Wellington and Auckland residents moving south

Aucklanders and Wellingtonians are fleeing their cities for the provinces. Photo / 123RF

Aucklanders and Wellingtonians are fleeing their cities for the provinces.

Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes are proving sought-after targets, continuing to grow even without international migration.

Otago Regional Council urban growth and development team leader Kyle Balderston told councillors yesterday that with borders closed and international migration off the table, Auckland was experiencing its first recorded population decline.

Conversely, estimated changes for Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago showed a 1 per cent-3 per cent population growth, Balderston said.

Even without international migration, the growth rates in those areas were consistent with long-term trends, he said.

"What you're seeing there is the result of internal net migration, as you say, a big 'flee' to the provinces."

There was a lot of chat among urban planners about what Covid meant for people's preferences, he said.

There had been a shift toward a desire for more space inside the home for work and children's schooling.

There was a desire, too, for more space outside the home for separation, or safety, and self-sufficiency as well, he said.

Balderston's report to the council's data and information committee yesterday said these influences, combined with rising prices in Auckland and Wellington, "along with rapid changes in workplace acceptance of remote working" had led to significant interest from the rest of New Zealand for properties in Otago, most notably Queenstown, where house prices had accelerated despite the near collapse of the tourism economy.

Workplace attitudes to flexible working might not only play out inter-regionally, with newcomers able to videoconference from Queenstown, but also in terms of within and around cities and towns where previously unacceptable daily commutes had become tolerable because they were undertaken less frequently.

The changes could imply growth in smaller towns, increased demand for outer suburbs in cities or lifestyle blocks.