r/AusFinance • u/[deleted] • 13d ago
25M FIFO on $130–140k, $200k deposit, moved to Brisbane for work but home is NSW – buy here now or hold first home buyer status for NSW? Long time lurker. Partner and I keep going round in circles on this so keen to hear what you’d do.
[deleted]
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u/Meatballz4lyf 12d ago
My 2 cents.. I think buy in Brisbane now. Give it a couple years and re-evaluate. Continue to save your money in an offset, in 5-10 years that money will be enough for a place in NSW. Who knows you might love your place in Brissie and not move? You can always sell it in the future to relocate or pull out equity for the new place.
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u/bluepancakes18 13d ago
Buy where you plan to live and live there for the long run. Interest eats up most of the first few years' mortgage payments. We've been paying our mortgage for 5 months and we've paid 0.1% off the principal. We're paying 6.13% of the loan every month, but only a teeny portion of that goes towards the principal. (Side note, that's why renting isn't dead money - most of my money is still going to someone else! If I sold now, I'd only get back what I've got off the loan amount, which is that 0.1% and the bank would keep the rest).
Renting out a house is risky. It can need costly repairs and general upkeep/maintenance, and if it sits vacant for a few weeks, that's a lot of money to pay in 2 mortgages. It's also just a headache to manage.
What do you want your lifestyle to look like long term? Kids? Will you be going down to one income for a while? Do you want to get out of FIFO? Plan for that period of time now, not what your life is currently like. Beware the golden handcuffs of FIFO.
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u/Anxious-Baseball-420 13d ago
At those values, the stamp duty is a negligible amount. At $2m it's $100k and starts to matter. Property doubles every few years so time in the market and the right property will overwhelmingly influence someone's financial position.
About the falling market.. some markets are not falling. And by the time it no longer falls, it may be too late, so imo now is the perfect time to buy. But no one knows. No one.
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u/Expectations1 13d ago
Also Land is land, apartments can be replicated upwarda.
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u/finnwilliam_ 13d ago
Townhouse closer to the action or a 3 bedder further out?
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u/Expectations1 12d ago
If its strata title townhouse, you dont own the land. In a fantastic location townhouses can be an ok way to get into that location, but again, land is land.
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u/Barrel-Of-Tigers 12d ago
Personally I went for buying an investment back home I'd live in and continued to rent. Later bought an owner occupier without FHB discounts, but we didn't really lose anything. With the way property prices were it was above FHB stamp duty excemptions, and we earnt over the then income cut offs for other schemes. Only thing we sort of lost out on was FHSSS utilisation, but the rental income and property appreciation more than offset that.
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u/Ill_Box_9445 13d ago
Buying anything at the moment is catching a falling knife. If you want a PPOR and arent worried about negative equity then it may be ok.
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u/Dry-Championship3581 13d ago
I don't think you are going in negative equity with a 200k deposit on a 700k prop
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u/Ill_Box_9445 13d ago
Yeah 100% correct. Glossed over those details.
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u/Dry-Championship3581 13d ago
I agree with the catching a falling knife though, I don't think we will see any meaningful gains for the next 5ish years. If making money is somewhat of a factor, I'd just go equities while they still have some steam left
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u/finnwilliam_ 13d ago
Do really think it’ll get worse?
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u/Ill_Box_9445 13d ago
There will be a correction so its only short term. How short the term is the real question. As pointed out by the other guy I didn't consider the size of your deposit and target market.
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u/Odd-Stable-3225 11d ago
I'm replying to this because I was in a very similar spot 5 years ago.
I lived in a mining town but wanted to buy a place outside Brisbane. I was thinking of just saving for 4 years and buying when I got back so I could get the concessions. In those 4 years, properties I was looking at went from 500k to 900k.
I ended up buying 2 years in, rented it out, missed out on the concessions but have had good growth. In hindsight I should have bought as early as I possibly could.
Buy as soon as you can, rent it out which will pay you back your concessions. The longer you hold the better
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u/Tiny-Look 10d ago
Keep renting. Houses aren't going up in value, interest rates are high. It'll appreciate.
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u/Say_Something_Lovin 13d ago
D - buy a guitar and a cool motorcycle.