There's alot of factors you need to look at. We live in a mining town in WA, moved here nearly 8 yrs ago but we did have our first house still in a country town in QLD, we'd bought that one in 2000 for $120k and sold 5 yrs later for $240k. We then bought a crappy house here in boom town for $240k in 2006 have done a few reno's around $50k worth and the house is now worth $750 - $800k. My husband part of his salary package gets 80% of the interest back each month also so we are only paying a fairly small mortgage. We have decided to buy land and build in another booming town back in QLD spending in total around the $650k which will push our mortgage up high but the rent we receive on our WA property will pay the two mortgages bar about $1000 per month which then makes it very affordable.