Maroochydore -> Noosa

Yesterday we drove from Maroochydore to Noosa over the coastal highway. The further north you go , the prettier the places get. Noosa being the "Hollywood of Australia" it's a very pretty place, loads of hills and VERY expensive looking houses ( and they are probably even more expensive to buy than they look ). It's a very touristic place, a bit like Caloundra but instead of highrises they have hills and smaller unit-blocks.
There's nature all over in Noosa and the views to the ocean are priceless. It's not a place that is easy to reach from the civilized world though, it will take you about 40 minutes from Maroochydore to Noosa over the coastline roads, more when there are roadworks ( and there are quite a few roadworks in Queensland : a good thing ). Noosa is too far from the Bruce Highway, and too far from the Sunshine Coast CBD ( Maroochydore ) so it's a place where you retire, not a place you go to work, unless ofcourse you're lucky and work with retirees or in tourism. We liked Noosa. A bit southeast of Noosa you get Sunshine beach, they're pretty close together and you get lovely views over there on the David Low way. Sunshine beach has been developed over the last few years and looks well maintained and there seem to be proud people living over there : Proud of their boats that is, because everyone over there seems to drive boats instead of cars ( boats are all over the carparks / driveways there ). More south is Sunrise beach which has hill tops looking over the ocean and reasonably big houses but fewer boats. The roads get a big bigger over here, people drive a bit faster and this is really the furthest that most Australians will drive to Maroochydore for work. South of Sunrise beach, along the David Low way there is Castaways (beach) which is like a small settlement next to the big open road. However these people have the best views over the ocean that you can imagine, it's a tradeoff between having a "cliffside" house and being next to a busy traffic road ( the David Low way looks more like a motorway here ). Marcus Beach and Peregian beach are nice but didn't impress us as much as the northern suburbs. If you like old original Queenslanders then this is the place to buy one though. You won't have much views but the prices are lower in these area's ( still very unaffordable though, which says less about our financial situation than the dire overpriced housing market in Australia ). Overpriced is ofcourse relative to what you get. Yes you do get a nice view, you get a reasonable plot and the houses are reasonably built, but the wages here don't allow the prices, it's really as simple as that. Jobs here will pay anything from 30.000 AUD ( cleaner / mechanic etc ) to 50.000 AUD ( real estate agents / government jobs / car salesmen ) to 70.000 ( Senior IT with 10+ years experience / Managers / Senior Bank staff ). These wages don't warrant houseprices of more than 250.000 for small worker homes to 500.000 for luxury manager homes. The prices of homes here START at 500.000 for very small and run-down places, and they go anywhere to 3 million and more for the reasonably luxurious places. The very expensive places in and around Noosa reach 5-15 million each, private tennis court included of course.

So, we have decided to rent. You see, the math is quite simple :

A house on the beach ( literally ON the beach ) costs about 500 to rent. This equates to about 26000 per year in rent.
Now, this same house would be on the market for 1 million. That would be about 60000 yearly interest repayments. In other words, we'd be saving 34000 by renting the EXACT same place. And then I'm not even calculating the yearly repairs, the yearly taxes, the insurances, the ACTUAL REPAYMENT OF THE LOAN ( I just calculated the interest repayments, the loan will stay the same unless you pay EVEN MORE than 60000 ).

Yes, the housing market in Australia is in an interesting era. How long will the housing market survive ? I think about 1-2 years, then we'll see a substantial correction either in rental prices ( inflation of wages basically ) or a correction in houseprices ( 50% off at least, a bit more than in the USA ).