Why I’ll never own a home

• OPINION: Occasionally, a cruel colleague with a few decades on me will ask when I’m going to buckle down and work out a plan to own some property.

“I have a plan,” I reply. “I just need to murder my entire family.”

Mine is not a tale of economic woe. I’m one of the lucky ones. My parents own the home I grew up in. I’ve got an OK job and my student loan is down to four figures. I’ve never had to live in a garage. There are thousands of other Kiwi 23-year-olds who have had it much worse.

But I doubt I will ever own a home. The whole concept feels alien to me, like smoking on airplanes or free tertiary education – a relic of a bygone era. I don’t know anyone else my age who feels differently.

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AARTEN HOLL/FAIRFAX NZ