Queensland Millennials Dealing with First Home Buyer Anxiety

It’s a sad aspect of modern life in Australia that the dream of owning your own home in this country is further away than ever. House prices have skyrocketed to astronomical amounts, interest rates are through the roof, and lenders have made it harder than ever before to secure a home loan.

Studies have shown that, on average, Queensland homeowners will be closer to 40 than 20 by the time they purchase their own home. Queensland, and Brisbane in particular, is one of the most expensive places in Australia to purchase a home, and this crisis is only set to worsen over

the coming years. It’s no wonder that millennials are experiencing anxiety when it comes to buying their first home.

What are Queensland Millennials most anxious about when purchasing their first home?

There really does seem to be a mountain of seemingly insurmountable obstacles popping up in front of younger people trying to get their foot in the door of the housing market, but these are the biggest worries facing Queensland millennials when they come to buy their first property.

Soaring House Prices

The first big worry is just how much the price of housing has jumped over the past few years. Big cities around the country have experienced skyrocketing housing prices, which have essentially priced younger people out of becoming homeowners. You can see it in the statistics. A study by money.co.uk has shown that Australians are more likely to be closer to 40 than 20 when they buy their first property. The median house price around the country made records in 2023 when it jumped to $800,000, which just further complicates an already daunting task. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel either, as this trend looks set to continue.

Saving Huge Deposits

Lenders are now requiring buyers to have huge deposits (as large as 20% of the home purchase price) in order to be considered eligible for a home loan. Saving up for these frankly monstrous deposits is incredibly difficult when also managing other financial commitments like bills, rent, and car repayments. There’s also no guarantee that the deposit you’ve saved is going to secure your dream home anyway.

Extremely Competitive Markets

If you do manage to save a big enough deposit, you’ve now got to enter a very competitive market. Multiple bids on properties by investors who have so much more experience (and equity) than a first-time home buyer is now the norm. This pushes prices higher and makes it hard for new investors to compete. It also means that first-home buyers feel pressure to make multiple offers, even on homes they don’t love.

Rising Interest Rates

Potential homeowners are increasingly concerned that even once they’ve saved up a deposit and secured their new home, they may not be able to afford the repayments. Rising interest rates have meant that monthly repayments have also risen, which just makes the overall financial burden harder to bear. The combination of rising interest rates and the looming threat

of potential mortgage stress just adds to the anxiety first-time buyers feel. Being unable to make those monthly repayments weighs heavily on their minds. In the long run, this can deter millennials from taking the potential homeowner journey in the first place. According to clinical psychologists, a growing number of millennials fear they will never own their own home. This further compounds the overwhelming anxiety many are experiencing because of the current economic uncertainty in Australia. This sense of hopelessness is a worrying trend and could lead to long-term mental health issues