How to buy your first home by 22

Luke and Chloe had been looking at houses for almost six months before going to an open house in Cardiff South one Saturday.

Less than a week later, they had made an offer and signed the paperwork for their new three bedroom home.

“We both liked the area and I need to be within six minutes of Cardiff Fire and Rescue for work. Once we found the house it was a rush to get everything sorted. We had pretty much a week to turn it around and it all happened so fast,” Luke said.

At just 22 years of age, the young couple had been living at home with their parents and saved for a deposit for more than two years.

“We were both living with our parents before buying the house. We just thought that was the easiest way to save and bank money while we were young,” Luke said.

“We budgeted a little bit and we’d just send each other a screen shot of our savings account each week to keep track of where we were heading and to stay motivated.”

Despite feeling overwhelmed at the start, Luke and Chloe said their Mortgage Lending Specialist, Maree, was there to support them from start to finish.

“Maree was such a massive help throughout the process. The biggest thing for us was knowing how to even start and how much money we actually needed,” Chloe said.

“You don’t really know about a lot of stuff like lenders mortgage insurance or how stamp duty works. Maree was the one that told us having a 20% deposit cuts out a lot of costs, so that’s what we aimed for. Once we had all that sorted and knew how much we had to save, the actual process was so easy.”

In the end, the couple opted for a Real Deal Home Loan and chose a variable rate to take advantage of the current low interest rates and for the flexibility of paying more off than the minimum repayments.

“Buying a house is such a big commitment, but Maree went through all the terminology with us and explained the difference between loans so we could work out the best option,” Luke said.

“She was also so helpful with moving things along for us and even came over with paperwork on the Monday night to help us get it across the line.”

Having both banked with Newcastle Permanent since they were young, Luke said it was their first choice for a home loan.

“We are happy with the interest rate and never really wanted to go to a bank, we were always going to go with Newcastle Permanent,” Luke said.

“It’s so surreal to now be in our own place. It’s nice to have our own space and it has given us more independence.”