The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its provisional report on regional internal migration estimates on Monday, which indicate Melbourne's June 2020 quarter net loss of population was its largest quarterly net loss on record.

These numbers are only to June, well before the harsher second lockdown began at the beginning of August.

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According to the ABS, there was a net loss of 8000 people for Greater Melbourne in the June 2020 quarter, compared with 2200 in the previous quarter.

Out of those, the city had a net loss of 5900 people to the rest of the state.

And while many of these people may be moving interstate - these numbers only deal with Australian numbers - a significant proportion are heading to the regions.

McCrindle social researcher and demographer Geoff Brailey said he was not surprised by the numbers - knowledge economy workers are now trusted by their employers to efficiently work from home, which will mean more people who would otherwise move to a capital city are weighing up their options.

"This could be the start of a whole new way of approaching cities, communities, transport - the infrastructure needed to work from home is different," Mr Brailey said.

"It will be slightly larger homes, an NBN connection is a must, a home study is a must, it's not just lifestyle changes, but a redesign is under way as well.

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"It's affecting all generations, it's not just those in smaller apartments - this is young professionals looking to perhaps set up for a family, and if there's two people working from home, they might be looking for larger homes in the years ahead, and maybe those with teenagers, or older parents, are looking for lifestyle properties in regional areas."

In Ballarat, that could translate to a short-term boost for the real estate market, with lingering effects.

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Ballarat Real Estate's Alistair Morrison said he expected a surge of homebuyers from Melbourne coming to Melbourne to inspect properties as soon as they were allowed to.

"There'll be some pent-up demand after November 8 (when the 'ring of steel' lifts) - enquiries from Melbourne have been fairly strong even though they can't come up," he said.

"We've done virtual inspections, but I'd say there'd be a certain number of people who'd want to see the property, who have done the research.

"Prices have been up in the last quarter again, in Ballarat it was about 3.5 per cent, and there was data from moving companies, they had their first spike in the number of people moving out of large cities.

"I think it'll be interesting in the short term - from a rental point of view, we've got less than 1 per cent vacancy rate, and it's about 1.8 per cent in the whole of Ballarat, that means there's not much stock around.

"If people are moving up here to buy, and picking up properties previously available to rent, that'll have an effect on the rental market.

"We will see some further price surges in this period of time, and how that plays out medium to long term will be interesting - I think it'll be an unusual rush of people moving who have the capacity to do so, then i think there'll be a steady increase of people moving out of the city."

Even a small proportion of the exodus from Melbourne settling in Ballarat would have consequences for infrastructure planning, but Mr Brailey added there would be far-reaching changes for those who could move out of capital cities.

"The trend to working remotely has enabled people to re-evaluate their life priorities, and sitting in traffic is on nobody's list," he said.

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"Active transport and active lifestyles is what we need to see, and it has benefits for our mental health, we're saving money, we're reducing the cost of congestion on the environment, and for our families and communities, we'll have more time to do the things we love.

"What do we want to carry forward into the new year? We want to carry the extra quality time with our loved ones, so having space (to work from home) is essential.

"It's a different approach to what we value."

Read the ABS numbers online.

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