Young people are frequently told that they’re the reason they can’t access the housing market – all these ‘luxuries’ that we live with now like brunch and streaming services are the real reason you can't break into the housing market.
It’s definitely not that house prices continue to go through the roof coupled with the rising cost of living, lack of wage growth and that most people working in causal positions are young people, it’s the avocados.
The median (middle of the range) house price in Adelaide has hit $650,000, the estimates below are based on this price with a 5% deposit of $32,500.
1. Smashed avocado
It’s an oldie but a goodie, or it must be with the amount of times it comes up (so much that we named this site after). We’ve given the run down on this here, but working off a $20 smashed av you’d need to skip about 1,625 brunches, or a weekly brunch for over 31 years to save for your deposit.
2. Netflix
Netflix is another point of contention, another one of those luxuries we relish at the expense of home ownership. Bold of them to assume we’re using our own accounts (shoutout to the parents, friends and housemates bearing the responsibility), but the lowest Netflix subscription price in Australia is $10.99 a month meaning you’d need to give up your account for over 246 years to save for your deposit.
3. Coffee
Often brought up alongside the smashed avo argument is the amount of money young people spend on coffee. Maybe they’re right, after all saving $4.50 on caffeine (price adjusted for milk alternatives) every day when for just shy of 20 years you could have a house deposit instead.
4. Takeaway
Food seems to be a common go-to, it’s as if we require it to survive. This one is a little harder to estimate because it’s so broad, but if we run off $35 a week on takeaway you’re looking at just under 18 years to get your deposit together.
