The household income required to buy in each Qld suburb

Buyers in four QLD suburbs need to earn a household income equivalent to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s salary to afford a home, with data showing how much you need in every suburb.

Buyers in four Queensland suburbs need to earn a household income equivalent to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s salary to afford a home, with data showing how much you need in every suburb.

Soaring interest rates have done little to drive down Queensland property prices, with exclusive new data showing that households need to earn in excess of $100,000 a year to buy in 735 suburbs.

But there are 272 suburbs where it is still possible to buy a home with a household income of less than $100,000.

Finder data shows that buyers with a combined household income of up to $100,000 and a 20 per cent deposit can still buy a house in a range of suburbs, from outer city locales to regional hinterland and beachside towns.

23 16 Bluebird Avenue, Ellen Grove is listed for $430,000+

In Greater Brisbane, there are 30 suburbs where a $100,000 household budget could service a 30-year home loan, with many of those located in Ipswich and the Bay islands.

But that number balloons to 59 suburbs for buyers looking for a unit, with a household income of just shy of $50,000 enough to buy in Logan Central and up to $99,000 for an apartment in suburbs such as Fitzgibbon and Gordon Park.

A household income of $100,000 won’t get you into Brisbane’s bluehip suburbs but there are options a bit further afield. Picture: Brendan Radke

Outside of Greater Brisbane, there are 272 suburbs where a combined household income of up to $100,000 and a 20 per cent deposit could buy a house.

They include suburbs such as Mount Sheridan, Bentley Park and Gordonvale in Cairns, Bushland Beach, Douglas and Hermit Park in Townsville, Bucasia and Blacks Beach in Mackay, Harristown and Darking Heights in Toowoomba, and Bundaberg East, Moore Park Beach and Kingaroy in the Wide Bay region.

Yorkeys Knob in Cairns could be an option. Picture: Brendan Radke

But the data shows that there were far more suburbs that required much bigger household budgets – a staggering 735.

Finder’s head of consumer research Graham Cooke said property ownership was slipping out of reach of new buyers in a way that hasn’t been seen in recent years.

“Every time the cash rate goes up, the first rung of the property ladder gets higher,” he said. “We’ve now had 12 increases. The deposit you need hasn’t gone up too much, but the number of suburbs where you need to earn more than $500,000 a year is alarming.

“Ideally you don’t want to spend more than 30 per cent of your salary on home loan repayments, and it’s good to give yourself a buffer.

“Having a 20 per cent deposit is a general rule of thumb, but it’s getting harder and harder to reach this savings goal, especially for first-time borrowers.”

Graham Cooke, Finder.

For house buyers with a household budget of up to $200,000, there are 184 suburbs to choose from.

They include Macgregor, Wynnum and McDowall in Brisbane, Witta, Maroochydore and Maleny on the Sunshine Coast, Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes and Carrara on the Gold Coast.

Up north, that kind of coin could get you into a house in Palm Cove and Trinity Beach in Cairns, or into Townsville’s second most expensive suburb, North Ward.

Beyond that, households would need an income equivalent to a CEO and beyond to get into the market.

There are 41 suburbs where buyers need a household income between $300,000 and $400,000 including Hawthorne, Bulimba, Tallebudgera Valley, Hendra, Currumbin and Grange.

Five suburbs require a household income of between $400,000 and $500,000, roughly equivalent to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s salary.

8 Yarra Court, Tallebudgera Valley has a price guide of $1.695m

And while he may have come from social housing, buyers in four Queensland suburbs will need to bank roughly the same as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, or some of Queensland’s top NRL players, just to get a look into Sunshine Beach, Teneriffe, Hamilton and New Farm.

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You will need a Prime Minister style salary to buy into Qld’s most expensive suburbs. Picture: Twitter

Even with a 20 per cent deposit, households in those suburbs will need between $500,954 (New Farm) and $582,514 (Sunshine Beach) to get in the game.

5 Adonis Street, Sunshine Beach, has a price guide of $1.85m

But even some of Queensland’s traditionally more affordable suburbs are getting out of reach of many.

The latest REA Market Trends shows that the median weekly household income is $1861, or about $96,720 a year.

That’s less than the combined household income needed to now buy in suburbs like Caboolture, Slacks Creek and Boonah.

PropTrack’s latest Home Price Index revealed the median house price in Brisbane is now $731,000, and $606,000 in the combined regions.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore recently said that Brisbane home prices were now just 0.81 per cent below the record set in April last year, at the peak of the pandemic property boom.

If price growth continues at its current pace, that record could be surpassed by Spring.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore

Hotspotting iirector Terry Ryder said homebuyers had been searching for more

affordable lifestyle locations for up to a decade – especially those from Sydney –

with many heading to Queensland to take advantage of the state’s solid property

metrics.

“According to the latest stats from the ABS, the Sunshine State’s net population

increased by 2.2 per cent – or 116,000 new residents – in the year to December

2022, with about 35,500 being interstate migrants,” he said.

“As of recently, the most desirable areas for relocation have been Queensland and Western Australia, with Queensland at the very top of the list.”