MILLENNIALS SAVVY FIRST-HOME BUYERS
“Millennials are particularly savvy ... they know where they can get information and have a lot of resources available to them, so they have really informed questions.” WAURN PONDS ANZ FIRST- HOME SAVERS COACH AMANDA HAVARD
MILLENNIALS are the generation best prepared to break into the property market despite facing a higher cost to buy their first home than their predecessors.
That’s because they can put their fingers on an arsenal of information about getting into the property market on their phones, a Geelong home lender says.
But a Geelong pilot program coaching first-time buyers on saving and setting realistic property goals showed there were still some knowledge gaps.
The ANZ program, which pairs first-time buyers with a savings coach in a 40-minute session to build a realistic savings plan around their income and expenditure, is being rolled out nationally.
Waurn Ponds first-home savers coach Amanda Havard said young buyers, aged 20-28, were better prepared due to the explosion of online calculators and reality television programs about buying and renovating property.
“Millennials are particularly savvy — they’re electronicallysavvy,” she said.
“They know where they can get information and have a lot of resources available to them, so they have really informed questions. On the other hand, we do have the people that come in and don’t know very much at all and are at the very first step of looking at purchasing a home.
“People for the most part are very realistic and a pretty good percentage of customers that I see have already had a look at how much they can afford online.”
Many first-home buyers are looking to build in Geelong’s new housing estates.
State Revenue Office data shows almost 700 people were handed the $20,000 firsthome owner grant in the region in the first nine months of 2018.
Armstrong Creek, Charlemont and Mt Duneed is the most popular area with 274. Other hot spots included Torquay, Lara, Curlewis, Clifton Springs, Drysdale, Highton and Ocean Grove.
Villawood Properties executive director Rory Costelloe said first-time buyers made up 30-40 per cent of buyers at the Armstrong and Sanctuary estates in Geelong’s south.
But recent price rises were making life harder, he said.
Mr Costelloe said first-time buyers chased smaller blocks, where they could build a new house for a similar cost of a renovator in an existing suburb.
He said developers designed products for first-home buyers, like 350sq m blocks where they could build a 20square house on the land for $430,000, or spend about $480,000 to build a bigger house on a 400sq m package.
The same price range sent buyers to second-ring suburbs like Newcomb, Grovedale and Bell Park.
McGrath, Geelong agent David McGuinness said one of the benefits of buying in these suburbs was they were experiencing good capital growth, close to 30 per cent in 12 months in Newcomb.
Mr McGuinness said buyers were happy to buy properties, wait 12 months or so while getting ahead on repayments and make cosmetic changes.