Debt to secure debt: Younger home buyers often lean on debt to get the home deposit needed to secure a mortgage.
Younger Australians are increasingly climbing the property ladder on the blood, sweat and tears of others because they can’t do it themselves.
Exclusive mortgage research has uncovered the sources of home buyers’ deposits and the other upfront costs of home purchasing, exposing a brutal truth: a lot of the time it’s not their money.
Close to a quarter of Gen Z and Millennial home buyers polled in the survey said they funded their home deposits with borrowed money.
And a similar proportion said they got help in the form of a cash gift from their parents, while government handouts were becoming another popular method for buying, especially among Gen Z.
The Mortgage Choice survey also revealed home buyers below the age of 43 – making them either a millennial or part of Gen Z – were increasingly relying on sources outside of savings to crack the market.
Units often offer a more affordable entry point into the market but Gen Z buyers often still struggle to come up with the deposits needed.
It comes as separate analysis showed the deposit hurdle has become the biggest barrier to homeownership for many aspiring home buyers due to cost of living pressures and runaway home price growth.
Simply put: many younger home seekers have been watching home prices grow at a faster rate than they can save and have struggled to come up with a deposit large enough to support their purchase plans.
Mortgage Choice CEO Anthony Waldron said cash gifts from family were becoming a particularly common way for younger Australian to buy a home.
“As property prices have reached new record highs, getting into the market has become harder, so we asked survey respondents how they were doing it,” Mr Waldron explained.
“We found that more than a fifth of Gen Z respondents were funding their home loan deposit with a cash gift from family making the bank of mum and dad one of the largest lenders in the country.”
Bidders will often bring their parents to auction to help them. Picture: Josie Hayden
“Our survey supports what we hear from Mortgage Choice brokers, particularly those in Sydney where median home prices have climbed to over $1.1 million.
“Our brokers tell us that many first home buyers can’t afford to buy in Sydney without a cash gift, and those gifts range in value from $10,000 to as much as $500,000.”
The Mortgage Choice research followed a recent Finder.com.au poll, which showed a significant proportion of Aussies were not supporting their lifestyles with their own earnings but with debt.
Finder noted that many Aussies were overextending themselves to keep up appearances and the higher cost of their holidays, cars and clothes were limiting their ability to save or plunging them into debt.
Credit reporting agency Equifax had a similar finding, showing more than half of Aussies 18-24 were using Buy Now Pay Later services, which was dragging on their credit scores.
MORE FIRST HOME BUYERS LOOKING
Mortgage Choice home loan submission data revealed an uplift in first-home buyer activity over the March quarter, with the number of loans rising 5.6 per cent.
The value of loans rose 12.3 per cent year-on-year.
Home prices have risen nationally over the past year.
Mortgage chalked the rise down the recent drop in home loan interest rates – and the prospect of more cuts – driving renewed optimism in the housing market.
About a third of survey respondents said interest rates had made them more confident to buy – up from 23 per cent in the previous quarter and up 20 per cent year-on-year.
By comparison, a year ago, 63 per cent of survey respondents said interest rates were adversely impacting their confidence.
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