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The liveability and affordability of Brisbane, makes it a favoured destination for savvy millennials firmly focused on buying property.
A beautiful example I am currently marketing is a classic 1970s white brick apartment building perched high on Hamilton Hill. The main buyers have been Gen Y bringing Mum and Dad to opens as trusted advisers.
These savvy and creative buyers love renovators and view older style unit blocks, art deco units (particularly new farm) as well as starter cottages within a 10km rim of the city as exciting projects.
They are starting young, particularly apprentice tradies who are happy to make the purchase a family affair, sometimes buying into their first home with siblings.
One example we currently have on the market is Paris and Jack Croaker. Paris 24, finished studying her law degree and bought into her first home with brother Jack 21, an apprentice builder. They spent every bit of their spare time, helped by mother Maria, a seasoned renovator, transforming a run down post war home in the suburb of Northgate into a fresh appealing home, which they are now hoping to onsell to do their next project.
Despite a hefty HECS bill, post law degree, this has not deterred Paris. She and Jack lived at home to save the money for their first deposit, then saved on labour costs with Jack’s building expertise. Their goal is to make a profit and go again for their next sibling project.
This is also Paris' second home, she and her fiancé have also purchased their second property together in another inner city hotspot, the suburb of Hendra.
They typify a generation which represents sound values of wanting to get ahead financially, also embracing traditional values of relationships and marriage. I am seeing this trend increasingly in the younger market. They are wise beyond their years and careful with their money.
We also see that parents are extremely committed to helping their children get into the market. They are helping them to save by deposits by allowing them to live rent free at home for as long as possible, as well as drawing on their own home equity to give them a head start on making a deposit.
There is a beautiful bond we notice between these parents and their children when they come through open homes and it is a privilege to be a trusted advisor as their agent in steering them with honest advice on how to make the right choices to profit for their futures.
The millennials are a positive generation. They see the value in education and while HECS is certainly a handicap, they are accepting, rather than being begrudging, that this is an inbuilt cost. There is no doubt for many that this does delay their ability to save and pushes the average age of first home buyers into the late 20’s more than early 20’s.
Stamp duty concessions for first home buyers and first home buyer grants are all good incentives available, to help them into the market. Additionally, a tax free incentive on savings and perhaps even a dollar for dollar government subsidy for savings specifically for home buying, with a reasonable threshold, would certainly inspire this clever generation to continue to aspire to their goals of the great Australian dream.
Christine Rudolph, Ray White New Farm
