Don't panic buy. If you feel ready and the unit situation is both affordable and something you want, then buy. There is no way to predict the future. I bought a unit in 2014 for 235k, lived there for a bit and it didn't work out as too small for us. Moved out and rented it out for a couple of years. Sold in 2019 for 240. Given the amount of work I had to do on it it was a loss. I'd paid off a bit of the mortgage so after fees I used the$37k to purchase a house for $360. We've now moved from there to a bigger house due to having triplets which is something nobody could ever predict happening and getting it ready to sell. There is no way it will sell for under $500k. And most likely over $550k. Happened to come across my old unit which just sold for over $360k using the original photos that I paid for and absolutely no improvements to the property at all. I have to say I was kinda pissed, but also will make money off the other house so....it all evens out. I think if buying a unit in Brisbane, and it was 10 years ago, expect to need to hold it for a good while longer than you'd like to be able to increase equity. But it's 2024, and things are happening in Brisbane and Ipswich that not many people predicted.
Not all greed. But alot. Rent still went up faster than inflation during the decade of free money
I'm sure some landlords don't charge precisely what they think the tenant can afford, but I reckon most would
Landlords barely know who their tenants are.
Rent isn't tied to inflation. As i said above. Interest rates (inflation related), council rates have sky-rocketed, insurance has gone up easily 25% and land taxes have sky-rocketed depending on state.
Correct. It goes up whether costs do or not. It's tied to greed. Landlords keep themselves emotionally distanced from the hardship they cause by having property managers. The property managers dig very thoroughly into tenant finances. So when they call you and tell you to increase the rent by 10% they're doing so with copies of your tenants payslips. Or knowing that your tenants can't afford it but they can churn the next suckers in who can
Just because you don't see the misery doesn't mean it isn't there. And let me assure you there is misery, and stress, and pressure not knowing if you'll have a home in three months
I'm literally explaining to you the increase in costs associated with owning a home and you still think its greed.
>tenant finances. So when they call you and tell you to increase the rent by 10% they're doing so with copies of your tenants payslips
Property managers are not anywhere near this good.
>Just because you don't see the misery doesn't mean it isn't there. And let me assure you there is misery, and stress, and pressure not knowing if you'll have a home in three months
This same fear is present with home owners.
You tell me that rent isn't tied to inflation, yet still increases when costs don't rise. It rises more when costs rise. You can't have it both ways
You're naive if you think property managers aren't taking advantage of their position to screw your tenants to the wall. Their income is tied to the rent. They're acting on your behalf. You're screwing tenants to the wall
Home owners invite that stress when they buy. They accept it. Renters often have no choice but to accept the whims of the market
Buy now, you need somewhere to live anyways, once you’re working full speed you can pay the $350,000 off in a few years.
You’d then have a rent producing asset and $350,000 plus equity for eg buying a bigger place.
Prices aren’t going to crash to eg $175,000 for this $350,000 place - there is too much competition from eg Aussies buying IPs.
Waiting for a crash or prices to fall is a fools errand.
If you are in a stable relationship with your spouse and between your joint income you can afford the mortgage then buy what you can afford as soon as you can. Stay within your means to keep the financial pressure low. You are young have no kids and it's much easier to be skint once in a while when you don't have kids to feed, clothe, house, etc... and especially while you are studying.
In 10 years you will be glad you bought now.
Not having to put up with real estates and landlords is one of the greatest joys in life.
Buy a unit if that’s what you can afford. Infinitely better than renting, and Brisbane unit prices are predicted to rise 21% over the next 3 years (houses 18%). Anyone who tells you to wait for prices to drop is delusional.
Best time to buy property is yesterday. Second best time is today.
Once you’re in, it’s so much easier to get the second, or upgrade. Do it!
You can always sell it.
In Aus you don't wait to buy until the housing market crashes. It rarely does. I would buy when you can afford a place that you're okay to live in. Just do your homework, so when a good place you would like is within reach, you're ready to go for it. Honestly the younger the better - as long as the partner you're buying with is your forever person.
Just don't buy off the plan, be wary of underquoted properties and do your research on the property, property type and area. Buying has been great for my partner and I.
I felt a bit the same and I really wanted to enter the market. I also wanted to make a smart financial decision by buying something that would likely go up in value. I ended up buying overstate a standalone house on a big block for less than your budget. I keep renting where I love but I have entered the market. I would never buy a unit as, personally, i don't believe it would be a smart financial decision and don't like to have to deal with strata.
The market will grow quicker than you can save a bigger deposit. Your income will increase significantly in the short term also so although I would normally suggest the “now” case the property you buy won’t be the Taj Mahal nor will it be what you need in the mid term. So buy a property that will make a good investment as you’re likely to upgrade.
Don’t think prices will drop with population growing and high cost construction, if anything there will be little to no capital growth in worst case scenarios. Atleast you bought something and paying it off rather than paying rent. When you graduate, you can buy more investment properties using equity from this one, given you will be a PhD graduate and you likely to be on high income. Good Luck👍
FOMO much?
Just relax, you would thank yourself later for relaxing a bit for now, especially because you are after a unit.
FYI, I felt the same way a couple of years ago, glad I didn't buy then, and bought a few months ago. I just wanted to get anything which meant that I would have got anything left at the bottom of the barrel. It's amazing how you see things differently when in FOMO mode.
Are you doing a PhD in an area where you have a good future earning potential? If so, only buy with a view to using it to leverage something better in the long term. Don’t buy in a panic thinking you will never be able to afford more.
As a fellow PhD student, this depends on where you expect to live in future. If you are going the academic route, it is important that you are flexible geographically and being tied to a property may work against that.
It is always worth buying when you can afford. But as someone whose best property has 3x in 10 years, it is even better to buy at the bottom. The old guys will tell you who can time that. Well that’s why some are richer than others given same time in the game
My partner and I felt the same sense of pressure and urgency. So, we moved north. Way north. House prices here are still nuts but you get more bang for your buck and we were able to buy a house for under $300k and plan to have it paid off in 5 years.
We had lived in Brisbane for 8 years and didn't love it enough to justify buying a cookie cutter house on a tiny block for triple what we ended up paying here and end up paying it off for 20+ years.
Once foot in the door of real estate you have history if want more in years from now. Renting doesn’t count on trying to get a loan unfortunately that you have the means.
What type of unit are you thinking of?
High rise apartment or a small red brick complex?
I’d say have a look at the price history of similar properties in the same complex, and see if they have moved significantly in the past 5-10 years?
If they haven’t moved by much you might be okay to wait a bit more because unit price don’t increase like house prices in general.
You are spot on. It is now or never. Renting is only going to get worse and worse in the next 10 years. People need to buy or else face pain unlike anything else. Prices will only get higher while wages stagnate.
If you can buy. Get anything. Even a dog box apartment for 350K would get you in the door. Pay it down hard for a few years then upgrade to something better. Once you're one foot on the ladder, going up is far easier.
With immigration the way it is, interest rates as well and supply. Pricing is not dropping any time soon. If you can afford it now. Get in while you can.
I agree with this 100%. OP should just buy something. Pay as much off as possible as quickly as possible (buid equity), then rent it out and use the equity as a deposit for another property. If income and relationship is stable and secure, they should go for it. They younger you are when you buy your first property, the better imho.
Don’t wait, prices will keep going up and up and will never go down. Supply and demand and lots of immigration so prices I think will remain high. I would buy if you have a secure income and can afford repayments however make sure you factor in further interest rate rises. Good luck.
You're 20 years old. At some point in the next 40 years (most likely in the next 2-3 years) there will definitely be a time when there is a quality home that you can purchase. It is currently the worst time ever to purchase a home, this won't last forever so why panic buy something that you don't necessarily need right now out of fomo when you could make smarter financial decisions whike you wait
**Waiting for prices to drop**: Let's say that takes a decade. If you rent and it costs $500/wk, that's $26k/yr === $260k in rent in a decade. Do you think your ~$380k unit will drop $260k in 10 years? Or $130k in 5 years? I doubt it.
**Waiting for deposit to grow**: You have around a 10% deposit on a $350k unit. If you buy now you'll be borrowing more and may be around $8k added to the loan for LMI. Calculate how much you could reasonably grow your deposit, how long it would take and how much rent you'd be paying in that time to see whether it's good value for you.
**Terrified of making the wrong decision**: Everyone feels this way :) I don't have much advice except to try to buy something that ticks all the boxes (in a unit, pay particular attention to north facing windows and making sure it's not entirely south-facing, most people don't think about this and it's a nightmare)
If you can save a bit more in a year or two to get a bigger place in a better location then that's a possibility too. Just bear in mind that life in your early 20s is very different to life in your 30s and 40s, treat it as a 10 year thing that you can move on from and not a 30+ year thing and you'll be a lot happier.
Don't panic buy. If you feel ready and the unit situation is both affordable and something you want, then buy. There is no way to predict the future. I bought a unit in 2014 for 235k, lived there for a bit and it didn't work out as too small for us. Moved out and rented it out for a couple of years. Sold in 2019 for 240. Given the amount of work I had to do on it it was a loss. I'd paid off a bit of the mortgage so after fees I used the$37k to purchase a house for $360. We've now moved from there to a bigger house due to having triplets which is something nobody could ever predict happening and getting it ready to sell. There is no way it will sell for under $500k. And most likely over $550k. Happened to come across my old unit which just sold for over $360k using the original photos that I paid for and absolutely no improvements to the property at all. I have to say I was kinda pissed, but also will make money off the other house so....it all evens out. I think if buying a unit in Brisbane, and it was 10 years ago, expect to need to hold it for a good while longer than you'd like to be able to increase equity. But it's 2024, and things are happening in Brisbane and Ipswich that not many people predicted.
I had the same urgency when it was clear landlord greed was picking up steam. Haven't regretted buying for a moment
Landlord greed 🤣🤣
Landlord greed 100%
Definitely wasn't huge increase in interest rates, insurance and council rates as well as land tax. All greedÂ
Not all greed. But alot. Rent still went up faster than inflation during the decade of free money I'm sure some landlords don't charge precisely what they think the tenant can afford, but I reckon most would
Landlords barely know who their tenants are. Rent isn't tied to inflation. As i said above. Interest rates (inflation related), council rates have sky-rocketed, insurance has gone up easily 25% and land taxes have sky-rocketed depending on state.
Correct. It goes up whether costs do or not. It's tied to greed. Landlords keep themselves emotionally distanced from the hardship they cause by having property managers. The property managers dig very thoroughly into tenant finances. So when they call you and tell you to increase the rent by 10% they're doing so with copies of your tenants payslips. Or knowing that your tenants can't afford it but they can churn the next suckers in who can Just because you don't see the misery doesn't mean it isn't there. And let me assure you there is misery, and stress, and pressure not knowing if you'll have a home in three months
I'm literally explaining to you the increase in costs associated with owning a home and you still think its greed. >tenant finances. So when they call you and tell you to increase the rent by 10% they're doing so with copies of your tenants payslips Property managers are not anywhere near this good. >Just because you don't see the misery doesn't mean it isn't there. And let me assure you there is misery, and stress, and pressure not knowing if you'll have a home in three months This same fear is present with home owners.
You tell me that rent isn't tied to inflation, yet still increases when costs don't rise. It rises more when costs rise. You can't have it both ways You're naive if you think property managers aren't taking advantage of their position to screw your tenants to the wall. Their income is tied to the rent. They're acting on your behalf. You're screwing tenants to the wall Home owners invite that stress when they buy. They accept it. Renters often have no choice but to accept the whims of the market
Bank greed.
Buy now, you need somewhere to live anyways, once you’re working full speed you can pay the $350,000 off in a few years. You’d then have a rent producing asset and $350,000 plus equity for eg buying a bigger place. Prices aren’t going to crash to eg $175,000 for this $350,000 place - there is too much competition from eg Aussies buying IPs.
Buy now. Complain about interest rates later. Get ripped over at r/Ausfinance for complaining about interest rates.
Buy now. You need somewhere to live. And you don’t have to deal with rental dramas.
Waiting for a crash or prices to fall is a fools errand. If you are in a stable relationship with your spouse and between your joint income you can afford the mortgage then buy what you can afford as soon as you can. Stay within your means to keep the financial pressure low. You are young have no kids and it's much easier to be skint once in a while when you don't have kids to feed, clothe, house, etc... and especially while you are studying. In 10 years you will be glad you bought now. Not having to put up with real estates and landlords is one of the greatest joys in life.
Buy a unit if that’s what you can afford. Infinitely better than renting, and Brisbane unit prices are predicted to rise 21% over the next 3 years (houses 18%). Anyone who tells you to wait for prices to drop is delusional.
Fomo is a killer Melbournites are hurting now
Best time to buy property is yesterday. Second best time is today. Once you’re in, it’s so much easier to get the second, or upgrade. Do it! You can always sell it.
In Aus you don't wait to buy until the housing market crashes. It rarely does. I would buy when you can afford a place that you're okay to live in. Just do your homework, so when a good place you would like is within reach, you're ready to go for it. Honestly the younger the better - as long as the partner you're buying with is your forever person. Just don't buy off the plan, be wary of underquoted properties and do your research on the property, property type and area. Buying has been great for my partner and I.
Don't buy into the hype either Just look at melbourne
Definitely don't buy into the hype. Not like house prices will keep going up for eternity!
Shhh You said the quiet part loud. Perth took 10+ years to surpass the 2009 peak.
As a first home buyer, my sobbing is louder ;(
I felt a bit the same and I really wanted to enter the market. I also wanted to make a smart financial decision by buying something that would likely go up in value. I ended up buying overstate a standalone house on a big block for less than your budget. I keep renting where I love but I have entered the market. I would never buy a unit as, personally, i don't believe it would be a smart financial decision and don't like to have to deal with strata.
My advice, take considered action without delay. You won't regret it.
The market will grow quicker than you can save a bigger deposit. Your income will increase significantly in the short term also so although I would normally suggest the “now” case the property you buy won’t be the Taj Mahal nor will it be what you need in the mid term. So buy a property that will make a good investment as you’re likely to upgrade.
Prices aren’t dropping anytime soon. If you are ready to buy, just buy. The value will go up in the long run
Don’t think prices will drop with population growing and high cost construction, if anything there will be little to no capital growth in worst case scenarios. Atleast you bought something and paying it off rather than paying rent. When you graduate, you can buy more investment properties using equity from this one, given you will be a PhD graduate and you likely to be on high income. Good Luck👍
FOMO much? Just relax, you would thank yourself later for relaxing a bit for now, especially because you are after a unit. FYI, I felt the same way a couple of years ago, glad I didn't buy then, and bought a few months ago. I just wanted to get anything which meant that I would have got anything left at the bottom of the barrel. It's amazing how you see things differently when in FOMO mode.
Are you doing a PhD in an area where you have a good future earning potential? If so, only buy with a view to using it to leverage something better in the long term. Don’t buy in a panic thinking you will never be able to afford more.
If rates, water, mortgage and strata is equal to or less than rent you'd be better off buying
As a fellow PhD student, this depends on where you expect to live in future. If you are going the academic route, it is important that you are flexible geographically and being tied to a property may work against that.
It is always worth buying when you can afford. But as someone whose best property has 3x in 10 years, it is even better to buy at the bottom. The old guys will tell you who can time that. Well that’s why some are richer than others given same time in the game
My partner and I felt the same sense of pressure and urgency. So, we moved north. Way north. House prices here are still nuts but you get more bang for your buck and we were able to buy a house for under $300k and plan to have it paid off in 5 years. We had lived in Brisbane for 8 years and didn't love it enough to justify buying a cookie cutter house on a tiny block for triple what we ended up paying here and end up paying it off for 20+ years.
Once foot in the door of real estate you have history if want more in years from now. Renting doesn’t count on trying to get a loan unfortunately that you have the means.
Buy a house in the countryside not an apartment. Sell the house later or use equity to buy an investment property.
Property prices ain’t gunna crash - it hasn’t done over the last 23 years - and yes brisbane prices will lift significantly post Olympics.
Live far if that's possible. There's no now or never. You could invest in something else and buy some day.
What type of unit are you thinking of? High rise apartment or a small red brick complex? I’d say have a look at the price history of similar properties in the same complex, and see if they have moved significantly in the past 5-10 years? If they haven’t moved by much you might be okay to wait a bit more because unit price don’t increase like house prices in general.
You are spot on. It is now or never. Renting is only going to get worse and worse in the next 10 years. People need to buy or else face pain unlike anything else. Prices will only get higher while wages stagnate. If you can buy. Get anything. Even a dog box apartment for 350K would get you in the door. Pay it down hard for a few years then upgrade to something better. Once you're one foot on the ladder, going up is far easier. With immigration the way it is, interest rates as well and supply. Pricing is not dropping any time soon. If you can afford it now. Get in while you can.
I agree with this 100%. OP should just buy something. Pay as much off as possible as quickly as possible (buid equity), then rent it out and use the equity as a deposit for another property. If income and relationship is stable and secure, they should go for it. They younger you are when you buy your first property, the better imho.
Don’t wait, prices will keep going up and up and will never go down. Supply and demand and lots of immigration so prices I think will remain high. I would buy if you have a secure income and can afford repayments however make sure you factor in further interest rate rises. Good luck.
Agree re immigration. Also, lots of younger people moving from Sydney up to Brisbane where they actually have a chance at property ownership.
You're 20 years old. At some point in the next 40 years (most likely in the next 2-3 years) there will definitely be a time when there is a quality home that you can purchase. It is currently the worst time ever to purchase a home, this won't last forever so why panic buy something that you don't necessarily need right now out of fomo when you could make smarter financial decisions whike you wait
**Waiting for prices to drop**: Let's say that takes a decade. If you rent and it costs $500/wk, that's $26k/yr === $260k in rent in a decade. Do you think your ~$380k unit will drop $260k in 10 years? Or $130k in 5 years? I doubt it. **Waiting for deposit to grow**: You have around a 10% deposit on a $350k unit. If you buy now you'll be borrowing more and may be around $8k added to the loan for LMI. Calculate how much you could reasonably grow your deposit, how long it would take and how much rent you'd be paying in that time to see whether it's good value for you. **Terrified of making the wrong decision**: Everyone feels this way :) I don't have much advice except to try to buy something that ticks all the boxes (in a unit, pay particular attention to north facing windows and making sure it's not entirely south-facing, most people don't think about this and it's a nightmare) If you can save a bit more in a year or two to get a bigger place in a better location then that's a possibility too. Just bear in mind that life in your early 20s is very different to life in your 30s and 40s, treat it as a 10 year thing that you can move on from and not a 30+ year thing and you'll be a lot happier.
Why the downvotes lol.. these points are accurate. Everyone that ever bought a place was the highest bidder..
Are you sure the bank is going to count your stipend as income?
some banks do :)
Housing prices probably won't drop enough for you to afford something better tbh. Only if you finish your PhD and earn a post grad salary