By Victoria Stone-Meadows
A young couple from Keysborough are bucking the trend of their generation and buying a house and land package in the outer suburbs away from their family homes.
Cassandra Farley, 22, and Robert Byron, 27, have bought a house and land package from Burbank Homes in the Clarinda estate in Cranbourne West, despite it being 20 kilometres from the area they are familiar with.
An online listing site of home builders and land developers, iBuildNew, commissioned a study conducted by market and social research firm Ipsos of 1030 Australians asking about housing.
The survey results show that 64 per cent of first home buyers are only prepared to look at properties within their suburb of choice or surrounding suburbs.
According to iBuildNew, young people are less likely to purchase property or build houses in outer suburbs of Melbourne, let alone regional areas.
The statistics also show 22 per cent of first home buyers are considering a new build when securing their first home, with 60 per cent focused on buying an established home or townhouse.
At first Ms Farley and Mr Byron were reluctant to move away from family, but the semi-rural setting of Cranbourne West and the affordable house prices drew them to the area.
“I’m really close with my family so I will definitely still see them,” Ms Farley said.
“Just personally, I’m not an inner city kind of person and the prices are even more ridiculous in the inner suburbs and you don’t get the space there you get out here.”
“We understand that Cranbourne West will become more established over time but we really like that it is still a bit country.”
Ms Farley said it was important to her and her partner to purchase property in the estate before they sold out and before house prices grew further.
“When we first started looking, the prices were high but still reasonable,” Ms Farley said.
“Since we purchased what would be considered a small block, we have compared the prices of similar blocks in similar areas and the price has jumped up $50,000 to $70,000.”
“That was one of our main reasons for doing it so young and so quickly; the prices were going to continue to go up.”
Ms Farley and Mr Byron believe they have made a good financial decision buying in Cranbourne West, despite the area being new and not yet developed.
“We considered there are a lot of paddocks still around us but we knew by the time we’re looking to sell and upgrade to something bigger, there would be a lot more infrastructure like parks and shopping centres that would add a lot more value to our property.”
The trend of first home buyers being reluctant to purchase a new house in an outer suburb may be due to misinformation, according to iBuildNew CEO Daniel Peterson.
“The economic benefit of buying new is not well understood by first home buyers, with real estate agents doing their best to overcomplicate building a new home to retain demand for established homes,” he said.
“The reality is building new doesn’t need to be difficult, and the economics for a first home buyer are really compelling.”
