First Home Buyers Tackle Brisbane

The conversation turns to how difficult it is for Aussies to afford their first home, prices in Melbourne and Sydney generally come first to mind.

But young people living in Brisbane saying the housing market here is just as difficult to break into, with some millennials saving for years and still unable to get their look-in.

Despite healthy wages and limiting their spending, getting their foot into the property ladder has so far been an impossible dream – even with $50,000 worth of savings in the bank.

In June of 2018, Queensland Government’s decision to drop the first homebuyer kick-starter by $5,000.

Added to the pressure, Brisbane is currently growing to become the next big city in Australia.

This is attracting investors interstate and internationally, who each want a bite of the growth – making it harder for first time buyers.

Millennials are seeing this time as difficult as despite their continuous efforts, they are still often perceived to unmotivated or with no thought to the future.

But as they continue to create spreadsheets mapping their spending, strategizing the cheapest way to live and eat, and foregoing holidays and events for years at a time - they are taking their goal of owning a home seriously.

Their secret to taking control of their spending? How do they maintain the tedious effort to keep enough pennies in their bank account to save $50,000?

It’s about being in the right headspace.

Keeping in mind that every cost count, practicing and continuously finetuning your weekly spend to be at its bare minimum.

Despite the current struggle of first home buyers, residential property expert Terry Ryder said Brisbane was still one of the best capital city markets for Australian first home buyers.

Mr Ryder has been running real estate prediction company Hotspotting since 2006 to help investors find the best places to buy.

“There is a pick-up in Brisbane but it’s not massive yet,” Mr Ryder told news.com.au.

Mr Ryder said first homebuyers looking for their dream property weren’t being practical.

“Are you willing to make those compromises to get your foot on the ladder? If you want your first home to be your dream home, then you’re kidding yourself.”

Mr Ryder said even if that market was too tricky for young people to enter, they should look at apartments instead, a recommendation backed by statistics.

“Young people increasingly favour apartments already because of lifestyle and affordability reasons,” Mr Ryder said.

“The apartment market tends to be forgotten in the affordability debate. What I’d say to Mr Manion is, even if he wants to look to the centre of the city, look at apartments.

“Some of the most affordable housing in an Australian capital city is in Brisbane.”

Despite values picking up in Queensland’s capital, Mr Ryder said he “would be surprised if young people couldn’t find options in the Brisbane markets that were affordable”.

“If they’re willing to go up north or south, out of the city, then you can easily find property with a median price of $200,000 and plenty more are up for $300,000,” he said.

CoreLogic’s August report revealed Brisbane was leading the nation in all four property performance indicators for the first time in more than a decade.

The figures showed Brisbane was Australia’s only capital city to record an increase in home values over the past 12 months. It also showed Brisbane homes were about 1.2 per cent more expensive than they were this time last year.