Kate and Brendan Ballini thought they were getting ahead when they bought a family home in Queensland’s Darling Downs five years ago.
At the time their weekly mortgage repayment for the four bedder at Kingsthorpe, about a two-hour drive west of Brisbane, was $325.
But that was in 2020 when their mortgage rate was 2.79 per cent.
By 2025 their fixed interest period had ended, they had a solar system installed and were paying off a second mortgage — all of which took their house repayments up to $740 per week.
“The cost where we were in Toowoomba was getting out of control,” Ms Ballini said.
Property prices in Toowoomba have grown by more than 20 per cent in the past year according to PropTrack. (ABC Southern Qld: Grace Nakamura)
She said with the fuel costs of driving back and forth from the rural area to activities and sports into Toowoomba, plus feeding five children and rising power bills, the costs of nearly everything else moved out of reach.
“We just went ‘right, we’ve got to look at a different option here’,” she said.
Her husband took a fly-in, fly-out job in the mines, seven hours north-west in Blackwater, one of the main hubs of the Bowen Basin.
“Rather than live the FIFO life we decided to pack up and move there with our five kids,” Ms Ballini said, in the hope it would lower their cost of living.
“In terms of family living, it’s fantastic. There’s lots of young families here and everyone’s trying to do the same thing really,” Ms Ballini said.
Mortgage costs skyrocketing across state
The Ballini’s move is just one example of families seeking affordability in Queensland.
The state is the third least-affordable in Australia behind New South Wales and South Australia, according to a recent study from property data company PropTrack.
Economist Angus Moore expects home prices to keep growing and for housing affordability to remain challenging. (Supplied)
The Housing Affordability Report found mortgage costs are the highest they have been in 15 years.
Repayments on a median-priced home take up 34 per cent of the average Queensland household income.
“While we did see some improvements in other states, that wasn’t the case for Queensland,” said PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore.
The Ballinis said they are doing much better in the Central Highlands west of Rockhampton.
They said their mortgage repayments are back down to $330 per week and they have been able to make an additional $100,000 per year.
Kate Ballini (left) has found work at Blackwater PCYC. (ABC Capricornia: Vanessa Jarrett)
But finding a five-bedroom home to accommodate the family of seven was not easy.
“Every time we found one it was already under offer, so once we found this one we grabbed hold of it,” Ms Ballini said.
Growing pains in regional areas
In Blackwater the median sale price is $262,500 based on 131 sales in the past 12 months.
The median price has increased by 15 per cent compared to the year before, just outstripping the average growth rate in regional Queensland of 11 per cent, according to the PropTrack report.
The figure is a lot higher than the growth rate of 6.5 per cent in Sydney and 4 per cent in Melbourne.
Kate Ballini and her husband have been able to earn an extra $100,00 a year working and living in Blackwater. (ABC News: Russel Talbot)
But the entry price was lower, as the Ballinis bought their property for $455,000.
“It’s obviously a lot more than your median price but it is also fully renovated,” Ms Ballini said.
The family has no regrets about the move to a town of less than 5,000 people, with the children settling in well at school and after-school activities.
The town still had a supermarket and access to facilities like a gym and a public pool.
“It’s great, I really like it, it’s a really nice community vibe. Everything’s nice and close, everybody’s very friendly,” Ms Ballini said.
“I really don’t see anything wrong with it, but I think it really just depends what you’re looking for.”
While the Ballinis lowered their costs, Mr Moore said as more people moved to regional areas it would put further pressure on prices.
“One of the unfortunate consequences is faster price growth for those more affordable properties over the past year or so,” he said.
“Regional markets tend to be a bit smaller than somewhere with a lot of homes.
“A lot of people moving in any given time and that can make it challenging to find homes.”