With more people now able to work from home, more owner-occupiers can take advantage of ‘lifestyle’ prospects instead of being tied to employment hubs.

“While there’s nothing new about mobile professionals, the onset of COVID-19 changed the way we work as a nation with vastly increasing numbers working from home – and it’s here to stay,” Mr Peleg said.

Pete Wargent, co-founder of Buyers Buyers said that lifestyle buyers were out in force.

“Those who work in a stable corporate environment, but do so remotely, are now taking advantage of great buying opportunities in NSW, Victoria and southeast Queensland.

“Before COVID-19 hit, there was already a strong trend of sea- and tree-change homebuyers looking for the best of all worlds – lifestyle, accessibility to employment hubs and affordable housing,” Mr Wargent said.

RiskWise Property Research has summarised the key locations experiencing this trend.

Mr Peleg said “these include areas of southeast Queensland such as the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, just over the NSW border in Byron Bay and further south on the Central Coast, in areas such as North Avoca, Terrigal and Wamberal.

Then there’s also sought-after locations such as the Hunter Valley, Wollongong and the South Coast, and in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and Ballarat.”

Mr Peleg said beachside suburbs especially outperformed the market as they offered such fantastic lifestyle opportunities.

In 2016 the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported almost a third (3.5 million) of all employed Australians regularly worked from home. Since the onset of COVID-19, this number has skyrocketed. In March a Gartner survey showed 88 per cent of Australian organisations have adopted working from home as part of their coronavirus response many to cut costs during the pandemic by focusing on “effective use of technology and freezing new hiring”.