is not the only regional centre where rising prices are outpacing capital cities.

Regional Australia has extended its lead over the capital cities, with dwelling values rising 3.2 per cent in the three months to January, compared with a 2.1 per cent increase across the combined capitals.

Growth in regional Australia has gathered pace since the previous quarter (3 per cent in October), while capital city markets have slowed from 3.3 per cent.

Burg said the results pointed to a deepening divergence between city and regional markets.

“This reflects a renewed movement of people and capital into areas where buyers’ budgets stretch further and competition for available homes is strong,” he said.

On the demand side, property may soon be affected by rising interest rates and a softening in overseas immigration.

How much prices have risen where you are

Source: Cotality

Yet housing shortages are unable to be solved quickly because of labour shortages in the industry and high labour costs, which will keep supply tight.

“That really puts a floor under prices,” Burg said.

“If you’re looking to purchase a home and things aren’t going to become cheaper in the near term, people are going to ask where can I afford to buy.

“For many people that makes regions look very attractive.”

Republished from view.com.au