Return of overseas migration spurs Australia’s population growth – where are they going to live?

Australia's population grew by 0.9 per cent in the year to March 2022, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Beidar Cho, Demography Director at the ABS, said that with the softening of international border closures, net overseas migration added an estimated 110,000 people to the population.

“After two years of mostly low or no population growth, overseas migration is again a significant contributor to Australia’s population increase, accounting for almost half of the growth in the year to March 2022.”

The strength in net overseas migration was driven by a large increase in arrivals (up 183 per cent on the previous year to 320,000) while overseas migrant departures held steady (up 1.5 per cent to 210,400).

In contrast, this result is a strong turnaround from overseas migration in the year to March 2021 (-94,300), but still trails recent pre-pandemic annual levels which ranged from 238,000 to 260,000.

We know that currently there is a rental crisis with vacancy rates at historic lows around Australia.

At the same time, the Albanese government has raised the cap for skilled immigration to 195,000 for this financial year.

The problem is… all these new migrants don't bring home with them, and in general, they rent for the first couple of years while they find their feet in Australia.

This is only going to exacerbate the rental crisis and raise the rent even higher!

Currently, many of the new immigrants are students.

Data from Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia showing visa types of Arrivals over the period indicated a strong return of international students to our shores.

This is great news for our education sector, an important part of our economy.

But students rent their accommodation and there is a shortage of rental accommodation in our CBDs and around educational institutions

Apart from immigration, there were 309,300 births and 179,100 deaths over the year to March 2022.

The resulting natural increase of 130,200 was down 4.6 per cent from the previous year, with the increase in deaths (16,300 or 10 per cent) outpacing an increase in births (10,000 or 3.4 per cent).

About Leanne Jopson Leanne is National Director of Property Management at Metropole and a Property Professional in every sense of the word. With 20 years' experience in real estate, Leanne brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to maximise returns and minimise stress for their clients.