When someone speaks about the best city in Australia, most people think of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane first, but new research has revealed that the best city in Australia is in the much smaller island state of Tasmania.
The Property Council of Australia (PCA) commissioned Essential Research to poll around 3000 residents of Australian state and territory capital cities on how satisfied they feel with their city, and 47 per cent of people surveyed in Hobart declared the southern Tasmanian city to be a ‘excellent place to live’. Just 38 per cent of residents in Canberra could say the same of their city, 31 per cent of Perth residents had similar feelings, 35 per cent of those in Adelaide reported it as an excellent place to live while 25 per cent of Sydneysiders and 26 per cent of Brisbanites felt as satisfied with their cities.
However, the general consensus of Australian residents was a happy one, with 87 per cent of all respondents rating their city between ‘fairly good’ and ‘excellent’, and only 9 per cent of respondents rated their city as ‘average’.
Hobart is Tasmania’s capital city and the second oldest capital in Australia after Sydney. CoreLogic’s November 2018 property figures show that Hobart continues to defy the national property trend and is currently Australia’s best performing capital city with house values increasing by 0.7 per cent last month, and 9.3 per cent over the past year, while the market in other Australian cities continues to plummet. CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless told ABC that “Tasmania’s affordable house prices and the lifestyle factor are drawing in more buyers to the island state.”
But it isn’t just the booming property market that makes Hobart so liveable. The southern state is now home to a thriving gourmet food and wine scene, and a world-class art museum thanks to David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Berriedale. The Harbourside city also offers beaches and a snow-capped mountain all within a half hours’ drive of the city centre, not to mention endless options for exploring the surrounding wilderness, such as camping and hiking.
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