The secret to buying a house at 22

Felicia Coco bought a house at 22. This is how she did it.

Felicia Coco was working five jobs while she was saving up to buy a house.

She completely sacrificed her social life and stayed at home while her friends moved out.
"It shouldn't be this hard to put a roof over your head," she said.

But this is a reality for many young people.

Felicia is one of the lucky ones who was actually able to buy a house before she reached middle age.

She purchased a home last year for about $400,000 in Thomastown, about 30 minutes from Melbourne's CBD, when she was just 22.

But after the struggles and hurdles she went through to break into the market, she knows one thing for sure. What she did is unreasonable. More needs to be done to help young first home buyers.

While the Turnbull Government has announced the new super saver scheme, Felicia believes it's not the answer to tackling the housing affordability crisis.

According to research conducted by iBuildNew, an online listing site of home builders and land developers, 85 per cent of first home buyers believe an affordable house is less than $600,000.

More than 70 per cent can't get into the property market because they can't save for a deposit or secure a loan.

'I HAD BEEN SAVING A LONG TIME'

"I recognised the value in investing in property at quite a young age, it was something reinforced pretty early on from my parents," she told news.com.au.

"I had been saving for quite a long time, I was well aware it was quite expensive and difficult to get in the housing market and it did take many years of saving, budgeting, and trying not to be frivolous with money."

Felicia did not go on a European trip and stayed living with her parents. She knew she would have no chance of buying a house if she did not make sacrifices.

Felicia bought her two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a suburb not too far out of Melbourne. She was looking for an area with the potential to grow but that was still affordable. She ended up buying off-the-plan.

"The benefit of buying off-the-plan is I had a say in what I wanted in the house," she said.

"It important for people to look at the options and consider what they can do.

"I know people who want to live in a cute house in the middle of Brunswick, but realistically more young people need to look at house and land packages, they are affordable options that get your foot in the door.

"It might mean buying in an area they don't love but find somewhere you can invest your money. Look at building new, it is cost effective and you have so much more control and can make it yours."

'GETTING A LOAN IS REALLY DIFFICULT'

Felicia said realistically young people could not buy pre-established dwellings close to Melbourne's CBD for less than $700,000.

"One of the biggest hurdles is finding somewhere to buy. It's hard to find something suitable and you have to go out pretty far. You're limited in terms of facilities and infrastructure like shops, trains and trams," she said.

"If I didn't have access to transport, it would be pretty hard for me to get to work and impact significantly on the value of my home."

Felicia said even if prospective buyer's find the right place, they still have to rely on the bank to give them a loan.

"Getting a loan as a young person is really difficult. We are nobodies to the bank. We don't have strong credit ratings unless we've been using credit for a while and have a history," she said.

ARE MILLENNIALS TOO FRIVOLOUS?

"A lot of my friends want to get into the property market and it's a huge issue for them," Felicia said.

"Most don't have parents who can help them out with a deposit. They are also university graduates and people breaking into their industries and are not making very big wages.

They all want to break into the property market but it's not looking good."

Felicia said millennials were not spending $40 a day on smashed avocado, but there were those who didn't have clear direction and who lacked budgeting skills.

"Realistically people aren't motivated to save for a house because they don't think they have a chance of breaking into the market. If I didn't think I had a chance, I'd be focusing on the now too. If you don't think you have the option, what's the point?" she said.

"It might take you 10 years to save for a house so you just go to Europe instead."
Felicia said millennials had it tougher than other generations.

"What people don't realise is the rate of wages has not risen in line with the cost of housing, it's completely disproportionate," she said.

"People also fail to realise the cost of living has increased significantly."

Felicia's best advice to millennials wanting to break into the market was to look outside the city and consider buying a new home off-the-plan.