By Elizabeth Redman

Copyright smh

“The other option is going very far from the city, which is either changing jobs, changing lifestyle too, going far from our friends, from family.”

He has been saving for seven years and describes his six-figure salary as “really good”, while his partner has been saving her whole life. They are grateful that his partner’s mum can help a little with their purchase, but they pay half their salary in rent on a unit in Forest Lodge in Sydney’s inner west and neither can work from home.

He thinks the 5 per cent deposit scheme is “a good first step”, but not enough.

“The 5 per cent deposit may be hiding the actual issue, which is the house price. The culture of Australia using housing as an investment instead of as a necessity has gone too far,” he said.