A year on from the floods that inundated the NSW Northern Rivers, the authority in charge of buying back the area's most vulnerable homes has made fewer than 10 formal purchase offers.
The process is taking so long that in Lismore — the city that was at the epicentre of the floods — scores of residents have given up waiting and sold on the open market, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than they would have received under the buyback scheme.
Property data given to 7.30 shows 79 flood-affected properties have been sold on the private market in Lismore alone since the floods, at an average price of $287,000.
About half of those homes are in the worst-affected areas of South and North Lismore.
New buyers are moving into the same risky areas that are being prioritised for buybacks because homes there are deemed at "severe risk" of future floods.
One South Lismore buyer, Adam Gruzas, recently paid $180,000 for a three-bedroom home that was worth $400,000 before the flood. He and his young family have moved into the home, and he says he has made a clear-eyed assessment of the risk.
"The flood came up about 1,200 mm above the floorboards," he said.
"We're on the outskirts of the flood. Water wasn't raging through here like it was in the middle of town … It wouldn't put my family in danger if it happened and we didn't get out."
Mr Gruzas is a tradesman and able to repair the flood-damaged home now — and in the future should it go under again.
LJ Hooker agent Michelle Mitchell said the new buyers in South and North Lismore were a mix of investors and young local couples.
"It's giving young people an opportunity to get into the market. Local investors and other investors are coming to town and they're investing in our town, which we're excited about," she said.
But she agreed the market was being fuelled by the slow pace of the buyback scheme.
"We don't really know what's happening with the buyback, and there's no time frame," she said.
"People want to get out, so [other] people will get in."
'Please be patient'
The head of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC), David Witherdin, said the pace of the program would pick up in the next few months. He said all the buyback offers would be made by June and he urged prospective sellers to wait.
"I've said to people, please be patient with it. This will take time, and if there's any likelihood you may be eligible for buyback, you know, hang in there," Mr Witherdin told 7.30.
The $700 million scheme is funded by the NSW and federal governments, and the NRRC estimates that about 2,000 of the area's more than 6,200 damaged homes will be bought back.
About 2,000 home owners will receive $50,000 grants to repair their homes, and another 2,000 will be given $100,000 grants to raise their homes.
But which homes will be in each stream is still anyone's guess.
Central Lismore resident Saffron Bond thought she would not be eligible for the buyback scheme and decided to fix her home so she and her two children would have somewhere to live.
"We were left in a position where we had to just guess," she said.
"And we all know, all the locals know North and some parts of South [Lismore] are the highest hazard zones, so we just assumed … that side of the levee would be the only area eligible for buyback."
She spent $80,000 and five months repairing her home with flood-resistant materials, such as commercial-grade steel drawers and stone benchtops.
Then, last week, she was told she would be eligible for a buyback.
"It would have been great if they could have at least given us an indication, even a 'perhaps', because even if I had that I would have done things differently," she said.
She is now hoping she will be allowed to move her house to higher ground.
Mr Witherdin said he was moving as quickly as he could.
"I absolutely understand that people want that certainty around eligibility, they want that quickly," he said.
"The challenge we've got is around 6,000 applications for this program. Our commitment is to work through all of those assessments by the end of June."
Communication the 'biggest problem'
In East Lismore, Marcus and Leonie Bebb are living in a temporary "pod" home with their teenage children in a settlement of other flood refugees. They cannot resume their lives until the reconstruction corporation tells them if it will buy back their south Lismore home.
"I think if they could just let people know, even if it's another six to 12 months before it was our turn, [it would help," Ms Bebb said.
"The biggest problem with the reconstruction authority is communication," Mr Bebb added.
"If we knew we were only getting a $50,000 retrofit, the 'for sale' sign would go up tomorrow."
Mr Bebb said authorities could have easily given flood-affected residents more certainty about the next steps.
"A line should have been drawn on a map and everything on that side of the line should have been moved, swapped, bought out," he said.
The NSW scheme is running much more slowly than in south-east Queensland, which flooded at the same time as the Northern Rivers. There, 365 buyback offers have been made, 230 offers have been accepted, and, in Ipswich, four homes have already been demolished.
Mr Witherdin said Queensland was a long way in front because government funds were available much more quickly.
"The start line for them was [the] middle of May, when their program was announced in terms of the funding. Our program was announced on the 28th of October," he said.
In the meantime, Mr Witherdin urged prospective buyers to rethink purchasing flood-prone homes.
"Whilst it may be affordable, you've got a really high potential of setting yourself up for recurrent personal trauma, economic trauma," he said.
"Talk to the people who've been through recurrent flood cycles. If you've got an opportunity to avoid that, you ought to do that."
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