No segment of the Australian property market experienced more dramatic price appreciation during the COVID era than the prestige regional markets. Byron Bay, Noosa, the Mornington Peninsula, the Southern Highlands, and the Sunshine Coast all became the beneficiaries of an unprecedented wave of capital flowing out of Sydney and Melbourne as high-income professionals reassessed where they wanted to live in a world of flexible work. The result was price appreciation that, in some markets, exceeded 80 to 100 percent between 2020 and 2023.
CONTACT DONALD KLIP — GLOBAL MORTGAGE GROUP
Equity Release | Bridging Loans | Bridge Financing | Australian Property
[email protected] | +65 9773-0273 | www.gmg.asia
Several years on, many owners in these markets are sitting on equity positions that they have never accessed and in some cases have barely comprehended. A property in Byron Bay purchased for AUD 1.2 million in 2019 may now be worth AUD 2.5 to 3 million. A Noosa property bought for AUD 900,000 in 2018 may be valued at AUD 2 million or more. The equity is real. The question is how to access it without selling an asset that has proven itself as a store of value.
The Prestige Regional Markets in 2026
Byron Bay occupies a unique position in the Australian property hierarchy. It is the most expensive regional market in Australia by median price, with house prices in the Byron Bay township and surrounding areas routinely trading above AUD 2 million and premium properties at AUD 5 to 10 million. Celebrities, entrepreneurs, and globally mobile HNW individuals have made Byron Bay a genuine international lifestyle destination, and the price premium reflects a scarcity that is not easily resolved, geographic constraints on development, council planning restrictions, and community resistance to large-scale residential construction all limit supply in a market where demand shows no sign of abating.
Noosa on the Sunshine Coast has followed a similar trajectory. Premium properties in Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beach, and Hastings Street face are among Queensland's most valuable, and the market's combination of beach lifestyle, relative remoteness from major city congestion, and established HNW community has created enduring demand.
The Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne: Portsea, Sorrento, Flinders, and Red Hill, serves as Melbourne's prestige holiday destination. Properties here have appreciated alongside Melbourne's long-term growth, with the coastal premium adding a further layer. Owners of
Portsea and Sorrento properties purchased 10 to 20 years ago often hold equity of AUD 3 to 6 million in holiday homes that generate modest rental income but contain substantial balance sheet wealth.
The Southern Highlands: Bowral, Mittagong, Berrima, have attracted significant capital from Sydney, particularly from buyers seeking weekend and holiday properties within comfortable driving distance. The COVID-era acceleration of this trend brought strong new capital into the market, and values have held well.
The Holiday Home Equity Problem — Amplified
Prestige regional property presents the equity access challenge in its most acute form. Owners are typically non-local, the Byron Bay property is owned by a Sydney technology executive, the Mornington Peninsula beach house by a Melbourne law partner, the Noosa apartment by a Singapore-based Australian. The property generates limited rental income, often because the owner uses it themselves, or because they deliberately limit short-stay letting to preserve the lifestyle quality.
For bank serviceability models, this profile is problematic on multiple fronts: the property is holiday classification rather than primary residence, the rental income is minimal, the owner's income may be structured in ways that do not translate cleanly to a bank's assessable income framework, and in the case of expatriate owners, the foreign income shading problem applies on top of all the others.
Bridge financing assessed on property value and LVR, not on the holiday home's rental income or the expatriate owner's foreign salary, is the only mechanism by which many of these owners can access the equity their properties contain.
"The COVID-era property windfall in Byron Bay, Noosa, and the prestige regional markets has created a generation of owners who hold AUD 2 to 5 million properties and have never once accessed the equity inside them. Bridge financing exists to connect these owners to their own wealth." — Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO, Global Mortgage Group
CONTACT DONALD KLIP — GLOBAL MORTGAGE GROUP
Equity Release | Bridging Loans | Bridge Financing | Australian Property
[email protected] | +65 9773-0273 | www.gmg.asia
Getting Started with Prestige Regional Equity Release
GMG provides bridging loans and equity release facilities for prestige regional property across Byron Bay, Noosa, the Mornington Peninsula, the Southern Highlands, and other established lifestyle markets. Holiday and investment property classifications are not a barrier to our assessment, we lend against property value, not against rental yield. Contact us with your property details for an indicative structure within 48 to 72 hours.
CONTACT DONALD KLIP — GLOBAL MORTGAGE GROUP
Equity Release | Bridging Loans | Bridge Financing | Australian Property
