Home Ownership Comes in All Ways

Home Ownership Comes in All Ways
Urban Editorial July 23, 2018

The pathway to homeownership is becoming more and more diversified as young singles, couples and families look for accessible ways to secure their first home. Trends including population growth, increasing house prices and a rise in multi-unit dwellings are encouraging first home buyers to think outside the box when it comes to buying. Property ownership pathways shift according to how people live, and this too is breaking the barriers of tradition. By 2030, experts are suggesting that a series of ownership pathways will gain traction, influencing the way we borrow, buy and sell.

Cohabitation

Share houses are a right of passage for students and young professionals, but this living arrangement is expected to cross over from renting to buying. Couples or friends are teaming up to purchase property, laying out the ground rules for private and communal spaces. More than just a way around steep deposit prices, this strategy offers one of the biggest benefits of homeownership in the modern age—it’s a win-win for those who want to strengthen existing relationships while also splitting the mortgage repayments. The number of applications from single buyers is decreasing as deposits continue to soar, and lenders are beginning to offer more flexible, realistic terms for these kids of loans.

Community-centric Design

Alternatively, it may be a case of purchasing smaller dwellings which share communal areas like laundries, kitchens, and outdoor spaces to minimise the land and environmental costs of a traditional stand alone home. Architects and developers are leaning towards community design, which embraces common areas and facilities while also bringing back the neighbourly atmosphere of times gone by.

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Guarantor Loans

Hopeful home buyers in Australia may be familiar with guarantor loans, which enable them to put up a lower deposit than usual if their parents are willing to list their own home as security. This can be a useful solution, but repayments should be well within you means, considering your family’s lifetime wealth is on the line.

Crowd Housing

In an exciting move towards listening to the market, crowd housing is gaining traction as a way to connect buyers and developers to share ideas, voice opinions, and ultimately create housing that ticks the boxes for more people. Developments can have a stigma of cutting corners, being cramped, and involving cookie-cutter designs that lose their value immediately. But, thanks to this market insight, we are seeing more individual designs which feel less like cheap housing and more like smart thinking. Property ownership using this method is not only more accessible, but more suited to modern lifestyles.

Guest Housing

While it doesn’t overcome the deposit hurdle, guest housing does offer a practical solution to the repayment hurdle. Some buyers are opting to save for a few extra years to scrape together a bigger deposit for a bigger house. The catch? They’re buying bigger than they need, with the view to renting out a room, or listing on a shared economy platform like Airbnb. You may look to rent out a granny flat to international visitors, or find a longer term tenant to cohabit with you and send their rent towards your mortgage.

Multi-generational Living

Moving back home with mum and dad might not be the most fashionable approach, but many first home buyers are seeking out this living arrangement to save up for a deposit. To take it a step further, joined home ownership with an aunt and uncle, or a parent, can in fact give you the added bonus of additional equity, not to mention splitting the deposit and repayments.

Property Shares

It’s not a common occurrence yet in Australia, but overseas countries like Britain have had success with stair-casing, whereby homeowners can purchase a share of a property, gradually increasing this stake as their funds allow. This allows buyers to enjoy all the benefits of home ownership without the initial cost barrier.

Buying to Rent

It may seem counterintuitive, but there’s an increasing trend for first home buyers to purchase a property which they don’t plan on living in. It may be that they can purchase a lower value property than their current standard of living, continuing to rent themselves while pooling their tenant’s rent into their savings fund. It’s worth noting, however, that many of the concessions available to first home buyers, such as the First Home Owners Grant and stamp duty concessions, may not cover non owner-occupier agreements.

Property ownership is a hot topic, and while the standard pathways may be slipping out of reach, it is certainly not an unattainable dream to reach successful home ownership. While some of these entry points are still being refined, and have some way to go in terms of creating a sustainable and cohesive model for buyers to lower the risks involved, it is a refreshing change of pace for determined buyers and genuinely promising for successful home ownership on a larger scale.

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