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Analysis: As the housing crisis continues to spiral out of control, Hayden Donnell calls for a moratorium on stories about young first home buyers.
Stuff’s latest story about a pair of young home buyers follows a familiar structure.
It starts out chronicling the couple’s efforts to save for a deposit, before transitioning into their eventual against-the-odds triumph in a competitive auction.
In the 15th paragraph the story takes a turn, revealing that saving and self-denial might not have been the main factor behind the purchase.
The couple, both 28, had never rented. They’d stayed with a parent their whole lives. One of them had been helped into a first home by their parents four years ago, and used that property to help leverage them into their current place.
The story is by no means the first, or the worst, of its kind. Media organisations are famous for framing stories about young homeowners as a how-to guide to getting on the property ladder, only to reveal late that the buyers’ secret was “having rich parents”.
In 2018, 21-year-old property magnate Jonathan Brownlee told the Herald that aspiring homeowners could emulate his success if they worked hard enough. It would also help those potential buyers if, like Brownlee, their parents topped up their savings to give them a deposit on a first property.
In 2017, Stuff credited diligent saving with helping a 21-year-old into her first home.
Other potential factors included living with her parents for free, and those parents acting as guarantors for her home loan.
The list goes on. Jake and Ella Horan can afford their Westmere home because they rent it out for half the year while they live for free with their parents. Caeli Gunderson started her rental property mini-empire after inheriting two houses from her mother.
Admittedly, a few stories about young homeowners don’t eventually divulge substantial parental assistance.
In 2016, Ashley Verheul told the Herald her property investment was partly underpinned by a decision to view food as an optional luxury.
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