A young professional’s powerful message about Australia’s worsening housing crisis has struck a cord with thousands of frustrated renters.
The Sydney resident wrote that despite earning a good salary they were unable to buy a home because their parents had never owned property.
‘I am a professional in my 30’s, living in Sydney.
‘My biggest mistake is that my parents never owned property and were never wealthy, so as a result they’ve never been able to help me out.
A young professional’s powerful rant about Australia’s worsening housing crisis has struck a cord with thousands of frustrated renters (stock)
The Sydney resident said that despite earning a good salary they were unable to ever buy a house because their parents had never owned property (pictured, an auction in Melbourne)
‘I don’t begrudge them because I lived a happy and healthy childhood, but now I see all my friends and colleagues buying houses in middle class suburbs and I read a statistic that 60 per cent of Australians are getting help to purchase property.
‘It feels like increasingly birth is the biggest determinate on if you’ll succeed in this country.’
The young Aussie added the deepening housing crisis could lead to ‘significant civil unrest’ if ‘educated and essential people’ continued to miss out.
‘It’s all gone too far.’
Many agreed with the young Aussie.
‘It’s a return to the time when birth determined everything,’ one agreed.
’34-year-old lawyer here. I absolutely relate. Have pretty much given up on ever owning a home,’ a second commented.
‘Same deal. 30s, making more money than I ever have, but the parent I got stuck (my mum) with didn’t own property so now it’s GG for the rest of my life?’ a third wrote.
‘I have no idea how much more money I would need to save for a deposit, it’s a monumental climb to do that while forking out the insane rents we’re paying.
‘I live nowhere near a city by the way. Regional. The price hike is Australia wide and it’s disgusting.’
A fourth shared: ‘Buying a house nowadays compared to just 20 years ago is way more difficult. The data shows this. It’s literally undeniable.’
A young professional has warned Australia’s deepening housing crisis could lead to ‘significant civil unrest’ if people continued to miss out on ‘basic needs’ (pictured, a home in Canberra)
Another said their friend had only been able to buy a ‘humble’ apartment in Greater Western Sydney after saving for over a decade.
The friend had worked from the age of 15, lived at home until he was 30, saved every penny he earned and had his student loans covered by his parents – who also helped him cover a 20 per cent home deposit.
‘His purchasing power is worse than back in 2008, as were the government handouts he got as a first home buyer,’ they wrote.
However, not everyone agreed with the housing market rant.
A single woman in her 30s said she had bought a two-bedroom unit in Sydney’s inner west without any help from her parents.
Before she bought her first home, the woman had earned $65k-$80k for four years before she was bumped up to $110k for another three.
She had been renting one-bedroom homes in Parramatta and Homebush before she bought the inner-city apartment for under $600k last year.
‘And I have never felt like I needed to ‘starve myself’ to achieve this, as I wasn’t even planning to buy property at all until a month before I bought,’ she said.
‘While I understand everybody’s circumstance is different, I feel like there is something I am not understanding with so many people saying they have lose hope?’
Another said they had been able to purchase land to build their first home at the age of 29 without any help from their parents, who are both refugees.
‘Was it hard? Yeah. Impossible? No. I had to make a lot of sacrifices and work more hours and eat out less etc etc but I chose to do the hard yards,’ they wrote.
As an increasing number of people compete for rental properties, there is a concern more and more people will be at risk of homelessness (pictured, residential properties in Melbourne)
‘I had to make some hard calls on the area/land size/upgrades to plan, etc, but it will be worth it in the end. The goalposts have definitely been moved a few times since the previous generations but I’m sure we can still score.’
National property prices are expected to increase by up to 5 per cent in 2023, having already lifted more than 2 per cent since the start of the year.
‘The post-pandemic recovery in immigration is expected to add significant pressure to housing demand,’ explained KPMG economists Brendan Rynne and Brian Tran said.
‘Robust population growth and limited housing supply are poised to exert more pressure on the rental market.’
The strongest growth is expected to be in Perth with growth of between 4 and 7 per cent, according to a report by REA Group.
Melbourne prices are predicted to grow at a slower rate of up to 2 per cent, although they might record a small dip by the end of the year.
Sydney and Adelaide property prices are forecast to increase by between 3 and 6 per cent, while Brisbane is heading for between 1 and 4 per cent growth.
The author of the REA Group report, Cameron Kusher, said a limited supply of properties for sale remained a key factor contributing to buyer competition and price growth.
‘We saw price increases despite rising interest rates and reduced borrowing capacities and anticipate moderate price increases to continue over the coming months,’ he said.
Kusher said the outlook for 2024 was less clear with a large cohort of fixed-rate borrowers’ mortgages set to expire from current interest rates of around 2 per cent and reset to around 6 per cent.
‘Interest rate changes act with a lag and, as such, the possible impact of higher repayments on these borrowers won’t be seen until 2024,’ he said.
‘At this stage, we are forecasting modest price growth in 2024.’
Meanwhile, rental vacancy rates remain tight in Brisbane Melbourne and Sydney, according to new SQM Research data.
The national vacancy rate slipped to 1.1 per cent, with Sydney falling back to 1.3 per cent from 1.4 per cent in August.
Asking rents also ticked higher to reflect fierce competition for housing, moving 1.3 per cent higher in October.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said home building was not keeping up with population growth spurred by pent-up, post-pandemic migration.
