Faced with the uncertainty of a six-month lease, Anisia and Nathan Glover were determined to own a home no matter what.
Rising interest rates were little deterrent for the sales consultant and pastor, who recently bought their first home — a five-bedroom house in Toowoomba.
"It wasn't really anything that factored into our mind because we knew that we wanted to be homeowners," Ms Glover said.
"We'd make it work, no matter what.
"We've done calculations, we've done that per budget, we've factored in all kinds of costs."
Ms Glover said it was difficult to find a house that suited them and their four children but, compared to their previous location on the Gold Coast, Toowoomba had been a lot more affordable.
"I think that's one reason why Toowoomba has, even now, huge demand for housing, whether it's rental or for purchase," he said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday raised interest rates for the 10th consecutive meeting, taking the cash rate target to 3.6 per cent.
The move is expected to add $77 a month to repayments on a $500,000 home loan and double that on a $1-million mortgage.
The rate hikes have put a dampener on property prices in areas across the country, but in regional Queensland declines have been minimal.
Buyer demand
Property data firm CoreLogic's head of research Eliza Owens said home values in Toowoomba fell by just 0.2 per cent during February.
"This still only takes the cumulative decline in home values to minus 1.9 per cent, following a recent trough-to-peak upswing of 34.9 per cent," she said.
"Overall, home values remain 30.4 per cent higher than at the onset of COVID-19."
Ms Owens said Toowoomba remained well placed for further growth.
"Dwelling values are still relatively affordable compared to nearby Brisbane markets, with the median dwelling value at $522,000, which may continue to attract demand to the area," she said.
She said a large-scale hospital development in the area would also "allow for greater growth of employment and population, which subsequently influences housing demand".
Toowoomba real estate agent David Johnson said he continued to see property demand from people moving within the city and those coming from other areas across south-east Queensland.
"It's a bit easier to get into the market here. We're not as expensive as the Gold Coast for example [where] the median sale price is I think about $975,000," he said.
"We're in the five hundreds.
"There just aren't enough properties to sell and there's still quite a bit of buyer demand."
Changing loan patterns
Despite reports of high levels of mortgage stress in the region, Toowoomba and Adelaide-based mutual bank Heritage and People's Choice Limited said many of its members were in a reasonable position.
The customer-owned bank has more than 720,000 members, with many based in regional Australia.
"What we've seen is a lot of our members have used [the pandemic] to build up quite a buffer of savings, which can be put towards the extra repayments if they do come in play," head of lending Nick Carver said.
For Anisia and Nathan Glover, while rising interest rates were a concern, it was offset by the knowledge they now owned a home in a community they loved.
"This smaller, more community-minded, connected community is what we were really attracted to here," Ms Glover said.
"And also, if we ever did have to move on, we know it's a very rentable house in a great location."
