Ryan and Tegan Hansen are managing a family of six kids in one home – while living in a suburb where others have more than $100,000 to spend.
With several kids from different marriages, the two moved out to the suburb south of Brisbane to afford more space, with their families assisting in paying for the home.
“We wouldn’t be in the position that we are in without family support,” Ms Hansen said.
The suburb of Loganholme is known as an entry-level area, with an average house price of $754,000: more than $100k below the Brisbane median of $862,000.
But exclusive Digital Finance Analytics data has shown Loganholme actually has, on average, a lot of disposable income per home.
When it comes to money to spare after expenses, Queensland suburbs such as Loganholme and Dayboro both rank in the top 20 suburbs nationally. Loganholme has an average spare cash flow of $185,991 per household, while the Moreton Bay suburb of Dayboro has an average of $217,146.
Ms Hansen said she would see a lot of that expendable income being spent in her neighbourhood, on large dinners in packed restaurants nearby.
“I work in a pub,” she said. “We are very busy in the restaurant for that reason.”
The Hansens said another benefit was that the suburb simply had “a lot to offer”: being an affordable suburb with a pleasant community, and good proximity to schools.
Mr Hansen said he imagined many of the homes with higher expendable incomes were from older residents, who had built up equity in Loganholme by living there for some time.
“Something I’ve noticed is that there is quite a few older people that probably have amassed wealth,” he said.
“There are plenty of plenty of properties around with boats and multiple cars and whatever else. Having said that, though, there are certainly other properties around that look like they’re only just scraping together to make ends meet. So the statistic, I think, is a very broad snapshot of the community.”
Buyers agent Balazs Varga, who lives in Loganholme, said the high average may be due to a class divide within the suburb.
“I would say the data for Loganholme is potentially skewed a little bit, in that the suburb is really big but it’s split,” he said. “The eastern side of the suburb is worth a lot more than the west.”
Loganholme is split down the middle by the pacific motorway, with the east side being closer to more prestigious suburbs like Cornubia and Shailer Park.
Mr Varga said buying in Loganholme is a way to save some money while still being in a convenient location down south, which some home buyers may be doing to keep up a disposable income.
“You get better value for money, for bigger blocks of land,” he said. “I’d say people are probably being more frugal than ever.”