After arriving back from an overseas trip, Tessa and Andrew knew they wanted to start saving for a house. Strapped for cash and still living with their parents at the time, they decided to move out together and rent while they saved for a deposit.
They set a savings goal and four years later are now living in their own three bedroom home with two rescue dogs in Charlestown, Newcastle.
“Being in our own place is really rewarding. We saved so much money for so long we now have something to show for it and we’re not paying off someone else’s mortgage,” Tessa said.
Initially not knowing where to start, they went into a Newcastle Permanent branch and met with a lending specialist.
“Talking to someone was much easier than searching for information online as you get more detail. Our mortgage lender talked us through everything and did the budget calculator so we knew what we should be putting away and what we’d be spending on bills,” Tessa said.
“She also explained how the Family Guarantee worked as we weren’t going to have a 20% deposit so would have had to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). As first home buyers, we got stamp duty waived as the property was under $650,000 and we saved on LMI with Andrew’s parents going guarantor, which was really helpful.
“We also chose a Premium Plus Package Fixed Rate for two years given interest rates are so low at the moment and it helps to know how much our repayments will be each month.”
Having banked with Newcastle Permanent since they were teenagers, Tessa said it made the process of applying for a home loan easy.
“I’ve always found Newcastle Permanent great and I wouldn’t go anywhere else. The branches are really accessible and I had a Smart Saver Account for Under 25’s that we used to put all our money in for the deposit as it had a really good interest rate,” Tessa said.
“I’d definitely encourage other first home buyers to set up a dedicated savings account with a good interest rate that doesn’t have the option to transfer out of online. It stopped us from accessing our savings for silly things.”
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