Tucked away in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland, Dave Summerville lived in one of the most desirable areas in the country: a short drive from beautiful beaches, rainforest and mountains.
But he was sick of it.
"The Sunshine Coast became far too busy. The beach was no longer an attraction, you couldn't get a park," he said.
So when his teenage daughter headed to the Darling Downs to study agriculture in Warwick, he and wife Kay realised there was an opportunity for a new start.
"We put the house on the market. It was gone in about three months at an additional price," 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 slips, except in country town
Property analysts Cotality found the median price of real estate across regional Queensland had slipped 1.3 per cent over the past three months, but remained up 9.1 per cent over the past year.
Greater Brisbane fell 2.7 per cent in the same quarter, the Gold Coast was down 2.2 per cent and the Sunshine Coast was down 1.6 per cent, though all three have median property prices above $1.1 million.
But prices are still rising on the Darling Downs, where the median property price remains below $600,000.
Mr Summerville said plenty of people were willing to head west for a good deal and a better life.
He said there were a lot of properties between about 8 hectares and 16 hectares having new homes built on them in his immediate area.
"So the hobby farmers have arrived, and they're loving it," he said.
Leaving the 'rabbit warren' for the bush
Ann Bailey left her home in Brisbane's Indooroopilly about 12 months ago, saying she needed to stop "wasting my hours away sitting in traffic".
She said she had grown tired of the "rabbit warren", road works and high cost of living.
Ms Bailey first arrived in Warwick for a short-term role, and was soon asked if she wanted to stay permanently. She agreed immediately.
"[There was] hardly any traffic, which was a massive bonus," she said.
"Within three minutes I was at work, three minutes I was at home.
"I got time back in my life."
Matthew Collins, who heads a real estate firm in Warwick, said about "60 per cent" of his enquiries came from people wanting to leave south-east Queensland.
"[We're] still seeing a lot of people coming out of the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Brisbane, selling their product there, and getting into the same [property] or very similar [here], and putting cash in the back pocket debt free."
First homebuyers' fight for coast home
Cotality research director Tim Lawless said regional Queensland prices had risen 58 per cent since 2021, including the current dip.
"For most home owners that have been in the market for at least 12 months, they've got quite a decent buffer before moving into a property value that's lower than what they paid for it," he said.
Emma Moehead does not yet have that buffer.
She and partner Aaron Mockford battled for years to buy a home on the Sunshine Coast in the face of housing shortages, higher interest rates and an overheated market.
"We have been saving for a while and we started looking once we had our right deposit and everything, but we genuinely didn't think we were going to be able to find anything on the coast pretty much," Ms Moehead said.
The 31-year-old said the pair first tried to enter the market five years ago but after losing hope, moved to Canada for two years.
She said the situation was no different when they returned.
The pair spent the past two years building a $50,000 deposit while living with Ms Moehead's parents.
Eventually the pair worked with a buyer's agent, who helped them purchase a two-bedroom, two-bathroom property on the Sunshine Coast to be built next year, for slightly under $750,000.
"[It's] really, really exciting," she said.
A blip or a downturn?
Sunshine Coast buyers agent Tim Thompson said the slowdown meant there was an "awkwardness" on price, as buyers chased a good deal, and sellers tried to hold on to years of gains.
But he said some were finding good deals.
"Just yesterday we saw a contract for a property on the Sunshine Coast, it was 'offers over $750,000', that was the advertised price. We just bought it for $705,000."
He said the region was still "resilient" particularly given its high population growth.
But Mr Lawless said that while property values had fallen only slightly so far, the slowdown could gather pace, driven by the combining headwinds of inflation, negative gearing changes, interest rates and the war in Iran.
For Mr Summerville on the Darling Downs, any worry about population growth or property prices disappeared as he drove west from the coast.
"To have money in your pocket again and not worry, not have to be figuring out what's going to happen in the future because it's all behind us now," he said.
