Have you been thinking of heading out to the country, but aren't quite convinced yet? Here are just a few scenarios which might be telling you it's time to ditch the metro and get out into the regions.
You have a young family
Young families are in fact dominating the current rural market.
It may seem like a strange suggestion to young families, but getting out to the regions could be the key to getting the real estate that you truly want. While more rural properties are certainly generally more distant from the schools you will be on the look out for, they are also a lot more affordable.
And the thing is, you wouldn't be the only one to do so. A recent CoreLogic RP Data report tells us that young families are in fact dominating the current lifestyle market. CoreLogic's analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals that there is overrepresentation in those between 0 - 14 (the children) and those between 25 - 64 (the parents) in interstate migration to lifestyle lots.
CoreLogic interprets this as a sign that young families are moving to coastal and rural properties such as the Sunshine Coast and Richmond-Tweed, buying up plenty of homes for sale there. Houses are cheaper and there is plenty of construction going on - if you have a young family, this could be the right place for you.
You want to escape the city stress
Escaping from the noise and pollution of the city could be good for you
The most recent Australian Psychological Society survey reveals that we are a stressed nation. More than a third of us reported a significant level of distress, a quarter had above-average anxiety symptoms and another 25 per cent suffered from moderate to severe levels of depression.
Does this sound like you? Plenty of people choose to escape to the country in order to get away from city life, citing it as a major stressor in their lives. Of course, this could just be a correlation rather than a causation, but there have been some studies that urban life can in fact be detrimental to your mental health. An American study headed by Doctor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the Mannheim Central Institute of Mental Health found that there was a 30 to 40 per cent increase in depression and anxiety with an urban environment.
While rural life is not some kind of fairytale land where stress is a thing of the past, the fact remains that escaping from the noise and pollution of the city could be good for you - both in body and in mind.
You work in a modern profession
Why do you choose to live in the city?
Why do you choose to live in real estate like metropolitan Sydney or Melbourne? A British research institute called Centre for Cities found that 21 per cent of people surveyed chose urban living because of proximity to their own or their partner's workplace, one of the most cited drivers of housing choice - you can bet there's a similar situation in Australia.
But nowadays, the national broadband network is rolling out across Australia. Meanwhile, more and more people are able to work remotely, making the urban lifestyle a lot less necessary for professional development. There's now a lot less of a need to sacrifice your choice of housing in order to go forward in your career. Of course, this will not be the case for everyone: the fact that offices and other concrete places of work still exist at all is a testament to the fact that a physical presence is necessary for many positions.
However, if you work in a modern profession that does not necessarily require you to be at your workplace physically, and you wish you could live in more rural property, then there is no reason to put off investigating your options.
If you've found yourself nodding along to these scenarios, it might be time to get in contact with a local real estate agent and start discovering your options in rural real estate.
