Tara on Queensland’s Western Downs a drawcard for affordable housing and mortgage-free living

As a full-time kitchen hand paying $500 a week in rent, Donna Burn was struggling to make ends meet.

She and her husband, Peter Burn, were “working their guts out” just to afford living costs at their Beenleigh rental, south of Brisbane.

“Rents were getting astronomical — we were just struggling with the rents with both of us working and paying bills as well,” Ms Burn said.

But after a compensation payout, the pair looked at life differently.

They found a three-bedroom house for sale at Tara, 300 kilometers west of Brisbane, which they bought outright for $150,000 in September 2023.

The town is still recovering from last year’s bushfires which destroyed 57 homes.

Tara also made international headlines with the deaths of police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, who were killed in an ambush at a property at Wieambilla, just outside of Tara in 2022.

But the Burns say heading west to be mortgage-free is living their dream.

“I can do with my house what I want to do with my house — there’s no mortgage, no rent and it’s mine.”

Affordable housing

Tara real estate agent Arn Grealy said the Burns were not alone in their quest for a mortgage-free life in Tara.

“I believe it is because people have had enough of the crime in cities, their jobs … a lot of people are thinking, ‘Let’s get out and retire early’,” Ms Grealy said.

A recent Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) report found 86 per cent of properties sold last year in Tara were paid for in cash, with a median cash purchase value of $82,500.

In comparison, the report found 28.5 per cent of properties purchased in NSW, Queensland and Victoria last year were bought without a mortgage.

Ms Grealy said affordable housing and recent headlines about Tara had attracted a variety of people to the town.

However, he said the cost of rural blocks had increased since the COVID-19 pandemic from around $25,000 to around $80,000.

“I’m seeing all the walks of life, young people coming in who just want to take their kids out — have a little bit of fun on weekends,” she said.

“Some are building brand new homes, some are buying established homes on acreage, houses in town have been selling quickly.”

Western migration

New figures from research group CoreLogic show house values ​​across the region increased 44 per cent in the three years to February 2024, with the median house now valued at $306,984.

“When considering the relative strength of the Western Downs house market, the first obvious drawcard is affordability, especially for those who wish to live in a quieter rural setting,” said CoreLogic’s head of research, Eliza Owen.

She said the high levels of migration during COVID-19 might have also driven people further from major regional centers such as Dalby and Toowoomba to areas further west.

For Donna and Peter Burn, the house is a work in progress — the outside needs to be painted and the floors need to be polished — but that’s manageable when working part time.

And it’s hard for Ms Burn to hide her smile when she talks about owning her own home.

“It’s just great with no mortgage, no rent — our money is our money.”