What is the Great Australian Dream? In the simplest sense, the answer to that question is home ownership. It’s the idea of having your own free-standing house on a quarter of an acre block of land. It’s been thought of as a sign of success and security. But in recent years, many believe that this dream is so out of reach, it must be dead!
But is it really dead? Maybe not, maybe it’s just evolving. But there is no denying the fact that unfortunately, achieving this dream is becoming increasingly difficult for many reasons.
History
The notion of the Great Australian Dream took hold amongst the Australian society in the decades following World War II which has marked a prosperous new era for the country. It was also a dream shared by the immigrants who moved to Australia during the time, most specially the Italians and the Greeks. By the mid 1970s, a high percentage of Australian families own their own homes.
An impossible dream?
Like many of you, I dream of one day owning my own home. Much like the Great Australian Dream, the culture I grew up in (Filipino) also gave huge importance to home ownership so it’s always been a goal of mine. In fact, I spend a lot of my free time watching home renovations, interior designs, and real estate related shows/ documentaries.
Both my husband and I are employed and we save where we can. It will be ideal if we’re able to come up with a 20% deposit for a humble home, about 30 minutes away from a city before we start having children. But in the current real estate market where house prices have risen astronomically, it might be harder than we have anticipated to be able to afford to do so.
So is the Great Australian Dream an impossible one? To be honest, I can’t give an exact answer to this as it is dependent on a lot of individual and external factors. If I were to base my answer on what I see and read from the news, what I hear from people around me, and from what I see on real estate listings, it’s definitely hard not question if it’s a dream one must give up.
When did the dream become unattainable?
While there have always been booms, house prices in Australia didn’t change much until the 1950s when the government lifted the cap on property prices. According to RealEstate.com, strong price growth began in the late 1990s. They also mentioned that house prices have sharply gone up in the past year with its annual price growth being the third fastest on record.
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Why are house prices so high now?
- Inflation
- An unexpected effect of the COVID-19 pandemic
- High demand for properties but not enough supply
- Record low interest rates
- Many government housing incentives/ schemes available for homebuyers
- Widening gap between income and property prices
There’s probably other factors other than what I have listed above. The point is that all of these have come together and created a perfect storm. You also have to keep in mind that there are other fees that you need to pay for on top of the actual price of the house. Some of these fees are conveyancing fees, mortgage insurance, stamp duty etc.
What to do?
Apart from the obvious ones such as having a healthy spending and saving habits, working harder, and earning more, there are many other things that people do to be able to make their dream of owning a house possible. The most common one I’ve seen people do is getting help from their parents. This may be through the form of financial help, having their parents as their guarantors for the home loan, or by living with their parents rent free until they’ve saved up enough money to move out and are able to buy their own property.
People also really make use of government housing schemes/ incentives to help them out with the purchase of their home. Some of which are the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS), the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS), the New Home Guarantee (NHG) etc. It would be great if you could get to take advantage of all of these help from the government when the time comes for you to buy a house.
People have also learned to tweak their preferences a little bit based on how much they can afford. They are a bit more open to living further away from the city, choosing a smaller home, settling with an apartment over a free-standing house they originally wanted, or even moving interstate where it is a little bit more affordable.
Is it more difficult for immigrants?
It’s definitely more complicated for immigrants to buy a house in Australia. For one, there may be additional requirements depending on your Australian visa status. There may also be additional fees and issues with regards to financing/ getting a loan. Not to mention the fact that one of the main challenges that immigrants face during their first few years is financial instability/ finding a good and stable source of income/ employment.
Conclusion
As I write this post, I have come to realise even more that achieving the Great Australian Dream seems nearly impossible to achieve. But in saying that, I still choose to work towards my goal of home ownership and believe that I’ll get there one day, hopefully soon.
Disclaimer All content and information in this post is for purposes of sharing my experiences only, does not constitute professional advice and does not establish any kind of professional-client relationship.
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2 Comments
Barry and Belle's Aussie Story — The journey to their Australian Dream - My Aussie Story · March 17, 2022 at 9:08 am
[…] only items on sale, even sometimes just sharing a meal between us two. We decided that to make our Australian dream come true, we have to make it on our own and never rely on any help from our relatives back home in […]
How We Bought Our First Home in Australia — A First Home Buyers' Experience Part 2 - My Aussie Story · March 18, 2023 at 1:45 pm
[…] matters discussed above. I hope this post has helped you get a step closer to achieving your Great Australian Dream. Good […]