City-weary Queenslanders head west and drive up property prices

Tucked away in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland, Dave Summerville lived in one of the country’s most desirable areas: a short drive from beautiful beaches, rainforest and mountains.

But he was tired of it.

“The Sunshine Coast has become too busy. The beach was no longer an attraction, it was impossible to find a park,” he said.

So when his teenage daughter headed to the Darling Downs to study agriculture at Warwick, he and wife Kay realized there was an opportunity for a fresh start.

“We put the house up for sale. After about three months it was sold for additional money,” he said.

Four years later, the Darling Downs is one of the few areas in the state where property prices are still rising.

Qld market falls except in provincial towns

Property analysts Cotality found the average house price in regional Queensland fell 1.3 per cent over the past three months but remained steady at 9.1 per cent over the past year.

Greater Brisbane fell 2.7 per cent in the same quarter, the Gold Coast fell 2.2 per cent and the Sunshine Coast fell 1.6 per cent, although average property prices in all three countries top $1.1 million.

But prices are still rising in the Darling Downs, where the average property price remains below $600,000.

Mr Summerville said many people were willing to head west for a better deal and a better life.

He said that in his immediate area there are many plots ranging from 8 to 16 hectares on which new houses have been built.

“So hobby farmers have come along and they love it,” he said.

Leaving the “rabbit hole” for the bushes

Anne Bailey left her Indooroopilly home in Brisbane about 12 months ago, saying she needed to stop “wasting hours sitting in traffic”.

She said she was tired of the rabbit hole, the road work and the high cost of living.

Ms Bailey first came to Warwick for a short-term position and was soon asked if she wanted to stay there permanently. She immediately agreed.

“[There was] almost no traffic, which was a huge bonus,” she said.

“Three minutes later I was at work, three minutes later I was home.

“I got time back into my life.”

Matthew Collins, who runs a property firm in Warwick, said about “60 per cent” of his inquiries were from people wanting to leave south-east Queensland.

“[We’re] I still see a lot of people coming from the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Brisbane, selling their products there and ending up in the same situation [property] or very similar [here]and put cash in your back pocket without debt.”

Home buyers’ first fight for a home on the coast

Cotality research director Tim Lawless said prices in the Queensland region had risen 58 per cent since 2021, including the current downturn.

“Most homeowners who have been on the market for at least 12 months have a pretty good cushion before moving into a property that’s worth less than what they paid for it,” he said.

Emma Mawhead does not yet have such a buffer.

She and her partner Aaron Mockford struggled for years to buy a home on the Sunshine Coast, despite a housing shortage, higher interest rates and an overheated market.

“We’d been saving up for a while and started looking once we had the deposit we needed and everything, but we honestly didn’t think we’d be able to find anything on the coast,” Ms Mawhead said.

The 31-year-old said the couple first tried to enter the market five years ago but, having given up hope, moved to Canada for two years.

She said the situation had not changed when they returned.

The couple have spent the last two years building up a $50,000 deposit while living with Ms Mohed’s parents.

The couple eventually worked with a buyer’s agent who helped them purchase a two-bedroom, two-bathroom property on the Sunshine Coast, due to be built next year, for just under $750,000.

“[It’s] really, really exciting,” she said.

Boom or bust?

Sunshine Coast buyers’ agent Tim Thompson said the slowdown meant prices were “awkward” as buyers chased a bargain and sellers tried to hold on to years of profits.

But he said some are finding good deals.

“Just yesterday we saw a contract for a property on the Sunshine Coast, there was an ‘offer of over $750,000’, that was the advertised price. We just bought it for $705,000.”

He said the region remains “resilient,” especially given its high population growth rate.

But Mr Lawless said that while property values ​​had fallen only slightly so far, the slowdown could accelerate, driven by a combination of inflation headwinds, negative changes in leverage, interest rates and the war in Iran.

For Mr Summerville, from the Darling Downs, any worries about population growth or property prices disappeared when he drove west from the coast.

“To have money in your pocket again and not have to worry, you don’t have to figure out what’s going to happen in the future because it’s all behind us now,” he said.