‘Heartbreaking’: Sydney family saved $100k but are ‘totally priced out’ of property market

PHOTO: Amy and Ben Kitts have $100,000 saved but still can’t buy a house in Sydney and say things needs to change. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Despite having $100,000 in savings, Amy Kitts and her husband Ben feel “hopeless” about their dream of ever owning a house in Sydney and say they are priced out of the market, despite their huge chunk of money.

Ben was “devastated” to lose his job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the couple squirrelled away the redundancy pay to top up their savings and with Amy only working three days a week, they moved into her parent’s house.

The 37-year-old found a new job as a casual and the couple, who have been married for seven years, decided to live off his earnings and use the $1000 a fortnight from Amy’s part time arts job to top up their savings.

A year later, they never thought they would still be living with Amy’s parents, along with their two-year-old daughter. But the search for their own home is proving “impossible”, Mrs Kitts said.

“We met with a mortgage broker who gave us the heartbreaking news that $100,000 of hard savings would be swallowed up by fees alone meaning we didn’t actually have a deposit at all,” she told news.com.au. “It still blows my mind and makes me angry thinking about that.”