PHOTO: Georgia Heiniger says she’s experienced a lot of disappointment and frustration trying to buy her first home. ABC News: Damian McIntyre
For Tasmanians trying to buy a home in 2021, hope can be a dangerous emotion.
Key points:
- Over the past 12 months, house prices have grown by 8.7 per cent in Hobart and 13.8 per cent in regional Tasmania
- Hopeful home buyers are feeling pressure to take risks by not asking building inspections and cooling-off periods
- There are calls to introduce laws that would protect home buyers against potential problems with the homes they buy
Georgia Heiniger and her partner have been trying to secure their first home in Launceston for five months, making five unsuccessful offers so far.
“It’s pretty tough. The kind of houses we’re looking for, the areas that we’re looking at, they’re just selling really quickly. It’s really cutthroat,” Ms Heiniger said.
Recently, they lost out to another buyer who offered less money for a property, but also didn’t ask for a building inspection or for time to secure finance.
“It’s kind of disheartening, particularly when we’re offering as much as we can and we know we shouldn’t but we do get our hopes up.”
Ms Heiniger and her partner have felt pressure to take risks to make their offers more competitive, by foregoing building inspections, or making cash offers, even though they need to borrow money.
“We’ve made a lot of those risks. We’ve put in maybe three offers on houses sight unseen,” Ms Heiniger said.
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