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[SaintsSeptember]

Unless you are a high earner, inherited something, I really can't see how people in their 20s on standard incomes can break into the Melbourne property market.

I am planning to get married soon and hoping to land a job in regional Vic following that, can buy a lot lot more for the money there.

There is SO MUCH regional Australia. We have to be stupid the way we cling to our cities. I don't know any other Countries, except maybe middle eastern countries that are so ridiculously centralized.

The property market will go pearshaped soon enough, and if you aren't in it and you have savings you'll be in a position to move on it.
People are investing in "Apartments".
Already they are finding they have to renovate their 10 year old apartment because the apartment they've built next door is newer and fancier.

Property is in land.
Contrary to what everyone is saying .... more is better.
Houses and buildings just get older and crappier.

Some of us have been through interest rates close to 20%.
I've got through 2 recessions, and lost one house when my job went while the housing market was on a slowdown.
Then i wasn't eligible for the "first home owners" grant and neither was my wife, because our first house was "romantically" in our joint names.


A lot of other things won't go as well as property though.
Free trade with china means a certain equalization of the standard of living.

 

[Gangnam Saint]

Are you outside Oz? It's on channel 9 free to air here.

Yeah in HK. I can get it in Spanish on Vaughn TV but otherwise I have to give over my details to some dodgey website.
Hoping someone will post the Channel 9 stream on Vaughn TV.

 

[StFly]

Property is in land.
Contrary to what everyone is saying .... more is better.
Houses and buildings just get older and crappier.

Pretty much this, I remember the old man being quoted 350k in the early 00's when we had a second block in the area, he wanted to downsize recently and quote jumped to 510k. I imagine in the next decade we might 750k and who knows, by the time he's 80 we can move to Toorak instead.

People should be allowed to vote NO whatever their reason, logical reasons or not, and without ridicule or bullying tactics. Simple as that.

Glad it was a resounding Yes.......but it annoyed the hell out me the tactics used. Nasty doesn't describe fully how each side acted.

Was bound to happen on anything that gets voted on, there's always at least one who engages the process only to ridicule it.

 

[gringo2011]

Pretty much this, I remember the old man being quoted 350k in the early 00's when we had a second block in the area, he wanted to downsize recently and quote jumped to 510k. I imagine in the next decade we might 750k and who knows, by the time he's 80 we can move to Toorak instead.



Was bound to happen on anything that gets voted on, there's always at least one who engages the process only to ridicule it.

The only problem is that you sell and buy in the same market, my house has gone up to a ridiculous figure but if I sell it I lose $70,000 in stamp duty and have to buy something bigger and have to add to the mortgage. People buy cars and holidays on the equity they have in their homes but it's false money. It's an imaginary figure. If you downsize you actually unlock real money but to sell a house and buy in a better area is impossible without going into even more debt.

 

[Premium]

Carlton will be hurting today with the news of
its star defender Sam Docherty set to miss the 2018 AFL season after rupturing his ACL.

This huge news , he has been one of the teams better players.

 

[CHBench]

Unless you are a high earner, inherited something, I really can't see how people in their 20s on standard incomes can break into the Melbourne property market.

I am planning to get married soon and hoping to land a job in regional Vic following that, can buy a lot lot more for the money there.

Grab yourself some beginners finance and property investing books. Like you, what the market is doing used to leave me feeling pretty flat about my financial future. Best thing I ever did was educate myself, as someone who knows next to nothing about finance and business it turned around my whole attitude about the market. I'm 25 and about to sign off on my 1st investment property in a regional area.

Houses are a charade, land is king. Buy where you can afford (for people our age wihtout handouts that is not Melbourne), rent where you want to live, and drive the shittiest car your ego can handle.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Unless you are a high earner, inherited something, I really can't see how people in their 20s on standard incomes can break into the Melbourne property market.

I am planning to get married soon and hoping to land a job in regional Vic following that, can buy a lot lot more for the money there.

Its been hard for a long time.
People want a house they bid what they can afford.
When interest was 12% , if they could afford a deposit they might have been able to service a $200 000 loan.
Now if they have 4% , they can afford to service a $600 000 loan.

All the equity in our first home was lost. When we bought our second house my wife worked well into her pregnancy racing against time to get a deposit.
We'd sort of looked at the East Bentleigh area , but decided we couldn't afford the $250 000 or so that it would cost for a dump. ( wife didn't want to do the go to work and use childcare thing ) Went for something around half that price the other side of Dandenong.
Sliding doors moment, means i'm not sitting on millions in real-estate, but if we hadn't bought the house when we did , i don't think we ever would have.

This is the other thing that's made it hard.
Many family's used to have a single income. This was not necessarily empowering for women, but there were some good points.
a) If things got hard , Mum could get a part time job to earn a bit extra.
b) You didn't need to bitch to the government about how you wanted more child carers but you didn't want to pay for them.
c) it kept housing affordable.
d) Less demand for Jobs.

Yuppies came along. Young couples who met at the accounting firm where they both worked would turn up at an Auction and just buy what they wanted, blowing just about anyone on a single income out of the water. The move from single income to dual income has not helped our standard of living at all, because we the people have used that extra income to push up the price of real estate.
The Government haven't helped , they are tending towards very little tax incentives for single income family's and high subsidies for childcare.

If you are in a dual income family , no matter how utterly dependant you are on your job, if you lose it they don't count you as unemployed.

 

[gringo2011]

Its been hard for a long time.
People want a house they bid what they can afford.
When interest was 12% , if they could afford a deposit they might have been able to service a $200 000 loan.
Now if they have 4% , they can afford to service a $600 000 loan.

All the equity in our first home was lost. When we bought our second house my wife worked well into her pregnancy racing against time to get a deposit.
We'd sort of looked at the East Bentleigh area , but decided we couldn't afford the $250 000 or so that it would cost for a dump. ( wife didn't want to do the go to work and use childcare thing ) Went for something around half that price the other side of Dandenong.
Sliding doors moment, means i'm not sitting on millions in real-estate, but if we hadn't bought the house when we did , i don't think we ever would have.

This is the other thing that's made it hard.
Many family's used to have a single income. This was not necessarily empowering for women, but there were some good points.
a) If things got hard , Mum could get a part time job to earn a bit extra.
b) You didn't need to bitch to the government about how you wanted more child carers but you didn't want to pay for them.
c) it kept housing affordable.
d) Less demand for Jobs.

Yuppies came along. Young couples who met at the accounting firm where they both worked would turn up at an Auction and just buy what they wanted, blowing just about anyone on a single income out of the water. The move from single income to dual income has not helped our standard of living at all, because we the people have used that extra income to push up the price of real estate.
The Government haven't helped , they are tending towards very little tax incentives for single income family's and high subsidies for childcare.

If you are in a dual income family , no matter how utterly dependant you are on your job, if you lose it they don't count you as unemployed.

The real issue now is that property is pushed up by bringing in mass immigration. People mistake refugees (people who are here under duress) for immigrants who arrive to have a better standard of living than where they come from. There is something Chinese investment has pushed Australian property prices higher as does from other countries. We like growth because it looks good on the books but it's false growth through population increase that we have. They bring dollars from overseas which is good for our national budget but increases the cost of living for citizens.

When I was younger I could have a mortgage that took only about 30% of my wage and could still live well on the rest of what I had and save for holidays. Now just to rent it takes about half of the average wage in inner Melbourne. Buying a house in Caulfield now would start at about $2 million for a renovators delight on a 20% deposit that's still a $1.6 mill mortgage. If you are on a household with 2 incomes of $60,000 after tax each, would leave you with $18,000 a year left over. That means you need a s**t load of money coming in to even consider buying a house now near the city or have inherited some.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

The real issue now is that property is pushed up by bringing in mass immigration. People mistake refugees (people who are here under duress) for immigrants who arrive to have a better standard of living than where they come from. There is something Chinese investment has pushed Australian property prices higher as does from other countries. We like growth because it looks good on the books but it's false growth through population increase that we have. They bring dollars from overseas which is good for our national budget but increases the cost of living for citizens.

When I was younger I could have a mortgage that took only about 30% of my wage and could still live well on the rest of what I had and save for holidays. Now just to rent it takes about half of the average wage in inner Melbourne. Buying a house in Caulfield now would start at about $2 million for a renovators delight on a 20% deposit that's still a $1.6 mill mortgage. If you are on a household with 2 incomes of $60,000 after tax each, would leave you with $18,000 a year left over. That means you need a s**t load of money coming in to even consider buying a house now near the city or have inherited some.

I agree with a lot of that.
The Chinese will pay , and they will pay overs. They want to invest in property and they are not permitted to do so in China, so they will buy here if we let them.

But also the cost of inner suburbs ( and i count Caulfield is part of that ) is due to our idiotic obsession with centralisation.
You either have to pay to get in the middle , or travel from the outside. Supply /Demand
Apart from pushing up property prices, it places ridiculous demands on infrastructure.

In the old days , a business , for example a bank, would need to be able to directly access other banks, the stock exchange, and other financial companies.
People ran around with bags of cash FFS.
Is there any current valid reason? Are Bendigo Bank hamstrung because they are headquartered in Bendigo?

Lets look at Bendigo or Ballarat.
Access to Airport. : Around 1.5 hours ( Bendigo ). ( Google says you can get from Packenham to airport in 1.5 hours but you need to allow way more ).
If you are driving from one side of Bendigo to the other to get to work , it will probably take you less time than driving out of your suburb and getting past the traffic light that lets you onto the carpa.... freeway.
Rates are less
Housing prices are less.
Rail is available.
There are plenty of greenfield ( literally ) industrial sites available.

The Government should specify development area's outside the main parts of the Capital cities, and have business incentives for companies that want to start or move there.
For example : No tax on company profits for 10 years if that company site employs more than 100 people.

Places like Hong Kong are like that because they are forced to be. Its just stupid to try to emulate them.

 

[gringo2011]

I agree with a lot of that.
The Chinese will pay , and they will pay overs. They want to invest in property and they are not permitted to do so in China, so they will buy here if we let them.

But also the cost of inner suburbs ( and i count Caulfield is part of that ) is due to our idiotic obsession with centralisation.
You either have to pay to get in the middle , or travel from the outside. Supply /Demand
Apart from pushing up property prices, it places ridiculous demands on infrastructure.

In the old days , a business , for example a bank, would need to be able to directly access other banks, the stock exchange, and other financial companies.
People ran around with bags of cash FFS.
Is there any current valid reason? Are Bendigo Bank hamstrung because they are headquartered in Bendigo?

Lets look at Bendigo or Ballarat.
Access to Airport. : Around 1.5 hours ( Bendigo ). ( Google says you can get from Packenham to airport in 1.5 hours but you need to allow way more ).
If you are driving from one side of Bendigo to the other to get to work , it will probably take you less time than driving out of your suburb and getting past the traffic light that lets you onto the carpa.... freeway.
Rates are less
Housing prices are less.
Rail is available.
There are plenty of greenfield ( literally ) industrial sites available.

The Government should specify development area's outside the main parts of the Capital cities, and have business incentives for companies that want to start or move there.
For example : No tax on company profits for 10 years if that company site employs more than 100 people.

Places like Hong Kong are like that because they are forced to be. Its just stupid to try to emulate them.

They do do that these days with regional centres getting government departments. The infrastructure needs to be central to make it cost effective. Having public transport working keeps cars off the road too, high density living is very cost effective from that point of view. They aren't great with limiting development around the metro outskirts then not supplying train lines and schools etc to cope with the influx. Literally roads, hospitals, schools, businesses etc all have to be put into support development. All cost ridiculous amounts from scratch.

We love growth but hate paying the cost of infrastructure unfortunately. Just to supply enough water to regional city if the population doubled probably costs more than the financial benefit and if it was really successful the real estate gets expensive anyway.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

They do do that these days with regional centres getting government departments. The infrastructure needs to be central to make it cost effective. Having public transport working keeps cars off the road too, high density living is very cost effective from that point of view. They aren't great with limiting development around the metro outskirts then not supplying train lines and schools etc to cope with the influx. Literally roads, hospitals, schools, businesses etc all have to be put into support development. All cost ridiculous amounts from scratch.

We love growth but hate paying the cost of infrastructure unfortunately. Just to supply enough water to regional city if the population doubled probably costs more than the financial benefit and if it was really successful the real estate gets expensive anyway.

Look at Germany for example , lots of small/medium sized cities.
The city doesn't need to be monstrous to be efficient.
City of Melbourne has around 127 000 people. City of Casey 300 000ish.
The further out you get the more difficult it gets to build public transport systems. How can you cater for people who want to go from Berwick to Ringwood or Seaford ? You need railways with rings and spokes , it gets crazy.

Which businesses need the infrastructure apart from a decent internet connection?
I'm not saying put all the businesses in Bendigo. I'm saying spread it around.

Government Departments isn't motivating industry to move. Its old fashioned Pork Barrelling.

 

[StCicatriz]

What a bulls..t post that is......us baby boomers planned our own retirement, your generation had stuff all to do with it.

edit: with apologies to my Saints "in-laws" still love you all.

lol what

have you seen the original super schemes that were on offer that are now far too good to still be available

i wish i had access to em now. my retirement would be looking pretty sweet too in 30 years time, thats before you factor in the housing market boom

 

[wolfpac13]

Loving the replies in this thread.

I'm in a bit of a pickle myself and not really sure which way to go. 25YO, married with a $460K loan on a house probably worth about 700k. I recently upgraded homes but starting to regret it as I added nearly 200k to my morgagte. Single income with no savings and working a job I hate more than words can express.

Am I crazy for thinking about selling and banking the equity? If the bubble bursts I'll be in some serious trouble.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Loving the replies in this thread.

I'm in a bit of a pickle myself and not really sure which way to go. 25YO, married with a $460K loan on a house probably worth about 700k. I recently upgraded homes but starting to regret it as I added nearly 200k to my morgagte. Single income with no savings and working a job I hate more than words can express.

Am I crazy for thinking about selling and banking the equity? If the bubble bursts I'll be in some serious trouble.

Trouble is when things are really tight and your job sucks , it really puts pressure on the Marriage.
It did on mine anyway.
I'd have liked to keep my housing more modest and traveled more.
But once you're in the costs in downsizing make it hardly worth while.

 

[MacMum]

lol what

have you seen the original super schemes that were on offer that are now far too good to still be available

i wish i had access to em now. my retirement would be looking pretty sweet too in 30 years time, thats before you factor in the housing market boom

There were no superannuation schemes when I started working, and when there was, they weren't compulsary.....I didn't start having a proper super fund until I had a full time big company job 20 years ago. Living most of my life in a small country town, we took what shitty jobs were available, some were full time, some were part time.

...and at one time I had 3 jobs (all part time) just to be able to pay my house payments and live. Then came the recession "we had to have in '91" we were all retrenched from the first full time job I'd had in years. I hadn't met my now husband at that stage, so it was a massive struggle for me. I eventually had to sell my house.

Yes, houses were very cheap back then....but it is all relevent to the time. In another 30 years what seems exorbitant prices now, will look really cheap when looking back.

When my parents bought their first home it was only 1000 pounds (approx $2000) It was considered an expensive home. When my ex husband and I bought our first home we paid $15,900, that seemed huge at the time.....and we struggled to make ends meet. we both took jobs(day and night) to pay for the house.

We sold it for 30,000 10yrs later. We worked our butts off doing whatever job was around, but we did it.

So, to anyone thinking times are tough now, and the baby boomers got it easy, take a hike, we worked bloody hard for what we had during some tough times....you can do likewise if you put your mind to it and not expect it to fall in your lap or that you are entitled to it.

Each generation has had to struggle to work for what they want......might be different types of struggle but the outcome is pretty much the same in the end.

Superannuation is now compulsary, and if you can start contributing now, it will go a long way to help in your retirement....I got very little after only having it for a short time over my working life, and I wasn't able to contribute to it much either..

If you can't achieve what you want in the city, move to a bigger regional city, houses cheaper and if you really want work you will find it if you aren't a job snob.

Sorry for the rant people, but this baby boomers ruined our lives crap gets up my nose, but I make no apologies for being one.

I don't like coming on your board and causing upset for anyone, hope you can forgive and understand where I'm coming from.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Can you 25 year old whippersnappers stop posting about your homes and investment properties.

27 here and I think I got a bit of catching up to do!

These BF mod wages just aren't cutting it any longer.

 

[CALL ME SNAKE]

There were no superannuation schemes when I started working, and when there was, they weren't compulsary.....I didn't start having a proper super fund until I had a full time big company job 20 years ago. Living most of my life in a small country town, we took what shitty jobs were available, some were full time, some were part time.

...and at one time I had 3 jobs (all part time) just to be able to pay my house payments and live. Then came the recession "we had to have in '91" we were all retrenched from the first full time job I'd had in years. I hadn't met my now husband at that stage, so it was a massive struggle for me. I eventually had to sell my house.

Yes, houses were very cheap back then....but it is all relevent to the time. In another 30 years what seems exorbitant prices now, will look really cheap when looking back.

When my parents bought their first home it was only 1000 pounds (approx $2000) It was considered an expensive home. When my ex husband and I bought our first home we paid $15,900, that seemed huge at the time.....and we struggled to make ends meet. we both took jobs(day and night) to pay for the house.

We sold it for 30,000 10yrs later. We worked our butts off doing whatever job was around, but we did it.

So, to anyone thinking times are tough now, and the baby boomers got it easy, take a hike, we worked bloody hard for what we had during some tough times....you can do likewise if you put your mind to it and not expect it to fall in your lap or that you are entitled to it.

Each generation has had to struggle to work for what they want......might be different types of struggle but the outcome is pretty much the same in the end.

Superannuation is now compulsary, and if you can start contributing now, it will go a long way to help in your retirement....I got very little after only having it for a short time over my working life, and I wasn't able to contribute to it much either..

If you can't achieve what you want in the city, move to a bigger regional city, houses cheaper and if you really want work you will find it if you aren't a job snob.

Sorry for the rant people, but this baby boomers ruined our lives crap gets up my nose, but I make no apologies for being one.

I don't like coming on your board and causing upset for anyone, hope you can forgive and understand where I'm coming from.

 

[Nutsngum]

You're still missing the point that property as it is now represents a vastly greater percentage of your income and subsequently your expected debt which is now at an incredible level. Its also a laughable idea that being a job snob is what's holding people back and not the vastly underemployed workforce and dwindling job market. Its also even stupider to state "go regional" where employment is even harder to find and many people are already struggling.

No one should apologise for being a "boomer" (which is a meaningless term literally designed to sell ******* books) but regurgitating the same stupid rhetoric we hear from people over 50 certainly wont stop the criticisms.

 

[VDS66]

Interesting topics. Here's my take...

When interest rates were 18% the average loan was around $80k for me. Problem now is that $80k is barely a deposit and because of the size of the mortgage, even a 50 basis point increase will tip a lot of people over the edge.

The whole economy is built on this housing bubble. Keep your job and you should be OK.

People want and expect too much as a first home as well. It's almost beneath them to start off with a 3 bed, 1 bath old home anymore. But as stated, the money is in the land.

Government incentives are going to the wrong people imo and negative gearing has to go on old properties.

As far as businesses moving to rural areas... what sort of businesses exactly?

The difference between Germany and us is the tyranny of distance and transport. Manufacturers and exporters need proximity to ports and distribution points.

So it's not that simple. What would be a better idea is to get some decent fast trains so that people can live in Bendigo and commute to work in a shorter time.

Urban sprawl is a massive headache. I like the idea of incentives for business to go regional if you can get it to work.

However if you can't get it to work in Geelong, what hope for Bendigo?

 

[StCicatriz]

There were no superannuation schemes when I started working, and when there was, they weren't compulsary.....I didn't start having a proper super fund until I had a full time big company job 20 years ago. Living most of my life in a small country town, we took what shitty jobs were available, some were full time, some were part time.

...and at one time I had 3 jobs (all part time) just to be able to pay my house payments and live. Then came the recession "we had to have in '91" we were all retrenched from the first full time job I'd had in years. I hadn't met my now husband at that stage, so it was a massive struggle for me. I eventually had to sell my house.

Yes, houses were very cheap back then....but it is all relevent to the time. In another 30 years what seems exorbitant prices now, will look really cheap when looking back.

When my parents bought their first home it was only 1000 pounds (approx $2000) It was considered an expensive home. When my ex husband and I bought our first home we paid $15,900, that seemed huge at the time.....and we struggled to make ends meet. we both took jobs(day and night) to pay for the house.

We sold it for 30,000 10yrs later. We worked our butts off doing whatever job was around, but we did it.

So, to anyone thinking times are tough now, and the baby boomers got it easy, take a hike, we worked bloody hard for what we had during some tough times....you can do likewise if you put your mind to it and not expect it to fall in your lap or that you are entitled to it.

Each generation has had to struggle to work for what they want......might be different types of struggle but the outcome is pretty much the same in the end.

Superannuation is now compulsary, and if you can start contributing now, it will go a long way to help in your retirement....I got very little after only having it for a short time over my working life, and I wasn't able to contribute to it much either..

If you can't achieve what you want in the city, move to a bigger regional city, houses cheaper and if you really want work you will find it if you aren't a job snob.

Sorry for the rant people, but this baby boomers ruined our lives crap gets up my nose, but I make no apologies for being one.

I don't like coming on your board and causing upset for anyone, hope you can forgive and understand where I'm coming from.

see the thing you fail to grasp is back then you could be in a tough spot, work hard and still be able to afford to purchase the house you live in, albeit on a loan. as you said you just got a 2nd job

that is not possible anymore for many. the problem is the lower income jobs wont be enough to hit the number where the banks loan you the money

i think you're just far removed from the world that is present for the younger adults coming through

there is no: get a 2nd job option. there is no just work harder. its get a high paying job with regular income or you are screwed, to get the loan covering the massive house price, you need to declare a steady income

 

[Nutsngum]

For the record im looking at property at the moment. On my current income, which isnt terrible, my bank has given me an online loan offer of like $230,000. Obviously a proper lending enquiry will be more then that but as it stands as a single person is almost entirely locked out of the market in Melbourne. You WILL NOT find a property below $300,000 anywhere within Melbourne.

 

[VDS66]

planned your retirment off the back of pushing everyone else out of the housing market... great plan buy up homes with equity from the $700k home you purchased for $30k back in the day then buy 3 more homes that you can rent out at inflated rates to genY... then with the money made from that you slide in and blow GenX out of the water by banging on an extra $50k on a home you can negative gear to lower your tax ...
brilliant .. then while you sit on your retirement fund getting fatter and fatter you complain that if we want a home then we should get a better job.. so we go to school to get better qualified only to get gouged by uni debts so when we do graduate we head off to the job market but you bastards are still sitting in those good jobs cause you "wanna hold out 3 more years just to puff up my super a lil more" so we take up retail or service jobs to you know pay off our uni debts.. then you Boomers complain that the prices are to high so you cut penalty rates so your coffee doesnt cost 10c more on a sunday..

I'm a boomer and agree 100%.

 

[VDS66]

I'm 53. Every generation that wants to get ahead works their ******* backsides off and makes sacrifices.

Yeah I lost a few houses in the recession, but guess what? I was greedy and over stretched myself and couldn't afford the repayments.

To be honest, the boomers have been the biggest drain on resources... like a massive vacuum cleaner.

Entitlement and exploitation of tax loopholes gifted by the government they vote for.

By all means retire comfortably but do you really need 5 houses?

It's a self fulfilling prophecy where the more you buy, the higher prices are pushed and then you use that extra equity to buy mire property... and so the cycle goes.

I don't have an issue with people gaining financial security, but when it's a case of wanting it and * everyone else, then something is drastically wrong with society.

 

[StCicatriz]

For the record im looking at property at the moment. On my current income, which isnt terrible, my bank has given me an online loan offer of like $230,000. Obviously a proper lending enquiry will be more then that but as it stands as a single person is almost entirely locked out of the market in Melbourne. You WILL NOT find a property below $300,000 anywhere within Melbourne.

spot on mate

its tough out there

the other issue the boomers fail to take into account is inflation, the gap between the lower and high income earners was lower, just purely based on as the poster said the smaller salaries/wages

thats grown astronomically now, theres bigger differences between the low incomes and higher incomes

 

[George]

Interesting last couple of pages!

I'm 27, can understand exactly where everyone is coming from. I own a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment in Armadale however half of it was inherited half I had to work for/finish paying off. It will be paid off next month and then I will be trying to get myself down towards Sandringham way.

Definitely want to have my own bit of land, and have considered moving out to Geelong as another option but I can't see how that's going to really work when everything in Melbourne is so centralized.

For the record im looking at property at the moment. On my current income, which isnt terrible, my bank has given me an online loan offer of like $230,000. Obviously a proper lending enquiry will be more then that but as it stands as a single person is almost entirely locked out of the market in Melbourne. You WILL NOT find a property below $300,000 anywhere within Melbourne.

I had the same thing mate. They came back to me and told me I could take out about $250,000. This was about 4 years ago. If you can stay with family while you save that's probably the only other option. House & land packages are at about $500,000 at a minimum and if you could save $200k in a few years it'd definitely make it so much easier. I saved $100,000 in 2 years but I worked just under 1000 hours of overtime to make it happen lol. And I'd say I'm probably middle of the pack in terms of salary.

I think without the inheritance I'd be in the exact same boat as you.