Please forgive for the Freddie Mercury/ David Bowie metaphor, it explains what is coming on the horizon for anyone renting in a regional area. Recently, the federal government is proposing to shift immigration visa requirements for immigrants to be settled in regional and rural areas. Actually, it has been in discussion for an extended period of time as well bubbling in the subconscious of the regional leaders. It is considered as an effective strategy to combat major city overcrowding issues.

Using the image here of what Japan has had to resort to, as to fit people on public transport as an example. This is a just a the tip of the ice berg of what overcrowding does to a major city. The strain on transport, both public and private, the large satellite suburbs devoid of proper infrastructure like hospitals, law enforcement and education. All will impact the quality of family and life as people are given limited options in an already hard to afford city.

Being forced to lose 2 plus hours in the day just to reach your place of employment, all the while paying rising fuel costs, tolls and parking fees. It can grind down people mentally and social unrest starts to grow. Crime rates increase and law enforcement and the courts are not growing exponentially with the population to meet the demand.
So while this is a proposed solution for the Federal government to deal with overcrowding in the major cities. It leaves

the State and regional government to clean up the mess. What I mean is, they will roll out infrastructure upgrades where and when they can to absorb growing regional and rural population growth. The influx of immigrants will bring pressure on the rental and investment property market to meet a demand and we will see more construction and logically a growth in employment across construction, education, medical, law enforcement and other associated government and private sectors.
What this really means is: rent is going to go up and properties are going to become scarcer( and dearer) in the prime areas. My simple advice here is, get serious about buying a home and/or an investment property before the buyers market disappears. It's not going to dry up overnight, but leaving it to the last minute without proper prior planning will just be a big mistake. I can crunch the numbers and put together a plan to get you in your home or help you acquire that investment for the future.