Flicking through the Australian Property Investor Blog, one article caught my attention. It was talking about the sacrifices that Australians are willing to make to own property. The discussion was based on results of Mortgage Choice 2010 Consumer Sentiment Survey. Since one of my own tips to save up for a deposit was to sacrifice, I felt compelled to look at the statistics, to check out how many people are living by these rules already.
Some of the figures made complete sense to me. Apparently the majority of people were willing to sacrifice to save up and buy a house, that’s pretty straight forward, so reading that 60% of the respondents said they were ready to give something up didn’t surprise me.
The top five sacrifices people were prepared to make were
1. Cutting back on spending (84 %),
2. Missing out on an overseas trip (50 %),
3. Buying a less expensive property than desired (35 %),
4. Remaining in their current job (30 %) and
5. Taking on an additional job (20 %).
So far so good, the money has to come from somewhere, be it spending less or earning more, that’s fine. But there was one more sacrifice mentioned that I didn’t like at all.
The truth? I was, er, how do I put it gently, … shocked.
Apparently some people were prepared to put starting a family on hold to buy a house. Not necessarily their first home – but also their second (upgraded) home, or their investment property.
I can understand the first home buyers. Moving from rental to rental with a child is no fun, and you also have to consider giving stability to the little one, one thing that they thrive on. This could be the reason many young families plan to buy a house first, then start a family. But delaying starting a family to buy an investment property, or “till we move to a better house”, to me sounds … like there’s something really wrong with that reason.
Am I being old-fashioned here? Let me hear from you, my readers. What would and what wouldn’t you sacrifice to buy a house?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I think this could be a symptom of a generation gap.
Many who have grown up as children of the baby boomer generation had a large backyard to play in. Now as a future parent and future first-home buyer, I also want my kids to be able to run around in a safe yard, not moping about on a tiny apartment balcony. Unfortunately, lack of affordability means that there are huge hurdles in obtaining a property that affords a good family lifestyle. Those hurdles might be large debts, long commutes, or living in an ‘undesirable’ suburb.
I think it’s more likely the case that some couples may be putting off a family until they upgrade from the tiny apartment that they could only just afford.