PHOTO: Elise Luhrs
While she didn’t dip into the Bank of Mum and Dad, one Melbourne woman did use one controversial method to get enough money for a home deposit.
Elise Luhrs was on a mission to save a 20 per cent deposit all by herself, but realised that the five years it would take her would mean she would be priced out the market as property would be “so much more expensive”.
She has been saving for around two years and for most of the time she was a uni student working casually, but she still managed to put away $1500 a month on average, all while renting a place on her own.
The 29-year-old said she had a monthly budget which included eating most meals at home, keeping weekends low key, cutting her spending on clothing and not grabbing takeaway coffee.
She saved up $35,000 in two years. Picture: Getty Images
She had also tracked her outgoings over a month to find out where her money was going.
The Melbourne resident admits the pursuit of a 20 per cent deposit was driven by a “lack of education around home ownership”.
“I didn’t know about lender’s mortgage insurance and thought that was an extra level of stress but the more I learned I felt a bit more accepting of the situation and realised this is the way it is,” she told news.com.au.
“It made it feel more manageable. I just thought is it going to be possible to save up $100,000 in five years … and is there going to be a property for $500,000 anymore?”
She built up $35,000 for the house deposit, but it was a controversial scheme that also helped her out.
Last year, she decided to dip into her super and take out $10,000 through the federal government’s early release of superannuation scheme.
It has since emerged that $37.3 billion was sapped from retirement funds under the plan. In February, Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean said the government scheme had impacted younger workers who were likely going to be poorer at retirement.
She also used the controversial super scheme to boost her deposit. Picture: iStock
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