Will this devastate regional towns?

A nail in the coffin for these communities

Hope no one is considering buying property here

NSW borders closed: Shutting Victoria out will ‘devastate’ regional towns

 

Regional towns in Victoria are pretty resilient as a whole. Places like Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Warrnambool and lots of other places that are smaller centres have pretty good prospects in the longer term IMO.

 

I think the border communities will have a tough go of it over the coming 12 months.

My thoughts are if you can work remotely(and a lot of office jobs have been shown they don’t need an expensive office to work) then I’d think this might open up people’s minds to the possibility of working and living elsewhere other than a big capital city - this could swing things towards regionals a little bit.

Hard to tell at the moment, know more in 12 months time as always.

 

I don't think it will be devastating at all. It will be a hassle, yes, but life will go on.

People at border towns have had to deal with their uniqueness for many years. They will be given exemptions for work, healthcare and essential services to go over the border as they need.

For the other regional towns I don't see any difference besides tourism which isn't really a unique problem and has been ongoing. They may well actually see an increase in buying/selling activity as people consider treechanges to get out of the rat race (virus centres) and have the ability to work remotely.

 

Also, agriculture is very strong at the moment. Many sectors have made a bucket load of money this year. For example, cropping, beef , dairy and others have had record prices and an ok season as well.

Vacancy rates are very low in most places at least south of the divide.

 

If you want to take any positive out of CV19 it’s just how much we don’t need proximity to the CBD. Life is not great at the moment but I think the post covid world is actually going to look a lot better than how we entered it.

A huge part of that is giving back people’s time from the wasted daily commute and grind of CBD working. I know I’ve been a broken record on this topic (even well before CV19) but most people (myself included) spend a minimum 10 hours a week on the daily commute. Don’t get me wrong offices will still exist and I even want to go back to one at some capacity but I truly believe majority of city workers should be given the opportunity to work from home 60% of the time.

So taking it back to the topic at hand. If you don’t need the CBD anymore OR should I say need it over 50% less than that massively opens up the attractiveness of regional.

You get a better lifestyle, less grind, cheaper properties and in the new disease world, a smaller, safer community.

I think regionals are in for a boost!

 

Tree change was already happening. COVID will accelerate it because it has forced businesses and employees to accept that working from home is in fact practical for many.... but only certain regionals will attract new residents. They need to be within a few hours drive of family, friends, kids, grandkids etc.... and they need to have a hospital, decent choice of schools , cafe's etc...

 

Not at all! There weren't any issues with the QLD border closing. Why would this be different?

 

I was on the phone to a friend / small business owner yesterday who is based on the VIC side (Albury Wodonga region but out of town) and she has family members who live on 1 side, work on the other side, various NSW based friends whose cars are registered in VIC etc etc. She was mildly stressed about the paperwork and logistics, mainly that her son doesn't get "booked" for going to work across the border.

However, assuming this will 'devastate' regional towns is ridiculous. Of course they will adapt, survive, do what they need to do to manage. What else would they do? Country folk in particular don't lie down or give up when things get hard. They get on with it and find a way.

On a broader trend level I would suggest the trend to leave cities and tree change/sea change has accelerated this year for sure, it will most likely speed up and slow down each yr but continue over the next decade as use of technology continues to speed up/improve. For me the next big game-changer would be autonomous transport.

My level of phone enquiry that starts with "I have been thinking of leaving Sydney for a few yrs but I think now is the time to pull the trigger..." has increased for sure in the last 3 months. That is no coincidence.

 

When one thinks like a coffin, everything looks like a nail?

 

Love your one-liners mate! I'm going to use this from now

This rings true for a number of people on here.

 

So if we see a tree change, what regional areas do you expect to boom???

I am still sitting on fence here until I see what happens with jobs. However, I can see the attraction here

 

Regional cities with multiple growth drivers, infrastructure going in and not too many hours from a capital city.

I know the Geelong and Ballarat areas pretty well as well as the rest of Western Victoria. Geelong as a whole has done very well over the last couple of years along with most of the towns within an hours drive. The whole Bellarine peninsular has now become quite pricey.
I think it's proximity to Melbourne without the traffic and the crowds is rather attractive and I imagine it will continue to be.

There has been a lot of growth around Ballarat and more likely IMO.
Probably Bendigo too as well as lots of other smaller places. Is see opportunities all the time.

 

Easy to say if not living in the relatively small area most affected!

Try waiting in a queue for over an hour, more at times - three hours last Friday when permit paperwork changed without notice!
People missing appointments.
A very pregnant woman who had to park in Tweed Heads and WALK across the border to her doctor in Coolangatta as the queue of cars to cross the border stretched for kilometres
Having to allow at least an hour for a school run that should take 10 minutes...

I don’t envy the people in Albury/Wodonga who have to cross the border daily.

 

So you've gone from saying "is this the death of regionals?" to "What regionals will boom?"..

 

That's the old normal around here. 3km to next suburb but peak hour traffic is the killer.

 

i am asking those who think it will boom and where? I have no idea whether it will or not, but I remain cautious in current environment

i am also quoting a news article, so don’t take it personal.

whats your view

 

Not taking anything personal.

 

Looks like the article itself walked back on the coffin comment. The word cant be found. The ABC has an article saying it will be the final nail in the coffin of 'some businesses'.

 

There is a potential upside and local cafes and small businesses could flourish...traffic that used to just ride on past will now have to stop and where better than the local cafe and overnight stopovers. Really though, it is too soon to determine the effects; ask again in a year.

I'm pretty sure these rural places will survive because as a city dweller looking in, the rural places show tremendous resilience year in, year out. Why would this not be just another hurdle they'll overcome? Coronavirus loves high-density populated areas, where better than the country towns to live right now.