The air is clean, the grass is green and in the regional Queensland town of Goondiwindi, the rains have brought much more than replenished pastures.
Young professionals like Grace Griffiths are flocking back to the region, four hours west of Brisbane, lured by good seasonal conditions and a relaxed lifestyle.
"The rain came and agriculture just boomed again," Ms Griffiths said.
"I studied science and wanted to get a job as an agronomist, so everything just started booming again and the agriculture industry was hiring like mad.
"I was just lucky enough to snag one of those jobs."
After several years studying in Sydney, Ms Griffiths returned to her hometown late last year for her dream job, renting before buying her first home.
"There's been so many young professionals move to town in the last six, seven months, which doesn't help the rental market," she said.
"We're 100 per cent fuelled by the fact that it's raining, and the town is booming."
Tightest rental market in Queensland
Finding a rental in the town of more than 10,700 people is almost impossible, so those struggling to find a place to live are left with few options.
After a gradual decline in the past few years, the rental vacancy rate in the Goondiwindi region is 0.1 per cent, joining the Southern Downs as Queensland's tightest rental market, according to the latest report from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ).
"A lot of friends were resorting to posting on the Goondiwindi notice board [on social media], just looking to see if anyone had a room for rent," Ms Griffiths said.
She said many businesses could not find workers because "no one can find housing in town".
'Completely rented'
The region reflects a general trend across Queensland, with 47 out of 50 REIQ researched local government areas reporting a vacancy rate of 1 per cent or less in the June quarter this year.
A healthy vacancy rate is considered in the 2.6 to 3.5 per cent range and Goondiwindi has not been at that level since 2020.
Toni Sharpe works as a sales agent and property manager to find available rentals in the Goondiwindi region.
She said the demand had been very high for the past 12 months.
"We run a rent roll of over 300 properties, which are at this very minute completely rented," she said.
"We only have a small number of turnovers coming in in the near future and basically, we're just taking applications and doing what we can to either find new listings or new rental properties, or rooming accommodation for people for [the] short term.
"There's the local traffic, but we've certainly got some newcomers and of course, we've had a large influx of seasonal workers."
The median house price in Goondiwindi, according to realestate.com, is $358,000, which is an attractive figure to buyers priced out of more expensive markets.
Ms Sharpe said there was a sense of confidence and attractiveness to the area.
"We've had a number of rental properties sell to owner-occupiers, whether they've been first-time buyers or second-home buyers," she said.
"There genuinely is work here, the seasonal work here is going to flow on for a couple of seasons, which is great.
"It is definitely a positive for our community and region."
Double-edged sword
But the prosperous conditions are a double-edged sword.
Seasonal workers who cannot find appropriate accommodation look elsewhere for employment opportunities.
Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Amy McVeigh said it had been a tough time for struggling families, parents and individuals.
"We know that when supply is significantly less than demand, what that means is that rental prices increase, and people on the lowest incomes will suffer the most," Ms McVeigh said.
"Wait times [for social housing] have blown out in the last four years, they've tripled. People are waiting more than two years in the region for housing.
"People in low incomes are already spending around 46 per cent of their income on housing costs, that puts them in significant housing stress."
The Goondiwindi Regional Council has recognised the need for more available land and housing to keep up with the demand.
Last financial year, the council enforced a policy that cut 50 per cent of planning application costs for residential subdivisions.
Mayor Lawrence Springborg said there had been many proposed blocks as a direct result of the policy change.
"In providing incentives for subdivisions and to bring blocks on the market, we've had just short of 200 blocks, either divided, subdivided or actually come to market in the last 12 months," he said.
"We've now got another significant subdivision proposal as well, almost 100 blocks … but from our perspective, we're doing absolutely everything we can to make sure that there's available land.
"Housing is a really difficult issue and by hopefully making the land available, we're going to see more rentals ultimately come on the market and more people basically are building to sell and building to rent."
As for Ms Griffiths, she's not going anywhere anytime soon.
"It's such a cool, young, vibrant town that is so much fun and I think that's definitely attractive to a lot of people that want to go rural," she said.
"Families, when they move here, I know very few that have left the town, they come here, they get settled and they enjoy it.
"It's a bit of a bubble."
