Most popular Australian retirement regions revealed

Australia’s most popular council areas for over-65s have been revealed by CoreLogic and a large number are in regional coastal areas.

Queenscliffe in Victoria was the council region with the highest proportion of residents aged over 65 (as at June 2015).

While the small coastal region only has a population of 2,904 at the time of recording, almost half (40.3 per cent) of the residents were at least 65 years old.

New South Wales was also the most popular state for residents 65 or older, with 13 out of the top of 50 entries based there.

Why are these regions so popular?

“These retiree-centric council areas tend to have significantly lower median house values than the individual state capital city housing markets,” said CoreLogic head of research Cameron Kusher in a statement.

“This may be due to retirees moving to areas where housing is more affordable in order to free-up capital for them to enjoy their retirement, it could also be out of necessity due to the high cost of housing within most capital cities.”

Rate of value growth performance in these regional areas has been lower than that of capital cities, however 31 of the 50 listed regions have seen house values rise of the past year.

Quairading in Western Australia saw the largest amount of growth (21.5 per cent), followed by Shoalhaven in New South Wales (15.3 per cent).

“The locations are also likely to be linked to lifestyle preferences, with a large number of the top council areas located in regional coastal areas,” explained Mr Kusher.

Compare super funds