‘Beans on toast for months’: First homebuyer reveals true cost of unit purchase

Anna Chen laughs when she says she’ll be living on beans on toast for the next three months, but she’s only half joking.

After losing out for months to higher offers, the 35-year-old has finally beaten the competition to land a two-bedroom unit in the inner Brisbane suburb of New Farm for $840,000.

Her mortgage repayments will be about $800 a week, but she needs to spend another $45,000 renovating the unit before she moves in.

Anna Chen is a first homebuyer who has just taken on a mortgage and a renovation. Picture: Liam Kidston.

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“The first couple of months, I will have zero furniture, except for a fridge, and I’ll have to survive this summer without airconditioning,” Ms Chen said.

“I will be living on beans on toast for the next three months — I’m not even joking.”

But, unlike an increasing number of mortgage holders and renters who are dealing with the increasing costs of living expenses, Ms Chen is determined not to rely on credit to get by financially.

“I grew up in China, so there’s this idea of ‘always spend your own money’, so I don’t like the idea of taking on a loan,” she said.

This two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit in Langshaw St, New Farm, just sold for $840,000.

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“I have two credit cards. One I really don’t use and the other, I had a credit limit of $15,000 but my broker told me I needed to reduce it to $1500 to get my loan. What can I buy with that?! I can’t even buy an international flight ticket.”

It comes as new figures from credit score company, Illion, reveal the risk of Queenslanders defaulting on their credit cards in the next 12 months is rising, and more people are relying on credit to pay their bills so they can afford their mortgage and rent repayments.

“(These insights) are showing the greatest, most elevated level of credit stress among consumers since Covid,” Barrett Hasseldine, head of modelling at Illion, said.

A two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit in need of a renovation in this complex in Langshaw St, New Farm, just sold for $840,000.

“That in itself was something that we had hoped we had seen the worst of, and as interest rates are starting to come down again, hopefully there’s some of that easing pressure, but we’re not seeing the full effect of that yet.”

Ms Chen said despite the financial stress that would come with a mortgage, she couldn’t be happier to own her own home.

“I had a slight panic, thiking that I may never be able to get into the market,” she said.

“Now, I have this feeling — I’m finally home.”

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