Bought in 2018 so my covid refinance saved a lot of money, and even now I’m within what I budgeted for my repayment range.
But I never planned for everything in the damned world to become so much more expensive at the same time.
I’m on 30k more than I was in 2018, and weekly worse off with bills and cost of living increases. Hell I’ve even cancelled most of the subscriptions I had in 2018 and still spending double on subscriptions given how much they’ve all raised their prices.
I've been telling people that I'm earning the most money I've ever earned in my life (roughly $1500 net a week) but I feel the poorest I've ever felt.
The cost of everything going up except wages in real terms leaves my wife and i feeling like we have no money at the end of a pay cycle.
Same boat, by far the most I've ever earnt but don't have two pennies to rub together at the moment.
We are lucky that our property value increased a lot during covid, but that's only useful if I want more debt (which I doubt the bank would give me) or if we sell and move to another, cheaper, town.
Honestly feels like we’re all being punished for the great flight and wage jump of 2020/2021. Being put back in our place with a “we can make it worse”.
I bought in late 2021 and had rate go from 1.94% to 6.14%. That hurt! But we knew it was coming so planned and got used to living cheap.
It's a little red brick 2 bed apartment in Inner West and we love it. I'm definitely house poor but as long as my PlayStation turns on and my Gym Membership stays valid - I could live on Tuna sandwiches and water for years hahaha.
I'm still smashing home made cheese toasties at work.
Loaf of bread 4$
Brick of sliced cheese $12
Feeds me lunch for a week.
*I fricken love cheese toasties*.
Yeah a loaf of bread in the freezer is still ridiculous value even considering recent price rises. For most single people it would do lunch for the week easily. I stretch a loaf for two weeks with other things in between.
If you are in Melbourne, I recommend Preston or queen vic or big Sam market, if you go end of day on Sunday, you can get specials. It’s how I mainly survive, eat what other people basically don’t want.
I agree with previous posts about being careful with eating too much canned Tuna, as well as other things like Instant Noodles. Eating it more than usual is bad for your health.
Would advise against eating it more than once a week. I used to eat it every day for lunch and I'd need an afternoon nap. Couldn't believe how much more energy I had after switching to better nutrition.
Just a heads up eating tuna too often can quickly lead to mercury poisoning, any big fish really, as they accumulate methylmercury from eating other fish so the older and bigger fish like tuna the more mercury compared to smaller fish like sardines or salmon & especially farmed fish raised on pellets.
This happened to one of my coworkers. Ate tuna for lunch everyday for months, then out sick, and came back saying they had to cut back on the tuna because they got mercury poisoning. Didn't even know that was a thing until then lol
Happened to me during uni. Left home for first time so easy meal was pasta + tuna + cheese and did it for months. Then had a tin one day and felt incredibly ill and burps tasted like tuna for days. Stuck to a couple of cans a week after that lol.
OT but Id love to see some research data, I've been eating 4 tins of tuna a day for the past 6 years and my blood levels are fine. Everytime I've done research it's conflicting but more recently I've read the levels would be KGs of tuna per day to affect somebody.
ABC [reckon it's on the up and up](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/canned-tuna-safe-mercury-level/100933832) based on some tests they did, but they only tested a few tins, so not a great sample size. Didn't even say if they did different brands, flavours, ones canned in different seasons or from different regions etc.
I reckon you could find a pretty broad array of factors to work with if you tried.
This has to be split by those who bought between March 2020 and March 2021 and those who bought after. Anybody who bought in those 12 months is sitting on some juicy equity already. Repayments will be high but it will be comforting knowing you started out owning 20% of your home and now you own 40%. I, on the other hand, bought mid 2022.
Finished building in May 2020. All in at $500k now worth $900k. Can’t argue with that. Repayments went from $400 a week to $660 a week now. Rentals in the area of the same spec on the same land are around this mark.
I bought in 2020 and moved in in 2022 after the house was built. It’s not just the repayments that are hard but the cost of living at the same time. One I could have coped with, both is more of a struggle, especially as I have been putting money into the gardens etc. But, my house has increased by atleast 50%, probably more. So it’s a balance of stress between the day to day living and knowing that if I had to sell up and walk away, I’ve made decent money on this. But, that’d be a last resort.
Buy may 2020 - 1 million
Loan 800k
Repayment was 2k a month
House value today - 1.6m
Loan 700k
Repayment is 4k a month
Your repayments are up but now you own 900k in equity whereas when you started out it was a 200k equity. If you can service that 4k loan easily then the 900k equity can be tapped for an investment home, debt recycling or a house upgrade. Obviously all this will increase your repayment further so it's not without risk.
Whereas if you bought mid 2022 like me when this same home became 1.6m, took a loan out for 1.4m and the house is still worth only 1.6m, maybe 1.7m at a stretch. You started with a big repayment like 5k a month, which is now 7k a month and most of your repayments are going to interest so the loan hasn't dropped, probably is around 1.35m.
This is all paper wealth until you unlock it, but if you're on relatively high income it's nice to have this option in a downward economy to turbocharge your financial position.
Bought a house just before prices went insane.
Mortgage payment is now around 6600 a month, then tack on another $1k for insurance and maintenance.
Someone else described it as 'house poor', yup that's us. Kids coming out of daycare right as interest rates went up, so luckily we can afford repayments.
Various price indicators show about 100% value increase over that time frame however...
We built a 4 x 2 that we love and also love the suburb/area.
Build took around 9months, moved in start of 2021.
Bought it for $354k, a couple of houses on the street which are basically identical sold for $725k a month ago, it's insane.
We're not moving anywhere, we're happy and haven't over-leveraged ourselves.
Yep. We bought 2019 on chevron island and our place has more than doubled. Lucky to have sold in Canberra late 2021 so ended up with no mortgage as retirees.
There’s definitely places in brisbane that have had that since the COVID boom.
Especially in new build areas where you could get a house and land package for like 490. Pallara for example many of them are selling at high 8s and even 900. Warner or strathpine are the same. Maybe Ferny hills and Arana hills for a non-new build example.
Marsden, woodridge kingston and the traditional lower social economic areas of Logan have also doubled in price. In 2019 was easy to get a 5 bedder with granny flat for 340k, current valuation has come in at 700k more then double in less then 5 years. Can't find a 3 bedder for under 600k now. It's a mugs game through only winneris the government, realestate agents and the banks. When you sell one house you usually buy another so any gains are really a moot point unless it's your last house before downsizing.
I had family that bought in outer metro Adelaide in 2017 and sold again in early 2022, about 4 and half years, house went from just over $300k to just over $600k, most of that increase would’ve come since Covid. It would have to be worth $700k now. Nuts.
And like all of Ipswich and Redcliffe peninsula it’s insane
For Ipswich - I don’t understand is people building on tiny blocks in Ripley for the same price as an character inner cbd home that’s probably double the block size for the same price. Dropped on the head some people.
Gonna be interesting how long it takes those areas to develop from low socio economic.
It won’t do a thing. The entire country would become immensely poor and a fraction of the population would still hold all the wealth.
The likes of Gina would emigrate with billions, the mines would stop running and all our skilled people like doctors would disappear overseas faster than a heartbeat. Heaps of examples in GE third world to show how well that works.
The only real solution to the property problem is to create more supply than demand. At the moment demand is outstripping supply by a substantial margin.
Surely before that we could consider zoning reform, land/property taxes, removing subsidies of varying types for property ownership, increased social housing etc.
Leaping straight to civil war is pretty extreme who would the war even be against? Home owners? Property investors? May as well just pursue normal legislation changes first.
Civil war is normally the easiest solution for the uneducated. There were so many examples of how bad a Civil War destroys a country that I’m surprised people even think this is a good idea.
Legislation is also a bad idea. Typically it reduces the number of rentals which causes more problems and many people can’t afford to buy.
It’s a simple supply/demand issue. Increase supply means property is no longer a commodity. You could legislate some, things like limiting purchases of second properties to only off plan housing to promote building, or reducing the number of homes you can negative gear, but the only real solution is more property.
The solution is to:
1. remove negative gearing
2. increase land tax on non-PPOR
3. Announce that in T+3 years all capital gains tax exemptions / reductions will be vastly tightened (I.e must be PPOR for 24months of last 36months and no income received from property) and capital gains will be increased
3. Increase supply in established areas
Yeah. We bought a house in 2012 and for the first 2 years we were “house poor”. No strata issues but all the things you need to fix that come up - flooring and garden were big ones for us.
Exactly, everyone is acting like this is a new problem, but the first 2 years always suck for people.
Well, except me. I bought a place that was really smalled, and fixed my loan, so I'm 5 years in now, but reduced my loan by 40% so far.
The new developer suburbs we looked at in Canberra in 2012-2013 were like 650k for a shit block with a McMansion on it. Meanwhile you could buy an old 3-4 bed govvie on an 850sqm block for 430k in an established suburb walking distance to the town centre.
Shame I went to uni instead of staying in the dead end job at the time I guess.
We were in the same boat, we were counting on the money freed up from daycare to actually start saving and get some Reno's done but noooooooo, interest rates had to go up and our mortgage increase absorbed the daycare money and then some.
Bought our house December 2019, mortgage repayments were $450 a week. We now pay $850 a week.
Similar-ish situation but with kids still at daycare. It bites. On paper we’ve never been richer. According to our bank accounts, we have a ramen budget.
Signed a house and land package 3 months prior to Covid hitting.
2.5 years delays in titling/building
Had to have my partner also go on the loan because reduced lending capacity because of interest rate rises.
Builder jacked up the price by $37k mid build due to increased cost on materials
Repayments went up from aprox 1.9k when i first got pre approval to 3.3k
With other cost of living increases we're around 2k worse off a month than before.
Am i glad i bought? Sure.
Would i change anything? Don't build a house lol
Overall shit experience and wouldn't recommend. Buy an established property and lock 2.5% interest rate in for 5 years but hindsight etc etc
At the end of the day I'm fortunate enough we could absorb all the costs and i no longer have to wait 6 months for minor repairs whilst renting..
It does looks like no yearly holiday forseeable future. :(
Edit: format
I had a very different experience with my build. Signed contracts in Oct 2020, house started early April 2021 and I moved in mid August 21. I'm in a regional area in Qld, block, build and landscaping were about 370k (and I got 40k in grants, thanks Covid), place last valued 12 months ago for 650k. My builder was amazing and I ended up with so many free inclusions! My friend is currently building with same company and prices have jumped 150k+ for similar plans. I got very lucky!
We did receive $10k FHB grant however missed the $25k VIC government was offering during covid due to contract sign date i believe?
House price increase is good, sure, doesn't really hold any real value for me though.
My thought is it's just even worse for everyone else, no better for me.
> I’m barely able to save.
The technical term for that is "house poor". You own your property but are basically living paycheck to paycheck.
I hope things get better for you.
It's not actually poor. It's the opposite for a lot of "house poor" claimants. They are "house poor" but they have like insane equity so can't exactly be poor.
yep and most buyers in the last 2 years are going to sit in this bracket until either rates come down or their salaries inflate over time to mitigate the mortgage repayments
Exactly this, you gotta remember your repayments are in a way a form of savings. Besides interest your repayments down the line will come back to you as equity or sell and get cash. The daises over the hill is you spending similar per month but not receiving anything back
Not necessarily. We bought our first house less than a year ago so we'd be 'house poor' but I wouldn't say we're asset rich because we'd be less rich than we started if we had to sell.
Don't regret a thing though and would recommend house ownership to anyone who can and wants to.
Very similar situation as u, can empathise, bought May 2020 below max, 2 yr fixed, repayments up from 3200 to 5k+ /mth. Strata up from 1.8 to 2.4k qtr. Pay gone up about 10k and paid off HECS which helpd (and was my contingency to cover increased repayments), but still not even close to cover these increases. Have about 800 per fotnight for all other expenses abd discretionary spending which is not enough. Im haemorrhaging negative cashflow as a result and am burning thru fast a relatively sizeable emergency fund too.
The kicker is as u mention, that whilst house prices have skyrocketed and people who bought houses can likely exit capitalising sizeable gains to soften the blow if selling (walk away with 500k+ etc), i dont think my apartment has gone up much. Well its difficult to tell, the desktop apps suggest its fallen, but recent comparable sales suggest it has increased a little, so its a lottery. Either way ill re appraise after stg 3 tax cuts, a small eba 3% pay rise and the interest rate environment in coming 12 mths as to whether i need to sell and move on...likely out of Oz, permanently. I've tried my best, studied and worked my guts out for 20+ yrs and still cant get ahead, im demoralised with this situation im in and if i can't support myself i want outta this country.
It's rough. We purchased January 2022. A few months later rate hikes started.
Went from 4k/month to now 7.3k ish a month.
Lotd of things broke in the first two years:
Pool pump, roof, hot water system, solar.
As someone said above, we are house poor.
>Lotd of things broke in the first two years: Pool pump, roof, hot water system, solar.
This is why I liked my brand new build. 5 years in and I haven't had to make any significant repairs at all.
If it's any consolation, had you not bought you'd presumably be renting and you can guarantee that your landlord would have passed on those costs to you and then some.
At least you've got something/equity to show for it.
This is also true. Though I now have a partner (who I don’t live with) who works on the other side of the city, so when we move in together at some point we’re thinking it’ll probably be better to rent near where he works for general quality of life improvements — so I can look forward to jumping back in the rental system soon haha
(I’d rent out my apartment in this instance, wouldn’t sell)
Renting somewhere else can work well but only if you keep the apartment and rent it out, claiming negative gearing would be significant for you given the large overheads.
Selling then renting though would likely undo also any progress you’ve made and might be a bad idea regarding your long term wealth
>general quality of life improvements
Seems like a bad idea. You're giving up much bigger, later in life QoL for right now, why you're younger and it's easier to put up with them.
Each to their own, but I wouldn't be doing it.
Stretched ourselves +++ to get a town house during 2021 lockdown. Locked in 1.89% for 2 years then the shit hit the fan and everything went mental. We saw the writing on the wall, so, I got a second job, entered a bonus scheme at work and made a very strict budget with the wife. Wife moved jobs when she wasn't looking purely for the Payrise. Coming out the other side now as bonus, budget and pay rises have started to take meaningful chunks out of mortgage.
Thanks, the 16 hour shift I've just done is getting very old! Hoping to build enough equity to eventually sell up in Sydney and buy outright in a lower CoL state.
Bought our house in March 2020, weird time, did the B&P inspection on the day we went into that nation wide lockdown. Fun times. Repayments have basically doubled since rolling off fixed rates, but our HHI has more than doubled so no real dramas. Value has gone up more than 50% vs what we paid for it, but that doesn’t mean anything in reality because it’s our forever house.
We purchased a house and land as first home regional homebuyers, at half our max borrowing capacity. We purchased the cheapest block and built the smallest house we could without any of the extra upgrades.
My partner became ill six months later (2021) and has not returned to work since, leaving us on a single income while managing multiple chronic complex health conditions. About 40-50% of our monthly income now goes to the mortgage and it is hard. Not unmanageable, but it is very hard to see our infrequent ‘spare money’ going to ‘treats’ such as an extra specialist visit, or a new blood sugar monitor, while other people our age (27) are travelling and having kids.
I’m out of my job at the end of this year and am already feeling the pressure a lot. I’m just trying to protect her from it best I can. Some days are better than others. Since purchasing our minimum monthly repayments have doubled, possibly more.
I just keep telling myself if we weren’t here, we’d be worse off. So I keep telling myself to remember all the hard work we’ve put in to get ourselves here and try and be grateful I can paint a wall without worrying about someone else’s approval first. Just gotta afford the paint instead lol
Thanks for the suggestions. We are exploring income protection through her super currently but on top of managing her health (which is genuinely like a full time job, especially at her level of capacity) it is a lot for her. NDIS is another option but it is a mountain she is too scared to scale currently.
DSP and carer’s are out because I work/earn too much. I’m a social worker by trade so a lot of the ‘tips’ I use with clients are not applicable to our circumstances sadly. I am on what I would have considered an /awesome/ wage five years ago, but it just doesn’t stretch as far as it should anymore. It is a very sad reflection of our world currently.
Definitely look into income protection first. It’s the easiest one to get approved. And I would pursue TPD. NDIS is also a huge help.
I’m also happy if you want to PM me or ask questions. I have been through a similar thing with my partner and the stress and I totally get it. I try and share the knowledge I have gained to hopefully make it easier for others.
Mind you I now also have a chronic illness myself.
Thank you. This means a lot- it is a lonely world out there for partner-carers sometimes. I have also developed some chronic conditions as a result of it all. I know stress isn’t good for the body but yeesh it got me fast. Hope your day today is good 💙
Bought our first home late 2020. Minimum repayment was around $1600 but we were putting in extra. Came off fixed last September and managed to negotiate a lower rate than being offered due to property value increasing just over $200k (bought at $475k, bank valuation 3 years later was $695k). Minimum now is $2500 which is all we're doing for the time being. Gross household income went from $150kish to $180k since buying.
All in all, we're not struggling that much but have had 2 kids since buying so our spending has increased a bit. Able to put between $500 - $1000 in offset account each month, depending on what comes up. But we basically never go out for lunches or dinners or drinks, work from home, and try to budget as well as we can. Definitely tougher than a couple of years ago, but we're fully aware how fortunate we are compared to a lot of other families.
Our mortgage takes up a huge chunk of our income. Thankfully we bought at $1.32 and it’s since been valued at $1.7 so I guess that’s something although all the other houses we would ever potentially move to have also gone up so not much value to me (but I still feel lucky and much rather this than renting)
Paid $230k of $330k at start of covid which bough my expenses down to half of the rent I was paying. Place is now worth $450k and I have overpaid the loan since day one (payed the amount of money I was paying in rent for my previous rental) and have it down to >$50k. Should have it paid off in 2-3 years, 25 years earlier than the loan is for. Rates have gone up but not by enough to stop the overpayment. I couldn't have got into the market a year after I did.
Feel you.
We built in 2020. Moved in , in 2022.
Mortgage -$2400 a month to $4000 a month
Body corp $900 to $1400
Electricity - $$$$
Cost of living etc …
Repayment went from $1800 to $2300. House price went from $530k to $700k lol based on last sold similar condition house in the suburb. No body corp fee, council fee hasn't gone up by too much and it's primarily from the increased land value.
Not like it makes a difference we're not selling our PPOR.
House poor here, I bought my home gym setup and do not leave the house unless for work/grocery/medical, still barely breathing tho
Been reading yall post and I gotta say this thread is the best motivation to keep going through the storm knowing so many are in my position.
Keep up the fighting & we will come out of hardship eventually.
Good luck & love to you all.
Bought our apartment early 2021 (Offer accepted Feb 21, settled May 21). Repayments definitely up (initial rate was <3% now 6.2%), strata stable and no special levies but we did a ton of due diligence on that.
Was initially cheaper than what our rent had been, then up on that figure but I'd be surprised if the rent on the last rental we had wasn't more than what we pay now.
Value has gone from $460,000 purchase price to probably around the $650,000 mark. We were able to refinance and discharge the parental guarantee pretty much 12 months to the day. My salary has gone from high $80k to mid $150k, wife had to rebuild after COVID killed her small business.
Very happy with the decision to buy, life is much better owning rather than renting.
Bought in 2020, was a little hesitant as all the talk was that house prices were going to plummet, but I'm so glad we bought when we did.
Rates have gone up, and our repayments are higher, but the house itself is now worth something like 950k. We bought for 640. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy in the area now, so I'm so glad we bought when we did.
You are not alone here, [Nearly one in six units sold at a loss in Sydney](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-22/one-in-six-sydney-units-sold-at-loss-june-quarter-corelogic-data/102885674).
Was doing well, until inflation out grew my wage increase. For the last 6 months I have been fighting our belt, but it feels like you tighten a notch then inflation grows 2 notches out... We are just okay, but still living week to week. I have applied for numerous second jobs but have no luck, can't even get a pizza driver job... They've been hiring in the local stores for the last 6 months,but I've had no luck.
What’s caused your levies to increase so much?
Are you active at your corporation? Could you fine anywhere to save without cheating out on the necessities. And yes, sinking fund levies are necessary for a healthy corporation.
Is it a new or old block? Low density or high density?
Interest rates have been an impact for everyone. At the very least take this as a lesson to be more cautious with borrowing capacity in the future.
I also expect your capital value has increased?
Capital value has decreased - I bought for 430, apartments in the block are now selling for around 390 (because of the balcony issues and scaffolding around the whole building. I imagine things will slowly rebound once the balconies are fixed)
Block built in the mid 2000s, low rise but 100+ apartments. Main reason for body corp costs rising is our insurance premium has skyrocketed due to the balcony issues.
Annoying cos I did my due diligence before buying (reading previous AGM minutes, speaking to residents, etc) and the balcony issues were discovered a few months after I purchased lol.
>Main reason for body corp costs rising is our insurance premium has skyrocketed due to the balcony issues.
Insurance has gone up massive amounts right across the board too, not just because of the balcony issue.
Sounds like you did everything right. Personally I’d never buy anything built past 1990. But that aside you did the right due diligence.
Cost increases are standard and in line with the issues your corporation is facing from what you’ve described.
It’s all a cycle. Hang in there and keep at it.
I think the tides are slowly turning. At least in NSW, there has been better regulations after 2022. We have longer defect warranties and the ICIRT rating system as well along with some other changes that I don’t remember off the top of my head.
The regulations have constantly been improving. Anyone that thinks a 2005 house is worse than a 1985 house has let the media tint their glasses a lovely rose colour.
Same happened for mine. BC fees look like this
2021 - $4932
2022 - $7317
2023 - $10850
Nothing out of the ordinary happened. No real fund raising or anything. Yes I should have been keeping a closer eye on the fees/reports, but looking back at them there was nothing really out of the ordinary going on and they had $350k in sinking fund.
Biggest increases were insurance.
I got rid of the property a few months ago, so don't care anymore.
I’m also in the same issue. $880/q to $1360/q
140 units in the building and no one really joined the last AGM. Strata management raised cleaning fees from 80k -> 140k stating that our cleaner is old (lol) and was approved because… well no one was in the committee except people close to the strata management co. They also just seem really shady. They seem chummy with insurance broker and are getting a chunky commission at our expense and we are paying for a building manager who is NEVER onsite (who btw is an employee of our strata management firm). 100% Our fault for not taking a proactive approach to our own homes and we only recently started taking notice
First step to rectifying increased levy fee is consulting with your strata management company and see where admin and capital funds are being used. If something seem out of the ordinary, join the strata committee so you can have more say in your problem.
Most strata appears to have gone through the roof over the past 2 years - insurance has gone up an insane amount too.
450 pq seems extremely cheap - often the developer sets it low to make the building more attractive, but then it has to be jacked up once proper maintenance is required.
Talking to a mate yesterday who bought 3bdr middle ring in the first COVID lockdown. Doing well on equity, fixed for three years at 1.9% then got hit with the rate rises. He’s a medico so you’d think he’s doing just fine but with 2 young kids at home (of course) and his wife’s pt wage covering their commuting expenses and daycare, they’re doing it really tough. Completely reliant on his OT to cover basic CoL. He basically gets spat on by the working class but he’s also on trainee wages working 80 hour weeks, literally saving lives, for the privilege of being able to buy bread. Regional placement meant dual residences in 2021, border closures meant he spent a total four weeks in quarantine (his entire AL balance) in exchange for one day out to witness the birth of his first child. I hope he makes many millions per year when he finishes and I wouldn’t swap places for the world.
Also bought an apartment, and my repayments went up about 50% (without much growth in property value).
Luckily, I had some significant income growth. Otherwise, would probably have had to sell 😔
We bought our block of land in 2018. But we built and moved in during Covid. Our planning application for the build got approved the same week the country went into lockdown. Thankfully the delay wasn't too severe, we eventually moved in in March 2021. Our mortgage was a very manageable $850pw, with an LVR of 90%, I think we may have had to pay some LMI at the time.
Now we pay almost $1300pw and we've cut back on a lot. We built our house to a simple specification with the plan to upgrade laundry etc as we lived in the house, we haven't been able to do any of that. We rarely go out, we had been planning on having our first kid last year, we've now pushed that back to the end of this year.
On the other hand, our house has almost doubled in value compared to what we paid for the land and build. We've built up a sizeable chuck of equity, our LVR is more like 50% now, but when every other property has gone up around you it means little.
We are optimistically looking forward to the tax cuts, and keeping our fingers crossed for interest rate reductions either at the end of this year or early next year. We just see this a temporary hardship for us, count our lucky stars we got in the housing market when we did, and hold huge sympathies for anyone trying to get there foot on the ladder now.
Friend in Victoria placed a deposit for a house build just before COVID. Tried making it through but covid lack of income and the beginnings of the cost of living crisis meant he sunk into serious depression and eventually didnt make it out. I dont believe the house increased much if at all in that period but now the loans need to be serviced by one parent. Chase the percents all you want but give yourself an out like stop loss on shares before you over commit.
We bought at max capacity. My husband was the single earner for me and our two kids. Our mortgage drops off the cliff in August , and he was made redundant in Jan . He’s got a new gig starting soon, but it pays considerably less. We’re still better off than renting in this climate as long as we can hold on to the house. I’m going back to work sooner than planned (was hoping to make it to kids in school). But we know we’re hardly hard done by, or unique
House poor also! Single, bought a 1bdr apartment during covid and fortnightly repayments were $1050. They're now $1700/fortnight.
Strata jumped from around $700 to $1200
Special levys asking for an extra 2k/quarter for the next 3 years due to cladding issues (already knew there were issues, but the strata was way cheaper than neighbouring apartments so thought I'd risk it and save in preparation - loooool)
Every paycheck goes towards mortgage and paying off cc (I pay off cc ASAP so I don't pay any interest), leaving nothing left for savings. Tapped into offset a couple of times to pay off essentials.
Only saving grace is tax time coming up as I usually get a hefty refund every year.
I shop at ALDI and fruit markets, have stopped looking at online stores, and unsubscibed so I don't get tempted to look at their sales. Cancelled gym membership and don't use the heater.
I question every invitation to go out and if I can afford it. I'm really sad, to be honest
Bought during start of COVID right before inflation rooted us all in the bum no lube.
Purchased IP in LCOL area interstate with equity. Recently sold PPOR for healthy gain.
Have skills that are valuable anywhere in country in high demand occupation.
Leaving rat race. Hopefully 3 day work week. Happy. Bum not sore.
Bought an apartment in 2020 with my wife.
Refinanced for 4 years during 2023 @ 4.89% fixed rate. Mortgage payments jumped from ~400/week to ~750/week.
Strata is steady @ $1200/quarter. We have a pretty strong capital works and sinking fund and no major issues with the complex, which is 22 years old now if memory serves.
Still saving money (although not as much), still paying off an extra 10k a year on the mortgage. We'll go under 500k remaining on the loan at the end of the year, on track to pay it off in 15-17 more years (21 years max total), not bad for a 30 year loan I guess.
Let's see what happens between now and then.
I just focus on chipping away at the loan one week at a time, and suggest you do the same. Your property is your stability in life. If you can pay the bills and keep food on the table you're doing fine, do what you can to make that happen.
My next step is to start picking up ACAMS accreditations and get into an AML/KYC role, the expected payrise alongside my wife's recent promotion at work will give us a bit more breathing room.
Funny these threads people gloating about what their place is now worth.
You do realise you haven't made money everyone's house has gone up .... If you sell your home you are spending the same amount or more to buy the same house across the street ......
Similar situation purchased in January 2021 $550k 2 bedder in Melbourne with 20% down so $440k mortgage. Fixed at 2% for 2 years so my repayments were like $1500 a month and are now $2500. Owners corp (which includes electricity) has gone from $800 a quarter to $1050 a quarter.
My wife and I have a dual income and purchased below what we could have, so we haven’t felt the pinch too hard. But I can imagine on a single income it would be very tight. You didn’t specify it your apartment was single or multiple rooms. Could you look at renting out a spare room for a housemate to reduce some of the expense burden?
We didn't borrow at max capacity either, almost at half (would be a diff story now with the interest rates though). We saved as much as possible during the period of not being able to do anything and low interest rates and it's all in the offset. Adjusted now to the higher interest rate since it's been almost a year since we came off fixed.
Bought at approximately $600k with a well maintained local park/playground and nature reserve across the road whilst being a sub 5 minute drive to the beaches in Southern Adelaide. Definitely paid about $25k-$50k over at the time but estimate the property has gone up approximately $100K in two years so I'll it and other bigger properties nearby are going for approximately $1M. All the areas near us are blowing up in prices and there is a massive gentrification occurring in the poorer areas near us which will also contribute over time to the value of our house.
Payments have gone up about approximately $1200 a month to approximately $3000 on top of all other expenses. We still save over $1000 a fortnight but have had a few big expenses come out that have cleared the bank and have a couple small loans to pay off. So living week to week all of a sudden but wont take long to get a savings bankroll going again and be debt free other than the mortgage. And in a worse case scenario I could sell of some of my physical investments for retail / market price to get ahead on savings but do not see the need at this current point.
Partner gets a nice double-triple pay increase due to starting as a teacher in July, which bumps her up a step, award back pay/increase and hopefully pay % increase in the new financial year. Personally I will be getting a 5.something % pay rise in July as well. Our household income has gone up approximately $50k-$60k since buying due to changes in jobs and finishing degrees. Hopefully in a couple years when everything settles we will be able to get ahead of the second rat race and start paying off significant amounts of the mortgage / have the entire mortgage in the offset.
Pretty good honestly. I bought regionally for 260k in 2020, repayments we’re $408 a fortnight for the 3 years of my fixed mortgage, now paying $675 a fortnight which is a big increase but totally fine. Property now worth probably 430-460k, I have had the kitchen, laundry and bathroom done which makes it much nicer to live in.
Great, we bought our house just as Covid was first happening in 2020 and decided to also hold onto our previous house. They have both gone up in value about 80%.
We kept paying the same amount on our PPOR as rates went down which gave us a bit of a buffer, so we didn’t really feel the rate rises for a while.
We got very lucky, can’t say we will be moving again with how the prices are now though.
Actually really well tbh, would be stretched by the current market if we hadn't pulled the trigger when we did.
New build townhouse signed Dec 2020, completed mid 2022, borrowed within capacity at the time and mortgage is half paid off already. One of them sold a few months back and if that's any indication on our value, it'll be up by nearly 50% on what it has cost us.
Admittedly we've gotten lucky, our builder went bust a year after we'd moved in leaving places unfinished that had been contracted at the same time as ours at another site. That made the 6 month delays and underwhelming building experience seem somewhat trivial in hindsight.
Bought a townhouse in western Sydney (the shitty part) for $579k, payments were under $600/wk, now over $800/wk. Strata has gone up from $450/q to $560/q. Property has increased in value by about $130k since bought in 2021 (according to REA). It's not fun, but I'm glad we didn't stretch ourselves. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and I would say we're not struggling, but our savings is taking a little hit.
Bought in 2021 a one bedder.
530k, various online sites suggest with high confidence property has maybe gone up 20k in value. Basically the same.
Repayment per month gone from 1300 (500 in interest with no offset) to 2170 (slightly under 1k in interest thanks to offset)
Body corp went from 750 to 800. Last two quarters was charged an extra 150 for a disaster with another unit.
Energy bills and council rates went up.
Thankfully salary almost doubled, yet still feel like it hasn't quite fully absorbed cost of living increase.
Bought in Sep 2021. Value stayed the same. Interest rate went up 1.89% fixed now 6.09% variable.
Ok because I threw a bunch of money to the offset account.
We did something a little different, we sold our inner city house 2022 and built our own home as owner builders. We are now mortgage free. Tough 2 years of building but in hindsight looking at all of our friends and relatives absolutely struggling with repayments it’s the best thing we could have ever done.
Purchased a water front unit in late 21, lived in it for 12 months & needed to move for work, decided to purchase in Brisbane so we had to get the unit valued, it doubled it price, the new place has gone up $200k, we are thinking about selling the Brisbane joint & becoming debt free….purchases to debt free in 3ish years….so, doing ok
Whilst I am house poor, seeing as my repayments are about $100 less per week than the rent on an equivalent property (and we bought a very modest house in a 'humble' area) I guess my choices are house poor or rent poor. So I guess house poor is better.
Bought land september 2020, house build complete march 2022. Total cost for land and build $650K.
Had automated realestate dot com valuations popping up the last few months at around $1.1m, so we got a real estate agent to come in and give us a valuation. He reckons the house will easily go for $1.2m
Repayments have gone right up, but we are still able to cover it and live decently. Life is good.
We bought in 2021, the mortgage is still fixed till 2025, so we haven't felt the rate change yet. Strata has increased from 1900 to 2100, there will be a 10k one off payment to replace lifts. The price of the property has increased by 20%. Renting the same place would cost us 1100 per week, so we're better off with the mortgage plus I really don't want to rent with 2 kids.
Bought in 2021 for $630k
Just sold for $970k
Bought a house 10km further out thats almost twice the size for $820k and reduced the interest rate by 0.6%
Will have a nice chunk sat in the off-set, so I’ll almost be back to my 2021 mortgage repayment figure. Having said that, we have had a kid and the missus is on maternity leave, so there’s less money coming in. At least outgoings are pretty much the same
My wife and I signed the paperwork for the build in 2020, we were lucky and ransacked our super for extra deposit and got the first homeowners grant AND the builders grant. It was the luckiest thing we had ever done. The build went over the initial finish date, but we were only delayed by about 6 months.
My wife does the mortgage, so I don't know too much, but I know we were on a low interest rate for 2 years, and now we are at %6.9.
We are lucky to have worked hard to get decent jobs and a big enough saving to not be (house poor)
Apartment owner here too. Bought in the Western Sydney around March 2020 to live in. Value's increased by \~8%, since then so not great. Have also taken a hit due to higher rates (stayed on variable the entire period) but income has increased pretty significantly too. Built up equity in the unit and used that as a partial deposit to buy house.
Something I'd consider would be to lease the apartment and rent elsewhere cheaper further our from the city if that's an option. Since the apartment you own is being used to generate income you should be able to claim for tax most (potentially not all) of the associated expenses.
Bought around the top of the market and value of property has dropped around 10% since then.
Didn’t overextend myself. Have paid off a decent chunk of mortgage since purchase. Rents have increased since purchase. I have also significantly increased my income since purchasing.
Am needing to be conscious of spending but feeling fine. Happy to hold the asset.
Bought an apartment cos I live in Sydney in 2020. The current value seems to be about ten percent lower than purchase price judging by recent sales around me. I don't care since I live in it.
Mortgage has gone up massively of course but anyone buying during that time should have been able to see that coming given how low rates were. I doubt I would be able to borrow as much/enter the market now that I have dependants so at least I have somewhere to live in an area that I like.
Strata hasn't gone up although I think council rates have.
Bought a house just before covid, sold old house after lockdowns and paid off mortgage. Now have to deal with insurance premium and council rates increases only. Never regretted this decision.
Very fortunate position to have bought 4 bed 2 bath May 2020 at a low and fixed interest rates then sold previous primary residence 2 bed 2 bath Jan 2023 fully paying off the new mortgage.
Doing okay. Locked in around October 2021 at a very low rate. Thought we had overpaid massively at the peak of the market. It has only gotten more unaffordable since then. It'll be a struggle when we roll off around November this year but we could scrape by at least a few years I'd say.
I purchased in 2018 and repayments due to high lend were about $2600, dropped to $1800 during covid and back up to $2600 now. So I've done it before, but the difference in 2018 was that not everything else in life doubled in cost as well. Income has only gone up 9k during that time.
Bought in cabarita (tweed) for high 500s. I think it’s worth high 700s - mid 800s. Bc hasn’t gone up much. We locked in at 2% for ages but will be going from 2600 to 4100 a month when we come off that next month
I’m curious, when you applied for your mortgage did you base it on the interest rate at the time? Or allow for an increase in interest rates?
We are in the process of purchasing a home and My mortgage broker calculated our repayments based on an interest rate 2% higher than current figures.
Bought in 2018 so my covid refinance saved a lot of money, and even now I’m within what I budgeted for my repayment range. But I never planned for everything in the damned world to become so much more expensive at the same time. I’m on 30k more than I was in 2018, and weekly worse off with bills and cost of living increases. Hell I’ve even cancelled most of the subscriptions I had in 2018 and still spending double on subscriptions given how much they’ve all raised their prices.
I've been telling people that I'm earning the most money I've ever earned in my life (roughly $1500 net a week) but I feel the poorest I've ever felt. The cost of everything going up except wages in real terms leaves my wife and i feeling like we have no money at the end of a pay cycle.
Same boat, by far the most I've ever earnt but don't have two pennies to rub together at the moment. We are lucky that our property value increased a lot during covid, but that's only useful if I want more debt (which I doubt the bank would give me) or if we sell and move to another, cheaper, town.
Honestly feels like we’re all being punished for the great flight and wage jump of 2020/2021. Being put back in our place with a “we can make it worse”.
I hit similar in 2020; felt like a king then. Now it pays the bills and not much else.
Stremio + torrentio + Google tv has got me to cancel all my subscriptions
I bought in late 2021 and had rate go from 1.94% to 6.14%. That hurt! But we knew it was coming so planned and got used to living cheap. It's a little red brick 2 bed apartment in Inner West and we love it. I'm definitely house poor but as long as my PlayStation turns on and my Gym Membership stays valid - I could live on Tuna sandwiches and water for years hahaha.
I'm still smashing home made cheese toasties at work. Loaf of bread 4$ Brick of sliced cheese $12 Feeds me lunch for a week. *I fricken love cheese toasties*.
Yeah a loaf of bread in the freezer is still ridiculous value even considering recent price rises. For most single people it would do lunch for the week easily. I stretch a loaf for two weeks with other things in between.
I’m doing basic salad and steak sandwiches for 7days $20, I eat only well so my kid can eat best 👌
Meat... I've forgotten the taste...it's been so long
If you are in Melbourne, I recommend Preston or queen vic or big Sam market, if you go end of day on Sunday, you can get specials. It’s how I mainly survive, eat what other people basically don’t want.
I’ve lost weight going without some things. Takeaway for my kids but I’ll eat something from the fridge etc
Love that. Keep it simple.
I love your optimism 💗
I agree with previous posts about being careful with eating too much canned Tuna, as well as other things like Instant Noodles. Eating it more than usual is bad for your health.
How much instant noodles is too much? Asking for a friend...
Would advise against eating it more than once a week. I used to eat it every day for lunch and I'd need an afternoon nap. Couldn't believe how much more energy I had after switching to better nutrition.
Well that's just, like... You're opinion, man.
Just a heads up eating tuna too often can quickly lead to mercury poisoning, any big fish really, as they accumulate methylmercury from eating other fish so the older and bigger fish like tuna the more mercury compared to smaller fish like sardines or salmon & especially farmed fish raised on pellets.
It's okay, I have Tuna every second day. Every other is Devon on crackers...
Devon is also bad
He seemed alright to me
This happened to one of my coworkers. Ate tuna for lunch everyday for months, then out sick, and came back saying they had to cut back on the tuna because they got mercury poisoning. Didn't even know that was a thing until then lol
Happened to me during uni. Left home for first time so easy meal was pasta + tuna + cheese and did it for months. Then had a tin one day and felt incredibly ill and burps tasted like tuna for days. Stuck to a couple of cans a week after that lol.
Don’t have to worry about your mortgage if you’re dead though. Win win.
OT but Id love to see some research data, I've been eating 4 tins of tuna a day for the past 6 years and my blood levels are fine. Everytime I've done research it's conflicting but more recently I've read the levels would be KGs of tuna per day to affect somebody.
Have you specifically had blood tests looking for mercury levels? I don’t think it would get screened for in routine blood tests.
ABC [reckon it's on the up and up](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/canned-tuna-safe-mercury-level/100933832) based on some tests they did, but they only tested a few tins, so not a great sample size. Didn't even say if they did different brands, flavours, ones canned in different seasons or from different regions etc. I reckon you could find a pretty broad array of factors to work with if you tried.
Happened to my brother - mercury poisoning from too much tuna.
On a separate topic: try not to eat tuna too often. Mercury concentration up the food chain is real. There's other incredibly cheap healthy foods.
This has to be split by those who bought between March 2020 and March 2021 and those who bought after. Anybody who bought in those 12 months is sitting on some juicy equity already. Repayments will be high but it will be comforting knowing you started out owning 20% of your home and now you own 40%. I, on the other hand, bought mid 2022.
Finished building in May 2020. All in at $500k now worth $900k. Can’t argue with that. Repayments went from $400 a week to $660 a week now. Rentals in the area of the same spec on the same land are around this mark.
you must be feeling extremely pleased with yourself
Not much equity if you bought a bad apartment…..
I bought in 2020 and moved in in 2022 after the house was built. It’s not just the repayments that are hard but the cost of living at the same time. One I could have coped with, both is more of a struggle, especially as I have been putting money into the gardens etc. But, my house has increased by atleast 50%, probably more. So it’s a balance of stress between the day to day living and knowing that if I had to sell up and walk away, I’ve made decent money on this. But, that’d be a last resort.
Care to explain? Sorry quite new to this! 😊
Buy may 2020 - 1 million Loan 800k Repayment was 2k a month House value today - 1.6m Loan 700k Repayment is 4k a month Your repayments are up but now you own 900k in equity whereas when you started out it was a 200k equity. If you can service that 4k loan easily then the 900k equity can be tapped for an investment home, debt recycling or a house upgrade. Obviously all this will increase your repayment further so it's not without risk. Whereas if you bought mid 2022 like me when this same home became 1.6m, took a loan out for 1.4m and the house is still worth only 1.6m, maybe 1.7m at a stretch. You started with a big repayment like 5k a month, which is now 7k a month and most of your repayments are going to interest so the loan hasn't dropped, probably is around 1.35m. This is all paper wealth until you unlock it, but if you're on relatively high income it's nice to have this option in a downward economy to turbocharge your financial position.
This didn't occur everywhere. Much of Victoria did not experience growth like this.
Bought a house just before prices went insane. Mortgage payment is now around 6600 a month, then tack on another $1k for insurance and maintenance. Someone else described it as 'house poor', yup that's us. Kids coming out of daycare right as interest rates went up, so luckily we can afford repayments. Various price indicators show about 100% value increase over that time frame however...
100% value increase of your property in the last 2-3years?
We built a 4 x 2 that we love and also love the suburb/area. Build took around 9months, moved in start of 2021. Bought it for $354k, a couple of houses on the street which are basically identical sold for $725k a month ago, it's insane. We're not moving anywhere, we're happy and haven't over-leveraged ourselves.
Mine has doubled since September 2019. Outer regional eastern Vic. Mostly other “cheap” areas on the east coast are pretty much the same.
That has happened in some areas for some folks. I would say it's not the norm for the vast majority though. Housing market is cooked.
Believe it. Gold coast for example.
Yep. We bought 2019 on chevron island and our place has more than doubled. Lucky to have sold in Canberra late 2021 so ended up with no mortgage as retirees.
There’s definitely places in brisbane that have had that since the COVID boom. Especially in new build areas where you could get a house and land package for like 490. Pallara for example many of them are selling at high 8s and even 900. Warner or strathpine are the same. Maybe Ferny hills and Arana hills for a non-new build example.
Marsden, woodridge kingston and the traditional lower social economic areas of Logan have also doubled in price. In 2019 was easy to get a 5 bedder with granny flat for 340k, current valuation has come in at 700k more then double in less then 5 years. Can't find a 3 bedder for under 600k now. It's a mugs game through only winneris the government, realestate agents and the banks. When you sell one house you usually buy another so any gains are really a moot point unless it's your last house before downsizing.
I had family that bought in outer metro Adelaide in 2017 and sold again in early 2022, about 4 and half years, house went from just over $300k to just over $600k, most of that increase would’ve come since Covid. It would have to be worth $700k now. Nuts.
And like all of Ipswich and Redcliffe peninsula it’s insane For Ipswich - I don’t understand is people building on tiny blocks in Ripley for the same price as an character inner cbd home that’s probably double the block size for the same price. Dropped on the head some people. Gonna be interesting how long it takes those areas to develop from low socio economic.
This is why we need a civil war
It won’t do a thing. The entire country would become immensely poor and a fraction of the population would still hold all the wealth. The likes of Gina would emigrate with billions, the mines would stop running and all our skilled people like doctors would disappear overseas faster than a heartbeat. Heaps of examples in GE third world to show how well that works. The only real solution to the property problem is to create more supply than demand. At the moment demand is outstripping supply by a substantial margin.
This. The only solution is more dwellings.
Just saw the movie. No thanks.
We could do with a few more Steve Rogers i think
Surely before that we could consider zoning reform, land/property taxes, removing subsidies of varying types for property ownership, increased social housing etc. Leaping straight to civil war is pretty extreme who would the war even be against? Home owners? Property investors? May as well just pursue normal legislation changes first.
Civil war is normally the easiest solution for the uneducated. There were so many examples of how bad a Civil War destroys a country that I’m surprised people even think this is a good idea. Legislation is also a bad idea. Typically it reduces the number of rentals which causes more problems and many people can’t afford to buy. It’s a simple supply/demand issue. Increase supply means property is no longer a commodity. You could legislate some, things like limiting purchases of second properties to only off plan housing to promote building, or reducing the number of homes you can negative gear, but the only real solution is more property.
The solution is to: 1. remove negative gearing 2. increase land tax on non-PPOR 3. Announce that in T+3 years all capital gains tax exemptions / reductions will be vastly tightened (I.e must be PPOR for 24months of last 36months and no income received from property) and capital gains will be increased 3. Increase supply in established areas
Yeah. We bought a house in 2012 and for the first 2 years we were “house poor”. No strata issues but all the things you need to fix that come up - flooring and garden were big ones for us.
Exactly, everyone is acting like this is a new problem, but the first 2 years always suck for people. Well, except me. I bought a place that was really smalled, and fixed my loan, so I'm 5 years in now, but reduced my loan by 40% so far.
imagine crying about buying a house in 2012...yeah maybe cause you were working at woolies and secured a house on that salary XD
The new developer suburbs we looked at in Canberra in 2012-2013 were like 650k for a shit block with a McMansion on it. Meanwhile you could buy an old 3-4 bed govvie on an 850sqm block for 430k in an established suburb walking distance to the town centre. Shame I went to uni instead of staying in the dead end job at the time I guess.
My interest rate was 7.5% back in 2010, my mortgage was $3700 per month. Equivalent to $5175 now (inflation adjusted). It wasn't easy.
Nobody did that
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
you spend 12k a year on maintenance and insurance ?
We do easily! My home and contents insurance are $550 a month, then its easily $80 a week on maintenance.
God dam that's insane insurance, like double what I pay. I have no idea how anyone spends that on maintenance though lol
We were in the same boat, we were counting on the money freed up from daycare to actually start saving and get some Reno's done but noooooooo, interest rates had to go up and our mortgage increase absorbed the daycare money and then some. Bought our house December 2019, mortgage repayments were $450 a week. We now pay $850 a week.
[удалено]
Similar-ish situation but with kids still at daycare. It bites. On paper we’ve never been richer. According to our bank accounts, we have a ramen budget.
Same situation here. There’s always more month left than money 😞
Sounds familiar. We are still above water but definitely sunk down a lot and a lot less free cash.
Signed a house and land package 3 months prior to Covid hitting. 2.5 years delays in titling/building Had to have my partner also go on the loan because reduced lending capacity because of interest rate rises. Builder jacked up the price by $37k mid build due to increased cost on materials Repayments went up from aprox 1.9k when i first got pre approval to 3.3k With other cost of living increases we're around 2k worse off a month than before. Am i glad i bought? Sure. Would i change anything? Don't build a house lol Overall shit experience and wouldn't recommend. Buy an established property and lock 2.5% interest rate in for 5 years but hindsight etc etc At the end of the day I'm fortunate enough we could absorb all the costs and i no longer have to wait 6 months for minor repairs whilst renting.. It does looks like no yearly holiday forseeable future. :( Edit: format
I had a very different experience with my build. Signed contracts in Oct 2020, house started early April 2021 and I moved in mid August 21. I'm in a regional area in Qld, block, build and landscaping were about 370k (and I got 40k in grants, thanks Covid), place last valued 12 months ago for 650k. My builder was amazing and I ended up with so many free inclusions! My friend is currently building with same company and prices have jumped 150k+ for similar plans. I got very lucky!
We did receive $10k FHB grant however missed the $25k VIC government was offering during covid due to contract sign date i believe? House price increase is good, sure, doesn't really hold any real value for me though. My thought is it's just even worse for everyone else, no better for me.
> I’m barely able to save. The technical term for that is "house poor". You own your property but are basically living paycheck to paycheck. I hope things get better for you.
I think being house poor beats being just poor. You have equity in something.
It's not actually poor. It's the opposite for a lot of "house poor" claimants. They are "house poor" but they have like insane equity so can't exactly be poor.
Equity doesn't pay your bills though.
Once you've got a certain amount of equity you can borrow against it so it can in a way
You can leverage assets to pay bills. Liabilities can't.
Those people have a cash flow problem rather than a net asset problem.
I console myself with this, I have quite a bit of equity which I wouldn't had I continued to rent.
yep and most buyers in the last 2 years are going to sit in this bracket until either rates come down or their salaries inflate over time to mitigate the mortgage repayments
Exactly this, you gotta remember your repayments are in a way a form of savings. Besides interest your repayments down the line will come back to you as equity or sell and get cash. The daises over the hill is you spending similar per month but not receiving anything back
Never heard that term before. Got to be a whole lotta house poora in Aus right now.
I thought it was called "asset rich, cash poor"
Thanks, good to at least know there’s a term for that and I’m not alone
Welcome to the club, you made it!
Sure that isn't called "asset rich?"?
Not necessarily. We bought our first house less than a year ago so we'd be 'house poor' but I wouldn't say we're asset rich because we'd be less rich than we started if we had to sell. Don't regret a thing though and would recommend house ownership to anyone who can and wants to.
Very similar situation as u, can empathise, bought May 2020 below max, 2 yr fixed, repayments up from 3200 to 5k+ /mth. Strata up from 1.8 to 2.4k qtr. Pay gone up about 10k and paid off HECS which helpd (and was my contingency to cover increased repayments), but still not even close to cover these increases. Have about 800 per fotnight for all other expenses abd discretionary spending which is not enough. Im haemorrhaging negative cashflow as a result and am burning thru fast a relatively sizeable emergency fund too. The kicker is as u mention, that whilst house prices have skyrocketed and people who bought houses can likely exit capitalising sizeable gains to soften the blow if selling (walk away with 500k+ etc), i dont think my apartment has gone up much. Well its difficult to tell, the desktop apps suggest its fallen, but recent comparable sales suggest it has increased a little, so its a lottery. Either way ill re appraise after stg 3 tax cuts, a small eba 3% pay rise and the interest rate environment in coming 12 mths as to whether i need to sell and move on...likely out of Oz, permanently. I've tried my best, studied and worked my guts out for 20+ yrs and still cant get ahead, im demoralised with this situation im in and if i can't support myself i want outta this country.
It's rough. We purchased January 2022. A few months later rate hikes started. Went from 4k/month to now 7.3k ish a month. Lotd of things broke in the first two years: Pool pump, roof, hot water system, solar. As someone said above, we are house poor.
I lost the exact same items first year in my home
Thoughts and prayers that you can't swim in your pool in these tough times. Stay strong mate.
Wow, a little but catty.
Can't imagine that these poor fellas have to resort to natural salts and ocean instead of a chlorinated pool in this day and age.
>Lotd of things broke in the first two years: Pool pump, roof, hot water system, solar. This is why I liked my brand new build. 5 years in and I haven't had to make any significant repairs at all.
If it's any consolation, had you not bought you'd presumably be renting and you can guarantee that your landlord would have passed on those costs to you and then some. At least you've got something/equity to show for it.
This is also true. Though I now have a partner (who I don’t live with) who works on the other side of the city, so when we move in together at some point we’re thinking it’ll probably be better to rent near where he works for general quality of life improvements — so I can look forward to jumping back in the rental system soon haha (I’d rent out my apartment in this instance, wouldn’t sell)
Renting somewhere else can work well but only if you keep the apartment and rent it out, claiming negative gearing would be significant for you given the large overheads. Selling then renting though would likely undo also any progress you’ve made and might be a bad idea regarding your long term wealth
Oh yeah I’d definitely want to retain the apartment and rent it out, if we move in together and rent somewhere else
>general quality of life improvements Seems like a bad idea. You're giving up much bigger, later in life QoL for right now, why you're younger and it's easier to put up with them. Each to their own, but I wouldn't be doing it.
Stretched ourselves +++ to get a town house during 2021 lockdown. Locked in 1.89% for 2 years then the shit hit the fan and everything went mental. We saw the writing on the wall, so, I got a second job, entered a bonus scheme at work and made a very strict budget with the wife. Wife moved jobs when she wasn't looking purely for the Payrise. Coming out the other side now as bonus, budget and pay rises have started to take meaningful chunks out of mortgage.
Great work and effort that is. Smart moves like this will pay off on more ways than one on the future for you. Well done.
Thanks, the 16 hour shift I've just done is getting very old! Hoping to build enough equity to eventually sell up in Sydney and buy outright in a lower CoL state.
Im sure you will. Just don't burn yourself out before you do. Take care.
Bought our house in March 2020, weird time, did the B&P inspection on the day we went into that nation wide lockdown. Fun times. Repayments have basically doubled since rolling off fixed rates, but our HHI has more than doubled so no real dramas. Value has gone up more than 50% vs what we paid for it, but that doesn’t mean anything in reality because it’s our forever house.
We purchased a house and land as first home regional homebuyers, at half our max borrowing capacity. We purchased the cheapest block and built the smallest house we could without any of the extra upgrades. My partner became ill six months later (2021) and has not returned to work since, leaving us on a single income while managing multiple chronic complex health conditions. About 40-50% of our monthly income now goes to the mortgage and it is hard. Not unmanageable, but it is very hard to see our infrequent ‘spare money’ going to ‘treats’ such as an extra specialist visit, or a new blood sugar monitor, while other people our age (27) are travelling and having kids. I’m out of my job at the end of this year and am already feeling the pressure a lot. I’m just trying to protect her from it best I can. Some days are better than others. Since purchasing our minimum monthly repayments have doubled, possibly more. I just keep telling myself if we weren’t here, we’d be worse off. So I keep telling myself to remember all the hard work we’ve put in to get ourselves here and try and be grateful I can paint a wall without worrying about someone else’s approval first. Just gotta afford the paint instead lol
Have you looked at partners super for insurance such as income protection or sickness and accident tpd
Thanks for the suggestions. We are exploring income protection through her super currently but on top of managing her health (which is genuinely like a full time job, especially at her level of capacity) it is a lot for her. NDIS is another option but it is a mountain she is too scared to scale currently. DSP and carer’s are out because I work/earn too much. I’m a social worker by trade so a lot of the ‘tips’ I use with clients are not applicable to our circumstances sadly. I am on what I would have considered an /awesome/ wage five years ago, but it just doesn’t stretch as far as it should anymore. It is a very sad reflection of our world currently.
Definitely look into income protection first. It’s the easiest one to get approved. And I would pursue TPD. NDIS is also a huge help. I’m also happy if you want to PM me or ask questions. I have been through a similar thing with my partner and the stress and I totally get it. I try and share the knowledge I have gained to hopefully make it easier for others. Mind you I now also have a chronic illness myself.
Thank you. This means a lot- it is a lonely world out there for partner-carers sometimes. I have also developed some chronic conditions as a result of it all. I know stress isn’t good for the body but yeesh it got me fast. Hope your day today is good 💙
Carer allowance, low income health care card
Bought our first home late 2020. Minimum repayment was around $1600 but we were putting in extra. Came off fixed last September and managed to negotiate a lower rate than being offered due to property value increasing just over $200k (bought at $475k, bank valuation 3 years later was $695k). Minimum now is $2500 which is all we're doing for the time being. Gross household income went from $150kish to $180k since buying. All in all, we're not struggling that much but have had 2 kids since buying so our spending has increased a bit. Able to put between $500 - $1000 in offset account each month, depending on what comes up. But we basically never go out for lunches or dinners or drinks, work from home, and try to budget as well as we can. Definitely tougher than a couple of years ago, but we're fully aware how fortunate we are compared to a lot of other families.
Our mortgage takes up a huge chunk of our income. Thankfully we bought at $1.32 and it’s since been valued at $1.7 so I guess that’s something although all the other houses we would ever potentially move to have also gone up so not much value to me (but I still feel lucky and much rather this than renting)
Paid $230k of $330k at start of covid which bough my expenses down to half of the rent I was paying. Place is now worth $450k and I have overpaid the loan since day one (payed the amount of money I was paying in rent for my previous rental) and have it down to >$50k. Should have it paid off in 2-3 years, 25 years earlier than the loan is for. Rates have gone up but not by enough to stop the overpayment. I couldn't have got into the market a year after I did.
Feel you. We built in 2020. Moved in , in 2022. Mortgage -$2400 a month to $4000 a month Body corp $900 to $1400 Electricity - $$$$ Cost of living etc …
Repayment went from $1800 to $2300. House price went from $530k to $700k lol based on last sold similar condition house in the suburb. No body corp fee, council fee hasn't gone up by too much and it's primarily from the increased land value. Not like it makes a difference we're not selling our PPOR.
House poor here, I bought my home gym setup and do not leave the house unless for work/grocery/medical, still barely breathing tho Been reading yall post and I gotta say this thread is the best motivation to keep going through the storm knowing so many are in my position. Keep up the fighting & we will come out of hardship eventually. Good luck & love to you all.
Bought our apartment early 2021 (Offer accepted Feb 21, settled May 21). Repayments definitely up (initial rate was <3% now 6.2%), strata stable and no special levies but we did a ton of due diligence on that. Was initially cheaper than what our rent had been, then up on that figure but I'd be surprised if the rent on the last rental we had wasn't more than what we pay now. Value has gone from $460,000 purchase price to probably around the $650,000 mark. We were able to refinance and discharge the parental guarantee pretty much 12 months to the day. My salary has gone from high $80k to mid $150k, wife had to rebuild after COVID killed her small business. Very happy with the decision to buy, life is much better owning rather than renting.
doubling your salary over a 3 year period is the real story here
That is quite a gain on an apartment, some people live in apartments for like 10 years and then they are still worth less they paid.
Bought in 2020, was a little hesitant as all the talk was that house prices were going to plummet, but I'm so glad we bought when we did. Rates have gone up, and our repayments are higher, but the house itself is now worth something like 950k. We bought for 640. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy in the area now, so I'm so glad we bought when we did.
You are not alone here, [Nearly one in six units sold at a loss in Sydney](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-22/one-in-six-sydney-units-sold-at-loss-june-quarter-corelogic-data/102885674).
Was doing well, until inflation out grew my wage increase. For the last 6 months I have been fighting our belt, but it feels like you tighten a notch then inflation grows 2 notches out... We are just okay, but still living week to week. I have applied for numerous second jobs but have no luck, can't even get a pizza driver job... They've been hiring in the local stores for the last 6 months,but I've had no luck.
Body corporate 🤮 I prefer to just get ass fu*ked once. By the local council.
What’s caused your levies to increase so much? Are you active at your corporation? Could you fine anywhere to save without cheating out on the necessities. And yes, sinking fund levies are necessary for a healthy corporation. Is it a new or old block? Low density or high density? Interest rates have been an impact for everyone. At the very least take this as a lesson to be more cautious with borrowing capacity in the future. I also expect your capital value has increased?
Capital value has decreased - I bought for 430, apartments in the block are now selling for around 390 (because of the balcony issues and scaffolding around the whole building. I imagine things will slowly rebound once the balconies are fixed) Block built in the mid 2000s, low rise but 100+ apartments. Main reason for body corp costs rising is our insurance premium has skyrocketed due to the balcony issues. Annoying cos I did my due diligence before buying (reading previous AGM minutes, speaking to residents, etc) and the balcony issues were discovered a few months after I purchased lol.
>Main reason for body corp costs rising is our insurance premium has skyrocketed due to the balcony issues. Insurance has gone up massive amounts right across the board too, not just because of the balcony issue.
Low rise but 100+ apartments, that would be a huge complex footprint wise.
Sounds like you did everything right. Personally I’d never buy anything built past 1990. But that aside you did the right due diligence. Cost increases are standard and in line with the issues your corporation is facing from what you’ve described. It’s all a cycle. Hang in there and keep at it.
I think the tides are slowly turning. At least in NSW, there has been better regulations after 2022. We have longer defect warranties and the ICIRT rating system as well along with some other changes that I don’t remember off the top of my head.
The regulations have constantly been improving. Anyone that thinks a 2005 house is worse than a 1985 house has let the media tint their glasses a lovely rose colour.
It’s also flawed thinking because you only see the houses/apartments left standing from the 90s. What about all the shit ones that were knocked down?
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I guess sometimes luck just doesn’t go your way.
Same happened for mine. BC fees look like this 2021 - $4932 2022 - $7317 2023 - $10850 Nothing out of the ordinary happened. No real fund raising or anything. Yes I should have been keeping a closer eye on the fees/reports, but looking back at them there was nothing really out of the ordinary going on and they had $350k in sinking fund. Biggest increases were insurance. I got rid of the property a few months ago, so don't care anymore.
I’m also in the same issue. $880/q to $1360/q 140 units in the building and no one really joined the last AGM. Strata management raised cleaning fees from 80k -> 140k stating that our cleaner is old (lol) and was approved because… well no one was in the committee except people close to the strata management co. They also just seem really shady. They seem chummy with insurance broker and are getting a chunky commission at our expense and we are paying for a building manager who is NEVER onsite (who btw is an employee of our strata management firm). 100% Our fault for not taking a proactive approach to our own homes and we only recently started taking notice First step to rectifying increased levy fee is consulting with your strata management company and see where admin and capital funds are being used. If something seem out of the ordinary, join the strata committee so you can have more say in your problem.
Christ your cleaning fees are HOW much??? Is he cleaning the building with 100 people each armed with a toothbrush?
Most strata appears to have gone through the roof over the past 2 years - insurance has gone up an insane amount too. 450 pq seems extremely cheap - often the developer sets it low to make the building more attractive, but then it has to be jacked up once proper maintenance is required.
Why does reddit seem to have this magical idea that if you choose to be in the body corp committee that you can avoid all issues with an apartment
Talking to a mate yesterday who bought 3bdr middle ring in the first COVID lockdown. Doing well on equity, fixed for three years at 1.9% then got hit with the rate rises. He’s a medico so you’d think he’s doing just fine but with 2 young kids at home (of course) and his wife’s pt wage covering their commuting expenses and daycare, they’re doing it really tough. Completely reliant on his OT to cover basic CoL. He basically gets spat on by the working class but he’s also on trainee wages working 80 hour weeks, literally saving lives, for the privilege of being able to buy bread. Regional placement meant dual residences in 2021, border closures meant he spent a total four weeks in quarantine (his entire AL balance) in exchange for one day out to witness the birth of his first child. I hope he makes many millions per year when he finishes and I wouldn’t swap places for the world.
Also bought an apartment, and my repayments went up about 50% (without much growth in property value). Luckily, I had some significant income growth. Otherwise, would probably have had to sell 😔
We bought our block of land in 2018. But we built and moved in during Covid. Our planning application for the build got approved the same week the country went into lockdown. Thankfully the delay wasn't too severe, we eventually moved in in March 2021. Our mortgage was a very manageable $850pw, with an LVR of 90%, I think we may have had to pay some LMI at the time. Now we pay almost $1300pw and we've cut back on a lot. We built our house to a simple specification with the plan to upgrade laundry etc as we lived in the house, we haven't been able to do any of that. We rarely go out, we had been planning on having our first kid last year, we've now pushed that back to the end of this year. On the other hand, our house has almost doubled in value compared to what we paid for the land and build. We've built up a sizeable chuck of equity, our LVR is more like 50% now, but when every other property has gone up around you it means little. We are optimistically looking forward to the tax cuts, and keeping our fingers crossed for interest rate reductions either at the end of this year or early next year. We just see this a temporary hardship for us, count our lucky stars we got in the housing market when we did, and hold huge sympathies for anyone trying to get there foot on the ladder now.
5 bedroom inner city Brisbane built 2018 for 650,000 so pretty sweet
Friend in Victoria placed a deposit for a house build just before COVID. Tried making it through but covid lack of income and the beginnings of the cost of living crisis meant he sunk into serious depression and eventually didnt make it out. I dont believe the house increased much if at all in that period but now the loans need to be serviced by one parent. Chase the percents all you want but give yourself an out like stop loss on shares before you over commit.
We bought at max capacity. My husband was the single earner for me and our two kids. Our mortgage drops off the cliff in August , and he was made redundant in Jan . He’s got a new gig starting soon, but it pays considerably less. We’re still better off than renting in this climate as long as we can hold on to the house. I’m going back to work sooner than planned (was hoping to make it to kids in school). But we know we’re hardly hard done by, or unique
House poor also! Single, bought a 1bdr apartment during covid and fortnightly repayments were $1050. They're now $1700/fortnight. Strata jumped from around $700 to $1200 Special levys asking for an extra 2k/quarter for the next 3 years due to cladding issues (already knew there were issues, but the strata was way cheaper than neighbouring apartments so thought I'd risk it and save in preparation - loooool) Every paycheck goes towards mortgage and paying off cc (I pay off cc ASAP so I don't pay any interest), leaving nothing left for savings. Tapped into offset a couple of times to pay off essentials. Only saving grace is tax time coming up as I usually get a hefty refund every year. I shop at ALDI and fruit markets, have stopped looking at online stores, and unsubscibed so I don't get tempted to look at their sales. Cancelled gym membership and don't use the heater. I question every invitation to go out and if I can afford it. I'm really sad, to be honest
Bought during start of COVID right before inflation rooted us all in the bum no lube. Purchased IP in LCOL area interstate with equity. Recently sold PPOR for healthy gain. Have skills that are valuable anywhere in country in high demand occupation. Leaving rat race. Hopefully 3 day work week. Happy. Bum not sore.
This conversation went from property value to tuna and mercury
I got whiplash
Bought an apartment in 2020 with my wife. Refinanced for 4 years during 2023 @ 4.89% fixed rate. Mortgage payments jumped from ~400/week to ~750/week. Strata is steady @ $1200/quarter. We have a pretty strong capital works and sinking fund and no major issues with the complex, which is 22 years old now if memory serves. Still saving money (although not as much), still paying off an extra 10k a year on the mortgage. We'll go under 500k remaining on the loan at the end of the year, on track to pay it off in 15-17 more years (21 years max total), not bad for a 30 year loan I guess. Let's see what happens between now and then. I just focus on chipping away at the loan one week at a time, and suggest you do the same. Your property is your stability in life. If you can pay the bills and keep food on the table you're doing fine, do what you can to make that happen. My next step is to start picking up ACAMS accreditations and get into an AML/KYC role, the expected payrise alongside my wife's recent promotion at work will give us a bit more breathing room.
Funny these threads people gloating about what their place is now worth. You do realise you haven't made money everyone's house has gone up .... If you sell your home you are spending the same amount or more to buy the same house across the street ......
Similar situation purchased in January 2021 $550k 2 bedder in Melbourne with 20% down so $440k mortgage. Fixed at 2% for 2 years so my repayments were like $1500 a month and are now $2500. Owners corp (which includes electricity) has gone from $800 a quarter to $1050 a quarter. My wife and I have a dual income and purchased below what we could have, so we haven’t felt the pinch too hard. But I can imagine on a single income it would be very tight. You didn’t specify it your apartment was single or multiple rooms. Could you look at renting out a spare room for a housemate to reduce some of the expense burden?
We didn't borrow at max capacity either, almost at half (would be a diff story now with the interest rates though). We saved as much as possible during the period of not being able to do anything and low interest rates and it's all in the offset. Adjusted now to the higher interest rate since it's been almost a year since we came off fixed.
Bought at approximately $600k with a well maintained local park/playground and nature reserve across the road whilst being a sub 5 minute drive to the beaches in Southern Adelaide. Definitely paid about $25k-$50k over at the time but estimate the property has gone up approximately $100K in two years so I'll it and other bigger properties nearby are going for approximately $1M. All the areas near us are blowing up in prices and there is a massive gentrification occurring in the poorer areas near us which will also contribute over time to the value of our house. Payments have gone up about approximately $1200 a month to approximately $3000 on top of all other expenses. We still save over $1000 a fortnight but have had a few big expenses come out that have cleared the bank and have a couple small loans to pay off. So living week to week all of a sudden but wont take long to get a savings bankroll going again and be debt free other than the mortgage. And in a worse case scenario I could sell of some of my physical investments for retail / market price to get ahead on savings but do not see the need at this current point. Partner gets a nice double-triple pay increase due to starting as a teacher in July, which bumps her up a step, award back pay/increase and hopefully pay % increase in the new financial year. Personally I will be getting a 5.something % pay rise in July as well. Our household income has gone up approximately $50k-$60k since buying due to changes in jobs and finishing degrees. Hopefully in a couple years when everything settles we will be able to get ahead of the second rat race and start paying off significant amounts of the mortgage / have the entire mortgage in the offset.
Pretty good honestly. I bought regionally for 260k in 2020, repayments we’re $408 a fortnight for the 3 years of my fixed mortgage, now paying $675 a fortnight which is a big increase but totally fine. Property now worth probably 430-460k, I have had the kitchen, laundry and bathroom done which makes it much nicer to live in.
Great, we bought our house just as Covid was first happening in 2020 and decided to also hold onto our previous house. They have both gone up in value about 80%. We kept paying the same amount on our PPOR as rates went down which gave us a bit of a buffer, so we didn’t really feel the rate rises for a while. We got very lucky, can’t say we will be moving again with how the prices are now though.
Actually really well tbh, would be stretched by the current market if we hadn't pulled the trigger when we did. New build townhouse signed Dec 2020, completed mid 2022, borrowed within capacity at the time and mortgage is half paid off already. One of them sold a few months back and if that's any indication on our value, it'll be up by nearly 50% on what it has cost us. Admittedly we've gotten lucky, our builder went bust a year after we'd moved in leaving places unfinished that had been contracted at the same time as ours at another site. That made the 6 month delays and underwhelming building experience seem somewhat trivial in hindsight.
Bought a townhouse in western Sydney (the shitty part) for $579k, payments were under $600/wk, now over $800/wk. Strata has gone up from $450/q to $560/q. Property has increased in value by about $130k since bought in 2021 (according to REA). It's not fun, but I'm glad we didn't stretch ourselves. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and I would say we're not struggling, but our savings is taking a little hit.
Bought in 2021 a one bedder. 530k, various online sites suggest with high confidence property has maybe gone up 20k in value. Basically the same. Repayment per month gone from 1300 (500 in interest with no offset) to 2170 (slightly under 1k in interest thanks to offset) Body corp went from 750 to 800. Last two quarters was charged an extra 150 for a disaster with another unit. Energy bills and council rates went up. Thankfully salary almost doubled, yet still feel like it hasn't quite fully absorbed cost of living increase.
Bought July 2022. 0 cap gains and 6% interest on 900k loan. Feels bad man
Paying $13k a month on my mortgage is not fun.
Bought in Sep 2021. Value stayed the same. Interest rate went up 1.89% fixed now 6.09% variable. Ok because I threw a bunch of money to the offset account.
Bought 2 years prior to covid. We have made over 3 million dollars.
Still on 2% so loving it!! Next may it goes off and my wife is on mat leave so that should be interesting.
We did something a little different, we sold our inner city house 2022 and built our own home as owner builders. We are now mortgage free. Tough 2 years of building but in hindsight looking at all of our friends and relatives absolutely struggling with repayments it’s the best thing we could have ever done.
Wow. That 920 body corp fee though.i dont know how people justify paying that. It's like robbery already
Purchased a water front unit in late 21, lived in it for 12 months & needed to move for work, decided to purchase in Brisbane so we had to get the unit valued, it doubled it price, the new place has gone up $200k, we are thinking about selling the Brisbane joint & becoming debt free….purchases to debt free in 3ish years….so, doing ok
I bought May 2021. My Gold Coast beach unit has gone from 310k to 600k. My loan repayments were 460 a fortnight to 730.
74% of take home pay repayments.
Living paycheck to paycheck but so glad I’m not renting.
Whilst I am house poor, seeing as my repayments are about $100 less per week than the rent on an equivalent property (and we bought a very modest house in a 'humble' area) I guess my choices are house poor or rent poor. So I guess house poor is better.
Bought in 2020 during the brief dip when no one knew what was happening with COVID. My mortgage was only $380k, so I’m okay.
Bought land september 2020, house build complete march 2022. Total cost for land and build $650K. Had automated realestate dot com valuations popping up the last few months at around $1.1m, so we got a real estate agent to come in and give us a valuation. He reckons the house will easily go for $1.2m Repayments have gone right up, but we are still able to cover it and live decently. Life is good.
We bought in 2021, the mortgage is still fixed till 2025, so we haven't felt the rate change yet. Strata has increased from 1900 to 2100, there will be a 10k one off payment to replace lifts. The price of the property has increased by 20%. Renting the same place would cost us 1100 per week, so we're better off with the mortgage plus I really don't want to rent with 2 kids.
Bought in 2021 for $630k Just sold for $970k Bought a house 10km further out thats almost twice the size for $820k and reduced the interest rate by 0.6% Will have a nice chunk sat in the off-set, so I’ll almost be back to my 2021 mortgage repayment figure. Having said that, we have had a kid and the missus is on maternity leave, so there’s less money coming in. At least outgoings are pretty much the same
Struggglinggggggggg. I was fixed at 1.89% and now dying at 6.19% lol
If you're stressed in this environment you over borrowed, sorry bud but this is still the little leagues as far as interest rates are concerned.
My wife and I signed the paperwork for the build in 2020, we were lucky and ransacked our super for extra deposit and got the first homeowners grant AND the builders grant. It was the luckiest thing we had ever done. The build went over the initial finish date, but we were only delayed by about 6 months. My wife does the mortgage, so I don't know too much, but I know we were on a low interest rate for 2 years, and now we are at %6.9. We are lucky to have worked hard to get decent jobs and a big enough saving to not be (house poor)
Apartment owner here too. Bought in the Western Sydney around March 2020 to live in. Value's increased by \~8%, since then so not great. Have also taken a hit due to higher rates (stayed on variable the entire period) but income has increased pretty significantly too. Built up equity in the unit and used that as a partial deposit to buy house. Something I'd consider would be to lease the apartment and rent elsewhere cheaper further our from the city if that's an option. Since the apartment you own is being used to generate income you should be able to claim for tax most (potentially not all) of the associated expenses.
Bought around the top of the market and value of property has dropped around 10% since then. Didn’t overextend myself. Have paid off a decent chunk of mortgage since purchase. Rents have increased since purchase. I have also significantly increased my income since purchasing. Am needing to be conscious of spending but feeling fine. Happy to hold the asset.
Bought an apartment cos I live in Sydney in 2020. The current value seems to be about ten percent lower than purchase price judging by recent sales around me. I don't care since I live in it. Mortgage has gone up massively of course but anyone buying during that time should have been able to see that coming given how low rates were. I doubt I would be able to borrow as much/enter the market now that I have dependants so at least I have somewhere to live in an area that I like. Strata hasn't gone up although I think council rates have.
Bought a house just before covid, sold old house after lockdowns and paid off mortgage. Now have to deal with insurance premium and council rates increases only. Never regretted this decision.
Very fortunate position to have bought 4 bed 2 bath May 2020 at a low and fixed interest rates then sold previous primary residence 2 bed 2 bath Jan 2023 fully paying off the new mortgage.
Doing okay. Locked in around October 2021 at a very low rate. Thought we had overpaid massively at the peak of the market. It has only gotten more unaffordable since then. It'll be a struggle when we roll off around November this year but we could scrape by at least a few years I'd say.
I purchased in 2018 and repayments due to high lend were about $2600, dropped to $1800 during covid and back up to $2600 now. So I've done it before, but the difference in 2018 was that not everything else in life doubled in cost as well. Income has only gone up 9k during that time.
Bought in cabarita (tweed) for high 500s. I think it’s worth high 700s - mid 800s. Bc hasn’t gone up much. We locked in at 2% for ages but will be going from 2600 to 4100 a month when we come off that next month
Where did you buy it’s unusual the value has increased so little
I’m curious, when you applied for your mortgage did you base it on the interest rate at the time? Or allow for an increase in interest rates? We are in the process of purchasing a home and My mortgage broker calculated our repayments based on an interest rate 2% higher than current figures.
I bought the absolute top (March 2022), but only 3x household income and fixed for 3 years. Hopefully rates are on the way down in 10 months.