Tactic 'impulsive' 22-year-old uni student used to buy half-a-million dollar home: 'Not rich parents'

A uni student has revealed how she bought a half-a-million dollar property in Australia’s priciest city. And it wasn’t by having rich parents.

Lou recently purchased her first home, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Sydney, by herself. The 22-year-old told Yahoo Finance that investing, the ability to live at home and "hard work and discipline" allowed her to get onto the property ladder at such a young age.

Lou is currently in her final year at Macquarie University studying commerce and IT. She has worked full-time in tech for the past year and a half, and has completed an internship at Google.

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The Sydney resident shared she had been investing for the past five years and her portfolio included micro-investments, ETFs and some cryptocurrency.

She said investing allowed her to grow her deposit quicker. Plus, having the money in investments rather than cash, removed the temptation for her to dig into her savings.

“I’m a very impulsive person and I actually love shopping,” she told Yahoo Finance. “For me, I put a lot of my money into investments and that’s how I was able to earn money as well.

“Even if I wanted to have access to the money, I would need five days to have access to the money, so I would give up.

“If I had it in my savings, I knew I could quickly go and grab it. So the main thing was just out of sight, out of mind.”

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Lou said she was able to purchase her Western Sydney apartment with a 20 per cent deposit and could take advantage of stamp duty concessions.

The average unit price in Sydney is $806,137, according to Domain, while the average house price is $1,627,625.

'Diligent' with savings

Lou said she had been working since she was 17 and had done a "bunch of different jobs" over the years, including modelling, tutoring, merchandising and secret shopping.

“I think the main thing for me was I was very diligent in my savings. So putting a chunk away every single time I got paid and not accessing it at all,” Lou told Yahoo Finance.

“Obviously I still try to enjoy my life, but I had a plan, and I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age, and I just kind of stuck to that.”

Lou said she made a goal to save up $100,000 by the time she turned 25. She ended up reaching that goal earlier than expected this year.

“It did help that my job paid quite well so I could put a larger amount away. Also I was living at home which was a big factor,” Lou said.

More young Aussies are now living at home with their parents in the face of skyrocketing rents and increased property prices. Finder research found about one in 10 Aussies had moved back in with their parents, with a third doing so to save up for a house deposit.

“Living at home, I was able to put basically all of my income away and I didn’t have to touch it because I didn’t have much expenses," Lou said.

While Lou paid for things like food, transport, car insurance and the essentials, she said she was able to put almost 80 per cent of her income into her savings and investments.

She said her parents didn’t ask for board money but noted it was “customary” in Nigerian culture to give your parents something once you start working so she would chip in where possible.

Young Aussies told ‘don’t give up’

Lou recommended other young Aussies research the property market and get an idea of how much a deposit they needed so they had a clear goal to work towards.

“There is so much fear-mongering going on. A lot of people say it's so unachievable, the housing market is crazy, don't even think about it,” Lou said.

“I started doing my own research and started talking to different lenders and [realised] this is actually something I can do, this is feasible.”

Lou said it was worth researching how HECS debt could impact your borrowing capacity, something she discovered along her home-buying journey.

In hindsight, she also said she wished she had built up her emergency savings a bit more. But ultimately she said she "doesn't regret anything" about buying her property.

“Don’t give up before you start …The cost-of-living crisis is insane but if it's something you want and want to work towards, take that chance and go for it," she said.

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