“The money that comes in, normally I’d be like, ‘okay, well that’s going to bills, that’s going to tolls, that’s going to petrol, that’s going to dinners, groceries, this, that, the other.'”

Tim, 31, moved to inland Queensland and says his living expenses have dropped by 75 per cent. Source: Supplied

“Now, all the money that’s coming in, I’m like: ‘Oh, this is my money and it’s staying there,'” Tim said.

After spending $600 a week on rent alone in Sydney, now it’s $220 a month in western Queensland.

“It’s the first time in probably pre-COVID that I’m really excited for the future again.”

‘Regional cities holding onto more people’

“We’ve always had people shifting around the country for short-term contracts, spending a couple of years in a regional town. So that’s definitely continuous, people churn from the big cities and then back,” Rawnsley says.

“Housing affordability is going to be more of a barrier going back into the big cities,” Rawnsley says.

“While they’ve had this big influx of people, they’ve also brought the big city housing problems with them, and everyone’s trying to work out how do we get more supply coming out of the ground.”

Looking forward without financial anxiety

Now, the pair are saving the rent they’d have spent in Sydney, saved on stamp duty with first home buyer assistance, and have cut down on their living expenses. When the year is up, they’ll make an assessment based on finances about what they’ll do next.

Will and Sarah made the move from Sydney to the coastal NSW town of Forster earlier this year. They say when their “financial gap year” is up, they will reassess their options. Source: Supplied

“We were paying $820 a week [in rent] in Sydney — all of that has gone into savings,” she said.

“I just wish I could pick all my friends up and dump them here and then I would never leave.”