In July, Tim Abbott left Sydney for a distant property greater than 700km from Brisbane.
Now, his workday begins at 5.30am and ends by late afternoon. He spends the day logging pine timber — a ability he picked up when he moved there — accompanied by solely two different individuals.
The work, he says, is extra bodily and repetitive than the Zoom conferences and quarterly planning classes he left behind when he give up his digital advertising function in Sydney. And for the following 12 months, till he returns to Sydney, this can be his life.
The city? “It is as small as you possibly can presumably think about,” he informed the Feed. “There’s certainly one of all the pieces.”
One grocery store, one petrol station, one major college. However Tim is having fun with the simplicity and the quiet, and the brand new life-style brings one massive promoting level.
“The cash that is available in, usually I would be like, ‘Okay, properly that is going to payments, that is going to tolls, that is going to petrol, that is going to dinners, groceries, this, that, the opposite.'”
Tim, 31, moved to inland Queensland and says his dwelling bills have dropped by 75 per cent. Supply: Equipped
“Now, all the cash that’s coming in, I am like: ‘Oh, that is my cash and it is staying there,'” Tim mentioned.
Tim is a part of a lot of Australians who’re taking a “monetary hole 12 months,” relocating, briefly, to someplace considerably cheaper to fast-track long-term objectives like residence possession.
Regardless of greater than a decade within the workforce and a gentle job in digital advertising, Tim was watching his financial savings and revenue stagnate.
“I used to be like, ‘If I reduce something much less, I simply do not know the place it will be from. My automotive is 13 years previous. I do not purchase new garments. I reside a really humble existence,'” Tim, who grew up and spent most of his life in Sydney, informed The Feed.
After spending $600 per week on hire alone in Sydney, now it is $220 a month in western Queensland.
Abbott estimates that his dwelling prices have dropped by greater than 75 per cent, and his revenue has seen a modest enhance.
His purpose: to save lots of $100,000 in a 12 months and finally purchase a little bit, sustainable pastime farm with goats, geese, a veggie backyard. Someplace heat, quiet, and simply out of attain of the town.
“I really feel prefer it’s delayed gratification. I really feel like as an alternative of lacking out, I really feel like I am excited to construct one thing for the longer term,” he says.
“It is the primary time in in all probability pre-COVID that I am actually excited for the longer term once more.”
4 months into the hole 12 months, Tim shared an replace on Instagram, describing the result as “blended.”
He mentioned he’d managed to save lots of roughly $30,000. Whereas he’s pleased with the outcome, it’s lower than he’d hoped for at this level.
Tim defined that in 2022, he used his life financial savings to buy a one-bedroom residence. This quarter, he was hit with an $8,500 strata invoice in particular levies for constructing works.
“A invoice like that might have been catastrophic for me if I have been nonetheless dwelling in Sydney,” he mentioned.
However he mentioned the monetary hole 12 months has softened the blow, and he is been capable of take up it extra simply.
“I’m attempting to remain optimistic about it — however I’m not,” he laughs. “Nonetheless, the idea is paying dividends.”
‘Regional cities holding onto extra individuals’
KPMG city economist Terry Rawnsley says the pattern of youthful Australians transferring to regional areas has accelerated because the pandemic — pushed by distant work alternatives, housing affordability and altering native economies.
“We have at all times had individuals shifting across the nation for short-term contracts, spending a few years in a regional city. In order that’s undoubtedly steady, individuals churn from the massive cities after which again,” Rawnsley says.
“Whereas we have at all times seen this, I believe these regional cities are in all probability holding onto extra individuals than they did previously.”
Tendencies change relying on the situation, he says, however total, individuals of their late 20s and early 30s are the massive cohort leaving cities like Sydney and Melbourne for “affordability and livability”.
The most recent Regional Movers Index (RMI), which tracks migration from capital cities to regional areas, discovered a ten.5 per cent enhance within the March quarter of 2025.
That is in step with an total pattern out of Australia’s capitals and into the areas after the onset of the pandemic. Present figures are 20.5 per cent increased than the pre-COVID common stage of quarterly migration.
“Housing affordability goes to be extra of a barrier going again into the massive cities,” Rawnsley says.
Together with affordability within the areas, Rawnsley says white-collar staff are more and more profiting from the power to work remotely.
“Architects, engineers who beforehand have been actually tied to the CBDs in Sydney and Melbourne, they’re now capable of reside and work remotely and dial into these main conferences.”
However whereas rents and mortgages stay considerably cheaper exterior the capitals, housing provide in lots of regional centres has tightened previously few years with the increase.
“Pre-COVID emptiness charges would possibly’ve been three or 4 per cent … now they’re sort of one and a half, 1 per cent,” he says.
Regardless that some locations are churning out housing provide, he says others simply aren’t.
“Whereas they’ve had this massive inflow of individuals, they’ve additionally introduced the massive metropolis housing issues with them, and everybody’s attempting to work out how will we get extra provide popping out of the bottom.”
Wanting ahead with out monetary nervousness
For Sarah Brown, 29, and her accomplice, Will Ridley, 30, the transfer from Sydney to Forster wasn’t a leap of religion — it was deliberate in a spreadsheet.
After the pair purchased a property within the NSW mid-north coast city, which that they had initially deliberate to maintain as an funding, they determined to maneuver into it for a “monetary hole 12 months”.
Now, the pair are saving the hire they’d have spent in Sydney, saved on stamp obligation with first residence purchaser help, and have lower down on their dwelling bills. When the 12 months is up, they will make an evaluation primarily based on funds about what they will do subsequent.
Will and Sarah made the transfer from Sydney to the coastal NSW city of Forster earlier this 12 months. They are saying when their “monetary hole 12 months” is up, they are going to reassess their choices. Supply: Equipped
“We have been paying $820 per week [in rent] in Sydney — all of that has gone into financial savings,” she mentioned.
The transfer has made them “essentially the most financially safe we’ve ever been,” Brown mentioned, describing a brand new ease of their relationship and extra freedom to think about milestones down the road with out monetary nervousness.
The trade-offs, although, are actual. Mates are a four-hour drive away, and he or she spends lots of time shuttling between Forster and Sydney for work, which nonetheless requires her to be on location for half of her working days.
However for now, the advantages are outweighing the sacrifices.
“I simply want I might choose all my buddies up and dump them right here after which I’d by no means depart.”
[This article was originally published in August 2025]
