The great Australian dream is over for startled Sydneysiders who have done all the right things – gotten a job, saved a deposit, browsed through homes on websites – only to watch in horror as housing prices continued to climb at the same time as wages hardly moved an inch.
That mean Sydney house price has taken one step closer to mimicking the New York property market where majority of resident are renters, not buyers.
Happy days fellow renters.
And Sydney is merely the epicentre of “rentnado” with a HILDA report prediction that by next year less than half of Australians will be home owners.
Meantime the rental market is experiencing the “softest conditions on record” according to CoreLogic’s January Rent Review which found that none of the capital city markets have experienced rental growth over the past 12 months and in fact, growth is at its lowest level on record.
That’s party due to an increase in cashed up property investors being the only ones able to afford to buy homes anymore, with the intention to rent them out for the long-term.
Just last month Sydney and Melbourne were named in the top five most unaffordable cities in the world to buy a house. Property prices continue to surge higher and higher so those of us who aren’t at least ten years into a mortgage don’t have much of a chance of ever getting a look in.
And that’s just fine by me. Rather than look at it as something I am missing out on, I look at not “owning” a house as something I am free from. I’m free from a crippling, life altering, nerve wracking. choice limiting mortgage. I’m a happy renter, a rare breed of person who chooses to rent, even though I am in a position to buy a home.
Top Comments
The thing I'm most curious about in this article is the mention of school fees. Although it doesn't stipulate private school fees, it does seem to me that not seeing the value in our public school system in order to avoid a mortgage is a poor choice.
Hello Jo
Well first off I am a financial planner/Mortgage Broker and to be honest Jo everything you say is so incorrect and it is almost breathtaking. I read through what you said 3 times just so that I could pinch myself that I wasn't dreaming.
You mention quite openly that you are debt free well that is because you have nothing!( I am not being rude) but you do not have a home!
So you can be given 4 weeks notice to move out of your rental and that's it.. Your family are homeless and where can that possibly leave you?
You talk about the repayments well at our current interest rate your repayments on a mortgage are less than what they are on rent! I'll say that again your repayments on a mortgage are less than what they are on rent! You have security stability continuity less perhaps for yourself than for your family..
What would happen if one of your children wished to buy a home in the future? Would they be able to save up that 20%deposit that no or very few Australians can or would they be looking for a possible family guarantee( which means to release or unlock equity) in ones one home to be entrusted to your children
Okay so let's have a look at when you retire! How do you propose that you do this? You have no home to sell! ( the average property makes 10% per annum) over a 25 year loan it would be worth 2 and and half times what you brought the home for!
So when you retire you can downsize and release funds for you to travel and enjoy yourself with
Rather than have just paid those same money Into somebody else's mortgage and you find that come retirement you have very little