Gen Y: Apartment is the new first home

Story sponsored by Quantum Group.  

Despite the recent cool down in the Sydney property market, the idea of buying a house is still unattainable for many first home buyers. 

That’s why a lot of young couples are now looking at affordable apartments as a way to get their foot in the door of the property market. 

Quantum Group managing director Peter Gribble has seen this trend first hand. His development company is currently selling the Regent at Kogarah – a 12 storey, 96 residence apartment building, just five minutes from the beach at Brighton-Le-Sands – and he says there’s been a lot of interest from first home buyers.

“We’ve had a huge amount of interest from owner occupiers and a lot of those have been from couples,” he said. 

A two bedroom house with a decent patch of lawn in Ermington or Guildford could set you back upwards of a million dollar. Even a “renovators delight” out west could fetch $480,000.

For a lot of young people with no equity, they simply can’t afford it. This is why they are starting to reevaluate what it is they’re really looking for.

“You don’t need to spend that type of money on a first home, especially if you want to live close to metropolitan Sydney,” Mr Gribble said.

“Our lowest priced property is $560,000 and that’s a one bedder, 55sqm internal and 8sqm balcony. Two bedders are 75sqm and start at $735,000. So that’s less than $10,000 per square meter and that’s at Kogarah, so that’s pretty good.” 

Regent is close to schools, hospitals and public transport. Some apartments have water views of Botany Bay. 

Story sponsored by Quantum Group.