Young parents’ beat Sydney’s property market chaos

Steven and Elizabeth Gardner with their children Archie, 2, and Lily, 5. Picture: Jonathan Ng

They say getting a foot on the property ladder is the hardest part, but this young couple learnt there were many more rungs to endure in making their dream a reality.

Steven and Elizabeth Gardner struck gold when they purchased a three-bedroom villa for just over $500,000 in 2016.

“For us it was affordable at the time,” Mr Gardner said. “We rented it out for a year and then moved in just after we got married,” he said.

“The interest rates were great when we bought, we thought it would be a two to four year plan,” he said.

However, life had other plans and interest rate hikes challenged the young family.

“We got by, but it was a struggle,” he said. “We’ve had two kids in the last five years so when my wife wasn’t working we had to penny pinch here and there.”

Now that their two kids were a bit older and Ms Gardner was able to return to full-time work, plus the bonus of rates beginning to fall, the couple felt “relieved.”

The family learnt a lot and managed to secure a new home. Picture: Jonathan Ng

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They made the difficult and savvy decision to sell their beloved home and upsize.

“We are pretty sad to be leaving, we loved it,” he said, and they faced yet another challenge in reaching their goal.

“(Prices) were so rough. It’s ridiculous. I kept thinking what $1m would get you ten years ago, we struggled to find a four bedroom in our $1.1m budget,” he said.

But after months of looking, the family secured a four-bedroom home in their budget, and even had a bit leftover to renovate the slightly dated home.

It was an “easy decision,” for the family to stay in the area, Mr Gardner added.

“The area is really growing, the shopping centre is doubling in size,” Mr Gardner said.

“Our daughter has started primary school around the corner and she plays soccer and has dancing around the are too.”

Their new purchase was still a stepping stone to where they wanted to be in another five or ten years time, but Mr Gardner said they had learnt a lot from their experience.

The family purchased in Picture: Jonathan Ng

“We had some regrets about not getting our place valued earlier, we might have been in a stronger position a year ago,” he said. “We figured out we could afford to move but we didn’t realise how many moving pieces there were, luckily our agent was really good, really responsive and reassuring, it was good to have a good agent.”

They sold their home through Trent Zahra at McGrath West for $791,000, almost $300,000 more than what they bought it for nine years earlier.

“It doesn’t cost you to get in touch with a broker to see where you’re at, we’ve learnt to back ourselves and be a bit more optimistic about things,” Mr Gardner said. “There isn’t a perfect time to do it.”

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