Is it stupid to buy a block of land that costs the same price as a nice house?

We will be paying almost $3000 a month for the repayments then we have to pay rent (subsidised by the company) for 100-120 per week also, not to mention bills etc and we will only have $5000 per month after tax. If we bought a house instead of land we could rent it out while we are away BUT the land is in the suburb we want to build in (beach suburb) What to do?