Ballina third most-expensive area for home buyers
It will come as no surprise to potential first-home buyers in the Ballina Shire area — a report has found that Ballina Shire is the third most unaffordable place to live in regional NSW for teachers, nurses, police officers, ambulance officers and fire-fighters.
The BankWest Key Worker Housing Affordability Report released this week based on ‘key workers’ salaries found Byron Bay the most expensive place to live in regional NSW, with Kiama second, Ballina third and Tweed fourth.
The study analysed house prices in 540 Australian Local Government Areas and cross-referenced them against wages and salary data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Government Workplace Authority.
The report used a median house price in Ballina Shire of $435,000.
Average salaries used in the study were: nurses $48,661; teachers $54,835; police officers $65,913; fire-fighters $55,783; and ambulance officers $61,893.
An area was classified as unaffordable if median house prices are more than five times a key worker’s annual earnings.
