The hottest houses in town are the cheap flood-affected properties. They come on to the market and last one to two weeks, a month at the most and cost between $250,000 and $350,000 depending on the size of the block and the damage.

A quick search and you can find two houses for sale:

• Cromer Street, South Lismore $260,000
• Maloney Avenue, South Lismore $249,000

(Maloney Street, South Lismore house for sale)

Then there's the recently sold:

• Webster Street, South Lismore
• Casino Street, South Lismore
• Diadem Street, Lismore
• Ballina Road, Lismore
• Phyllis Street, South Lismore
• Caniaba Street, South Lismore

This is just a few houses that have recently changed hands. Most were stripped back to the stud walls and in need of renovation.

Local Realtor Andrew Gordon from R Gordon & Son said you list a house, and it gets sold.

"You try and buy one now. It took a long while for people to gain that confidence, but now it's hard to get hold of one. I can think of three, maybe four people that if a home appeared tomorrow, I could say there it is, and they would buy it."

The Lismore App was wondering who is buying these properties given it they were flood-affected, some badly, so for many people getting finance would not be easy as your insurance premium would be $4,500 to $5,000 and would not include flood insurance.

"Forty to fifty percent of the sales are investors. They have bought in the floodplain from an investment perspective. Which I think is great for confidence."

"The key to it is perspective. We've got some sad sacks in this community who want to keep on telling you that this is going to keep on happening (14.4-metre floods), I don't personally believe that to be true. I think we've had our Mount Vesuvius, and if you apply perspective, yes, there's a risk, everyone gets that, there is a risk, and I think the odds are odds in your favour."

"Yes, we'll always get another flood, it won't be too far away, but will we get another 2022? Not in the near future. The odds say no but that's the risk you take. When you talk about risk, you've got to realise it's their money. They're putting their money into this."

That leaves another fifty to sixty percent of buyers who are not out-and-out investors.

"In my mind, there are at least two or three types of people. We've seen people that have accepted a buyback, and then repurchased in the floodplain. I've seen it on two occasions now. They had the confidence to come back."

"What it did for them was give them the opportunity to build equity. So, they took a buyout and then reinvested that money back in the floodplain, which has put them in a better position than they were."

For another type of person, it is about what you can afford to get into the housing market. A $500,000 property in East Lismore or $850,000 in Goonellabah will be out of reach for some.

"People live on a floodplain for a very good reason. We grew up in the floodplain because that's what we could afford. I used to live in Crown Street in South Lismore. I can think of a young fella who's bought into the market, and if it weren't for this event, he would probably struggle. He wouldn't have got the finance because he's only a young fellow working, but he's applied perspective, bought a flood-affected home, they're renovating that home, that'll become his home or an investment."

For some people, finance, even at $250,000 with no other assets, will not be available unless you have someone be a guarantor for your loan.

Call it opportunity, call it affordable, but it appears that people are willing to risk buying a house in the floodplain.

Andrew Gordon thinks people are looking at life from a different perspective now.

"After the event, there were very raw emotions, but that has started to subside. People are now saying it's a risk, but it is a risk worth taking because the alternative is to take no risk and leave town."