Georgia Antonello is looking to buy her first home in melbourne’s north east. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.
Georgia Antonello is determined to buy her first home as a single person.
At first she worried banks would not look favourably upon her as a borrower with just one income instead of two.
“Even just the cost of living individually is a lot, so in my mind it was like, ‘it’s not possible’,” Ms Antonello said.
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However, with guidance from Zaralend director and mortgage broker Stephanie Jordan, Ms Antonello started her property search in January.
She’s hoping to purchase in Melbourne’s north east not too far from her parents.
Ms Antonello said each time she inspected a residence she looked for different factors, such as lifts and car stackers, where repair costs could contribute to higher body corporate fees.
Although she hopes to buy a unit, her mindset about potentially purchasing an apartment has changed across the past 12-18 months.
Melbourne’s CBD is one of the 36 suburbs in Victoria’s capital where singles earning $100,000 or less, who have a 5 per cent deposit, will be able to buy a median-priced unit if there’s another rate rise. Picture: Tony Gough.
This would mean she could live in her preferred area rather than further away from her family and friends.
“It was really hard to go from, ‘I couldn’t live somewhere without outdoor space to, actually, I could live in an apartment with a balcony’,” Ms Antonello said.
She’s moved back in with her parents while saving up, also to help them after they became ill, and puts away a portion of her weekly earnings for her future home purchase.
While she’s not too worried about a future interest rate rise, she said another three or more such increases this year would cause her to reassess.
Georgia Antonello is hoping to buy a two-bedroom unit as her first home, but is also aware she might need to opt for an apartment to remain within her preferred area of Melbourne. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.
Data analysed by financial comparison website Canstar shows that following February’s rate hike, 160 Victorian suburbs and towns remained within reach of a single person earning $100,000 or less in a year, assuming they had a 20 per cent deposit and no dependants.
However, this would shrink to just 145 areas across Victoria if there was another rate increase in 2026.
For single people in the same boat but who only have a 5 per cent deposit saved, 78 Victorian suburbs and towns were still within reach following February’s rate increase.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data puts Victoria’s median yearly wage at $71,760 as of August 2025.
Melton, with a $520,000 median house price according to PropTrack, was the only Melbourne area on the list dominated by regional and rural localities.
Canstar’s modelling shows that if the RBA implemented another rate rise, just 69 suburbs and towns in Victoria – none of them in the state’s capital – would be attainable for sub-$100,000 wage earners with a 5 per cent deposit
Similarly, buyers in this category were only able to purchase a typically-priced unit in 95 Victorian suburbs and towns following February’s rate rise.
This would shrink to 87 areas if there’s another rate rise, with 36 Melbourne suburbs on the list for units including Carlton, Travancore, Melton South, Kingsbury, Melton, Notting Hill, Cairnlea, Albion, Essendon North and Melbourne’s CBD.
Inner-city Carlton was the most affordable suburb with a $275,500 median price for units and apartments.
Zaralend director and mortgage broker Stephanie Jordan says single-income buyers can still get into the market and should not let a rate rise stop them.
In October 2025, the Australian government expanded its Home Guarantee Scheme, specifically the First Home Guarantee, to allow all first-home buyers to buy a residence with a 5 per cent deposit as long as their new home came in under a certain price.
For Melbourne and Geelong, the price cap was set at $950,000, and other parts of Victoria have a $650,000 cap.
Ms Jordan said it was unlikely that a single rate rise would stop buyers getting into the market, although it would slightly affect borrowing capacity.
“What lenders do is build in a buffer between 1 to 3 per cent of the interest rate,” she said.
“So if your interest rate is 5.6, they’re assessing it at 8.6 per cent, so that buffer’s already built into serviceability calculations, so I don’t believe it would affect people being pre-approved.”
Many first-home buyers are choosing to purchase a house in Melbourne’s outer suburbs where houses are generally more affordable than inner- and middle- ring suburbs.
She added that it was important for buyers to start their property journey when they were in a financial position to do so, rather than basing their decisions on rate rises.
Although, some first-home buyers need to adjust their expectations of what they can afford, she noted.
“You’ve got to start somewhere and it’s often that your first time as a stepping stone,” Ms Jordan said.
“So you can have a house further out, or you can have a smaller unit closer to the city, you just have to decide what’s more important to you.”
Sometimes, a buyer might purchase an older home with plans to save up for a renovation in the future, Ms Jordan added.
“Buyers don’t need to lose hope, they absolutely can get into the market,” she said.
“Don’t let a rate rise dissuade you from trying to get in, different lenders have different borrowing capacities depending on your type of income.”
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