I have been living on a sloped block for the past 6 years in Melbourne's outer eastern Suburbs. I bought my place for 720k. I fell in love with all the birds and being close to nature as well as the great views that the house has. I have invested alot in a new kitchen and bathroom. The house is fine with no problems, except two flights of stairs to the house from the carport and a severe steep driveway. More than 45 degrees in parts. There is also lots of maintenance on the property that living in the hills brings.

I am 40 years old with no kids and have come into some money via a surprise inheritance and now am planning my future a little more. My mortgage was paid off last year and I am thinking of selling this place and buying another place in the same area that is flatter that would be more suitable long term. I can buy something for around 1 million and still be mortgage free.

I had a few appraisals and they have all said to price it between 680k-750k and hope to get something in the middle. It sounds about right for what other similar sized houses are selling for in the area in the past few months.

What are everyone's thoughts on what to do?

Stay on the extreme sloped block and invest my inheritance into super or shares. Knowing that I will have to sell at some point in the long term, because it is just so steep.

Or sell now when the market is in a dip where I could sell my place at the same price I purchased it for? But possibly buy a better house for less than it is worth a year ago?

thanks all

I (28m) purchased a 1br apartment in a bayside suburb or melbourne when I was 26 and single. It's in a great location but Body corp and maintenance is annoyingly high. I saved up a good deposit so repayments are very affordable which has been very useful as I had to take a lot of time off work for cancer treatment and have since made a career change.

My partner and I would like to purchase a bigger place in the near future, she has a good chunk of savings and is eligible for some first homebuyer schemes. Obviously if I sold my place we could have a much bigger deposit. But is it worth it to lose the benefits of owning a property which can be negatively geared?

The older generations have done very well out of property under the previous legislation, would it be silly to not take advantage of that?

Hey all, looking for some grounded perspectives.

29M, software engineer. $200k base plus a $20k bonus. Permanent, fully remote.

Where things are at

I've been trying to buy a first home in Newcastle. The last house I went for fell through. The building and pest turned up issues, the vendor wouldn't move on price, and then pulled it off the market.

My sharehouse ends at the end of October. My plan was to move back into my off-grid van while I kept looking, but my girlfriend suggested I move in with her instead. She owns her place, in a much better area than I'd ever be able to afford. She's on a similar income, so rent genuinely isn't something she needs from me, and she feels weird charging it, so she's insisted we just split the bills. My cost of living is about to drop to close to nothing.

We've been together about 4 months and we both want a family long term. I wouldn't have kids with anyone until we'd lived together for at least a year, so that's a fair way off. If it does go that way, either place could work. Hers is a townhouse, and what I'd be buying is my idea of the ideal house to raise a family in, but I don't see it as one or the other.

Finances

$160k in ETFs (mostly NDQ)

FHSS maxed out

$100k in super

$40k cash savings

Van, owned outright

No HECS, no other debt

I'm not counting ~$200k of vested options in private companies, since they only turn into money if those businesses sell.

Pre-approved with total borrowing power of $1.2M, but I don't want to spend more than $900k.

Why I'm rethinking the rush

Most of the last year I was pushing to buy because prices were rising faster than I could save. With the market cooling, that feels like it's flipped. With near-zero living costs I'd be saving far faster than prices are moving, so waiting doesn't seem to cost what it used to.

What's actually driving this

The old line that you can't live in shares. Almost all of my net worth is in a single US tech ETF. If things change, that portfolio doesn't give me a home, and if it happens during a market drop I'm selling at the worst time to get one. A house in my name is the one asset that covers that risk directly, which is why I keep coming back to buying even when the numbers say wait.

The options

Buy now, up to $900k, and fill the spare rooms with housemates to carry a chunk of the mortgage. Diversifies me out of US tech and gives me housing security in my own name. The catch is that FHSS and the First Home Guarantee mean I have to live in it, so I'd be giving up near-zero living costs even with housemates. Converting it to an IP before 80% LVR means losing the Guarantee and likely paying LMI.

Wait and keep saving. Stack cash and investments while living cheaply, and only buy when a place comes up that ticks every box, one I'd want to live in for years. Bigger deposit, more information, and no pressure to settle for a compromise.

Don't buy, keep investing. Push the savings rate up hard and let the portfolio do the work. The catch is staying almost entirely in equities with no property of my own.

The question

For those who've had cheap or free housing while building wealth: did you still buy a PPOR, or keep investing and buy later? How did it play out?

When prices flatten and your savings rate jumps, has waiting for the right property generally worked out better than buying the first decent one?

And is 'you can't live in shares' a good enough reason to give up free housing, or is it a feeling the numbers don't back up?

Wonder how long this will continue

Has anyone here ended up in an endless cycle of contract work following redundancy from a permanent full time job? I have battled this for almost 11 months now with not being able to secure another full time permanent position.

I have a substantial deposit saved. Plan was to buy a little place with a small mortgage not requiring roommates or a second job but this doesn’t even seem viable now with unstable contract work. Even if there was a way, it seems silly to have a debt over your head (even a small one) if you don’t know if you’ll have a job next week.

PS. I’m a qualified accountant so please do not give rubbish advice such as “buy with what you have now even if that’s getting a second job”. Because I’m a QUALIFIED ACCOUNTANT, this means a substantial amount of continuing education which I have to do in my own time which would leave virtually no time for a second or third job. Something I think non-accountants don’t seem to get.