In 2025, around 363,000 Australians packed up and moved interstate. Where they went (and why) reveals a lot about what’s happening to housing, affordability, and the idea of where a good life is possible in Australia.
Let’s look at the facts. In 2025, Queensland absorbed the most arrivals, with a net gain of 16,528 interstate migrants while NSW lost the most residents, with a net 21,465 people leaving for another state. Western Australia came second for net interstate migration at +10,419, its highest figure in over a decade. South Australia has been slowly gaining people since 2023.
It’s clear that movement is spread across wherever housing is affordable and the job market can absorb newcomers. Western Australia’s resources sector is pulling people in. Meanwhile, Adelaide’s median house price still sits below both Sydney and Melbourne, bringing in younger buyers and retirees who’ve done the maths. People are landing wherever their money goes furthest.
The same thing is happening within the cities, just on a smaller scale. In 2024-2025, more people were leaving the capital cities for other parts of the country than moving into them. In New South Wales, for example, people are leaving inner Sydney for the outer west, the Central Coast, and the Illawarra. City populations keep rising on paper, but more and more people are looking for a better life in regional areas.
Why are so many people moving interstate or regionally? Housing is the short answer. In 2025, a median-income household on around $118,000 a year could only afford 15% of homes across the country. That’s close to the lowest share on record. For renters it was tighter still. At a certain point, the cost of relocating starts to look cheaper than staying put and absorbing another rent increase.
The median age of an interstate mover is 33, and they’re more likely to rent than own. Renters don’t have equity anchoring them in place. So when a lease ends and the renewal figure jumps again, moving somewhere tends to make more sense.
But it’s not only renters making the call. Andy Holloway, CEO of Sydney removalists company Holloway Removals, sees the full range.
“We get a real mix of young couples chasing affordability, families following work, retirees downsizing. The reasons are different but the question is usually the same: does it still make sense to be here?”
The timing of moves tells a story too. Australians are about 50% more likely to move in January than any other month, driven by school holidays and lease cycles ending at the same time. Interstate moves run on a longer timeline. Families usually spend months weighing things up before they commit.
Andy Holloway sees the shift in bookings. “December and January are always our busiest months. But we’ve noticed more enquiries coming through mid-year for interstate moves, which wasn’t the case a few years ago. People are planning months ahead and moving further away.”
Here’s what these numbers tell us. Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia are all offering something Sydney and Melbourne currently can’t. They offer a realistic path to ownership on a “normal” income. The movement tracks pretty closely to where housing is affordable and where there’s work to support it.
Most of the people making these moves aren’t testing the waters. They’re buying homes, putting kids in local schools, and committing to a different state. That makes this a structural shift, not a temporary response to a difficult market. If Sydney prices ease in five years, most of them won’t be looking to come back. They’ll already own in Brisbane or Perth.
And what gets even less attention is what happens at the other end. Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia are taking in tens of thousands of new residents a year. That kind of growth puts pressure on everything — on roads, schools, housing, GPs, other facilities. The cities people are moving to are changing just as much as the ones they’re leaving.
For Sydney, with the biggest net interstate migration loss, the big question is what it means to keep losing the people who built their lives there on ordinary incomes. The population keeps growing, but its makeup shifts when the ones who can’t afford to stay are the ones who go. That’s not just a housing market observation. It’s a question about what kind of city Sydney is becoming, and for whom.
Until supply and affordability in NSW shift in a meaningful way, the pattern is likely to hold. We’ll probably see the same trends for a few years to come. But most people aren’t leaving because they want to. They’re leaving because the numbers stopped adding up. And somewhere else offered a life they wanted at a price they could actually meet. For now, the trucks keep heading north and west.
Source: FG Newswire