Mum’s ipad ban sees family move 2000km north
Sonia Majkic moved her entire family and business 2000km north as a “working holiday” to get her kids off their ipads and into the outdoors postpandemic. One year later, they’re househunting.
The owner of 3 Phase Marketing and mother of three said they relocated at the beginning of 2022, renting in Casuarina while they hunt for a house in the hinterland.
“Spending two years in lockdown in Melbourne and realising that we can successfully run a business remotely after doing it for almost two years in Covid, my core motivation was my children,” she said of the decision to relocate.
“I’ve got a 12 year old, nine year old and a two year old, and particularly the two older ones missed out on a lot of really crucial development over that two-year journey. I could see the toll that it had taken on them, so what I really wanted to do was reclaim their childhood.”
She said they also wanted to try a “working holiday” to see how living on the coast impacted her business.
“I’m really pleased to say that 12 months on, my business has actually never done better,” she said.
“I’ve got more control over my day, and what that allows me to do is to work on the strategy of the business, really moving the needle from a leadership perspective. I’m able to see things from a different point of view. I’m not caught up in the weeds, as I often say.
“The weather, the connection to nature, my children are surfing and fishing, they’re outside all the time.
“If you’ve got a young family, I believe the lifestyle (on the coast) long term is much more beneficial.”
The family home in Melbourne was set up as an Airbnb, she said, which has since been leased by a family from the Netherlands “who have done a really similar thing” – relocating for a better experience.
“They wanted a place that
felt like a home and she’s got four children, so it’s almost like a bit of a life swap … I’ve done the same thing. I’ve taken up a property that’s fully furnished, that has everything I need for the children and the family. And now we’re in the process
of actually bidding on properties and looking at buying our family home.”
She said there was not a lot of stock available, but the family would keep searching across the hinterland until they found something.
“The price is definitely comparable to Melbourne, but I think the biggest challenge between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast is the inventory, there are not a lot of options … We’re just trying to be patient. I think the right property will come at the right time. We’re not desperate.”
Her parents have now also made the move to the coast, buying a property in Tweed.
“My advice to any family that’s looking to leave the city for a coastal lifestyle is you just have to get here and probably do what we’ve done. I’ve never rented before in my life but I just wanted to get on the ground and dip my toe in, make sure this is the right decision for the business, the family, for everybody.
“And now that we’ve confirmed it is, it’s like, OK, well now we’ve got the luxury of going to open homes and checking out the local schools.”