I sometimes think about how different this conversation would have sounded if someone had sat me down at twenty and explained it properly. Not in a lecture. Just as a friend who knew things I did not.
I get it. You’re living at home. Your friends are moving out. It feels like everyone else is getting on with life while you’re still eating your mum’s cooking and explaining when you’ll be home.
I met a 24-year-old recently. Great job. Living at home. Had saved nearly $40,000. Felt embarrassed about still being there. Every conversation with his friends seemed to revolve around who had signed a lease, who had found a share house, who had finally made the leap.
What nobody realised was that he was about six months away from buying his first investment property.
The people he felt behind are the ones who will feel behind him in five years.
The pressure to move out at a certain age is real, even when nobody is explicitly putting it on you. It sits in the group chat, in the Instagram stories of share houses and first apartments, in the quiet assumption that adulthood means your own address.
This article is not going to tell you not to move out. It is going to tell you something more useful: what the decision actually costs, and how to make it on your terms rather than the rental market’s.
The question is not whether to move out. It’s whether you move out with something, or without anything.
If You Are Still at Home: The Maths of This Moment
Living at home without paying rent is worth somewhere between $300 and $600 a week in Australian cities, more in Sydney and Melbourne. That is not a small number. That is $15,000 to $30,000 a year sitting in your life, waiting to be used.
Most people do not use it. It disappears into the same places money always disappears when there is no plan for it: nights out, subscriptions, clothes, a car upgrade, things that felt important at the time and are genuinely hard to account for six months later.
That is not a moral judgement. It is just how money works without intention.
What this window is actually worth
If you are saving $1,000 a month while living at home, that is $12,000 a year.
Over two years, with a high-interest savings account: approximately $25,000.
Over three years: approximately $38,000.
On a 5% deposit through the First Home Guarantee, $38,000 gets you into a $600,000 to $700,000 property, potentially with money left for costs. That is not a distant fantasy. That is 36 months of one specific decision.
The same three years spent paying $350 a week in rent produces zero equity, zero deposit, and $54,000 gone.
The window you are in is not unlimited. Parents change their minds, relationships change the living situation, the city changes the equation. You do not have to treat every dollar as sacred. But knowing what the window is worth, and deciding what you want to do with it, is the difference between being twenty-seven with options and twenty-seven starting from scratch.
The Lifestyle Tax Nobody Talks About
The conversation about cars, clothes, and going out is not about denying yourself things you enjoy. It is about understanding what each choice actually costs.
A $35,000 car financed at twenty-one costs you the repayments, yes. It also costs you the compound effect of not saving that money. It costs you the deposit months that disappear. It costs you the version of your life at twenty-eight that would have been possible if you had made a different call at twenty-one.
None of that makes the car wrong. Some people buy the car and figure the rest out later and they are fine. But most people who figure it out later are the same people who arrive at thirty wondering why property feels so far away, when the answer is usually sitting in their financial history from age twenty to twenty-five.
It is not the coffee. It is not even the car. It is the absence of a plan that makes the difference.
The season of living at home is one of the only times in your adult life when your income can significantly outpace your expenses without extraordinary discipline. That does not come back. When you move out, the maths change permanently.
You do not have to be perfect. You have to be intentional.
If You Are About to Move Out: Here Is the Reframe
Say you are moving out. The decision is made or nearly made. You want your own space, your own life, your own front door. That is not irresponsible. That is a completely legitimate thing to want.
The question is not whether you should rent. The question is whether you can own something at the same time.
Rent is dead money. You have heard that. Everyone has heard that. But here is the part nobody says out loud:
Rent is dead money. Unless someone else’s rent is paying yours.
If you buy an investment property in a suburb where the numbers work, your tenant pays rent to you. That rent offsets, or covers, the rent you are paying to live where you want to live. You get your freedom. You also get equity building in the background.
That is not a complicated idea. It is just one most people are not introduced to until they are in their thirties.
How Rentvesting Works When You Are Young
Rentvesting means buying a property as an investment while renting somewhere else to live.
For young Australians, it solves a specific problem: you cannot afford to buy in the suburb you want to live in, but you can afford to buy somewhere the numbers make sense. So you do both. You live where you want to. You own where the investment stacks up.
The basic structure
- Save your deposit while living at home (or with your income significantly ahead of your expenses).
- Buy an investment property in an area with good fundamentals: population growth, infrastructure, rental demand. This does not have to be where you live.
- Move out and rent where you actually want to be.
- Your tenant pays rent. That rent partially or fully offsets what you pay to your landlord. Meanwhile, your investment property builds equity.
- When you are ready, you sell or refinance the investment to fund the home you actually want to buy.
The tax system treats investment properties differently to the home you live in. Depreciation, interest, and costs can be claimed. A good accountant and a good broker will show you what that looks like for your income specifically.
This is not a strategy for people with a lot of money. It is a strategy for people who are willing to think about it before the default sets in. The default being: move out, pay rent, never quite get ahead, wonder at thirty-five how everyone else seemed to manage it.
The Numbers, Honestly
The surprise for most people is that the property does not need to completely pay for itself. That is not how investment property works, and it is not what makes it worth doing.
The mortgage repayment on a $550,000 property at current rates is around $740 a week. That number sounds alarming on its own. But a tenant is paying around $450 a week toward it. And the tax system, through deductions on interest and depreciation on a new build, gives back a meaningful portion of the shortfall. What looks like a $740 weekly commitment can end up costing you $170 to $200 a week in real terms.
Not nothing. But not $740 either.
Here is what that looks like:
| Per week | Per year | |
| Mortgage repayment (P+I, 6.2%) | ~$740 | ~$38,500 |
| Rental income from tenant | ~$450 | ~$23,400 |
| Net shortfall before tax | ~$290 | ~$15,100 |
| Tax benefit (depreciation + interest, est. 32.5% bracket) | ~$90 to $120 | ~$5,000+ |
| Approximate real weekly cost to hold | ~$170 to $200 |
Indicative only. Based on a new build in a high-growth outer metro or regional market. Interest rate 6.2% P+I. Individual tax outcomes vary. Speak to a broker and accountant for your specific numbers.
You would also be paying, say, $350 a week in rent to live where you want to live. So your total weekly housing cost is approximately $520 to $550: your rent plus your share of the investment mortgage. That is comparable to what many people pay in rent alone in capital cities. The difference is that half of it is building something.
Not glamorous. Not instant. But it compounds in a way that renting forever does not.
What to Do Next
If you are still at home, the next step is not a property portal. It is a savings account and a number. What is your deposit target? What is a realistic monthly saving? When does the timeline close?
Most people who build wealth through property do not do it because they were especially brave or especially lucky. They do it because someone showed them the mechanics early enough.
That is what this is.
At this point most people ask me the same question.
‘Okay. But how do I actually find out if this is possible for me?’
That is where a good broker becomes invaluable. Not to sell you something. Just to give you the real picture: what you can borrow, what it would cost to hold, what markets are worth looking at. Most people are surprised by what is actually available to them. The conversation costs nothing.
These are the people I send my clients to:
Irshad Hatami
Mortgage broker, Melbourne
Why Aimee works with them:
Irshad is meticulous. He does not just find a rate, he maps the full picture: serviceability, structure, what the bank actually looks at. My clients who go to him come back better informed about their own financial position than they were before the first appointment. That is rare.
Connect with Irshad on LinkedIn
Rielle Berglund — Matilda Tree Finance
Mortgage broker, Melbourne
Why Aimee works with them:
Rielle is exceptionally good with first-time buyers and people who feel intimidated by the finance process. She makes the complex feel manageable without dumbing it down. She explains everything, she is patient, and she genuinely celebrates her clients’ wins.
Instagram: @matildatreefinance
Dean Freda — Brokerage & Co
Mortgage broker, Melbourne (specialist in trades and self-employed)
Why Aimee works with them:
Dean works primarily with tradies and self-employed clients, people whose income structure makes standard broker conversations frustrating. He understands how that income is assessed and how to present it properly.
Instagram: @deanfreda_thetradiebroker
These are professionals I trust with my clients. If you choose to contact them, I may receive a referral fee if you proceed. That does not change what I tell you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy an investment property while still living at home?
Yes, and for many young Australians this is the most financially effective sequence. You save while your expenses are lower, buy an investment property, then move out into a rental. Your tenant’s rent offsets your rent, and you build equity in the background. Talk to a broker about your borrowing capacity first so you know what deposit target you are working toward.
What is rentvesting and is it a good idea for young people?
Rentvesting means buying an investment property in an affordable or high-growth area while renting where you actually want to live. For young Australians who cannot afford to buy in their preferred suburb, it allows them to get into the market earlier, build equity, and maintain flexibility. Whether it is right for you depends on your income, savings, and goals. A broker can model the numbers for your specific situation.
Is it worth living at home longer to save for a house deposit?
For most young Australians, the answer is yes if the home situation is workable. Every month living at home with intentional saving is a month off your deposit timeline. The First Home Guarantee allows purchases with a 5% deposit and no lender’s mortgage insurance, which significantly lowers the threshold. A broker can calculate the minimum deposit for your target purchase price and tell you how far away you actually are.
How much deposit do I need to buy my first investment property?
For an investment property, lenders typically require a minimum of 10% to 20% deposit, as the First Home Guarantee applies only to owner-occupied purchases. However, if you buy your investment property as your first property and move in initially, you may be able to access first home buyer schemes. Speak to a broker about the most efficient structure for your specific goals.
What is the First Home Guarantee and can investors use it?
The First Home Guarantee allows eligible first home buyers to purchase with a 5% deposit and no lender’s mortgage insurance. It applies to owner-occupied purchases, not investment properties. However, some first home buyers purchase a property, live in it initially to satisfy occupancy requirements, and later convert it to an investment property. The rules around this are specific and vary by lender. A broker can advise on what is possible for your circumstances.
Is rent really dead money?
Rent gives you somewhere to live without the costs of ownership, such as council rates, maintenance, and opportunity cost of equity tied up. So, it is not inherently wasteful. But it does not build equity or wealth over time. If you are renting while also owning an investment property, your tenant’s rent is effectively working on your behalf. If you are only renting with no ownership anywhere, you are funding your landlord’s asset, not your own.
Related articles
You might also find these helpful
Why Property, and Why Young? The Real Reason It Matters More Than Most People Realise — the case for thinking about property in your twenties.
Rentvesting: Why ‘I Can’t Afford to Buy Here’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does — the full rentvesting strategy, for when you’re ready to go deeper.
What Is a Mortgage Broker — and Why Even Bother? — your first conversation before you look at a single property.
The First-Time Investor Mistakes Nobody Actually Warns You About — what to know before you commit to anything.
Disclaimer
This article contains general information only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. Please speak to a licensed financial advisor, solicitor or mortgage broker about your specific circumstances. Aimee Templeman is a licensed real estate agent however approaches property through the lens of learning and empowerment. She has decades of experience coaching and advising everyday Australians and executive decision makers. Book a conversation with Aimee at Contact.