Recent weeks has seen many articles and media on the cost of city living. I have written of this many times since 2008 and have cited the Whitsundays Midge Point area as a classic example where the Collinsvale coal miners based their families.
The Daily News ran two features on the cost of city prices going up again and the nature of downsizing.
The Daily News reported on the reasons people down size
· To achieve a particular lifestyle (27 per cent)
· For financial outcomes (27 per cent)
· Garden or property required too much maintenance (18 per cent)
· Forced to do so (15 per cent).
Members of our own family have chosen to buy outside the metropolitan areas – classic young people decisions where $1m homes in the suburbs are beyond their reach, so they buy where they can in their price range.
Moreover, the Federal government shows that almost half of the 5000 people who have taken up its first home buyers scheme to help first-home buyers are looking to buy outside Australia’s three largest cities.
The rural option
By the rural option we mean regional Australia and rural Australia. An example of rural Australia this is the Whitsundays missionary respite cottage at Laguna Quays. When initially purchased it was very reasonable, now it is just as reasonable. Blocks of land are as low as $67,500 in Midge Point and entire houses can be purchased from a duplex to a house.
This is a 20 drive to Proserpine airport, a further 10 minute drive to the shopping centres supermarkets in Proserpine and a little further into Cannonvale and Airlie Beach. And fishing is the great escape.
Other opportunities
Regional and Rural Australia also brings other opportunities for young people - the on-line industry is alive and well. Bloomsbury (near Midge Point) has a lady who makes a range of delightfully colour dresses and has a very active Facebook page.
The Midge Point little shops has a small business enterprise for sale (Sealands Café and General Store) which we published for the young writers two weeks ago to illustrate to them such options are available and pop-up occasionally.
Cheaper
The measure is in the price tag as opposed to the much higher city house prices. Let’s say as an illustration, the savings on buying your own home in the country is a saving of $500,000 - $700,000.
Consider the following –
Savings on Interest Rates
Savings on Rates and Water
Rural Community
Opportunities for leadership
Abundance of family activities
Schools and Education
Churches and Missions
Rural churches do quite well as they have a large group of young people from the high school for their youth group activities.
The churches support the wider community in oodles of ways and the community responds well to church outreaches and functions.
Likewise many missions are based in regional and country Australia reaching out to those in need, youth activities and yes, elderly groups and the like.
Yes, there are a lot of advantages living in regional and rural Australia.