Yahoo Finance Aussie landlord with $1.4 million portfolio reveals why she lives with parents
There is a growing trend of young people "stayvesting" and living at home with their parents to get ahead in the property market.
An Aussie landlord with three investment properties has shared why she and her partner still live with her parents. Experts say there is a growing trend of young people becoming “stayvestors” and choosing to live at home with their parents while investing in property elsewhere.
Liela D’Rose has been living with her parents in Brisbane’s Alexandra Hills on and off for the past seven years. The 29-year-old HR worker told Yahoo Finance she didn’t expect to be living at home for this long but was doing it to “get ahead” in the future.
“I’m so lucky that my parents have been so supportive. I know that I’ve been dealt good cards here and not everybody has this luxury,” D’Rose said.
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D’Rose owns three investment properties in Queensland worth $1.4 million altogether, with two purchased by herself and one recently purchased with her partner, Isla.
The landlord was able to do it by living at home with her parents.
D’Rose and her partner, who is a teacher, are living in a granny flat on her parent’s property.
They pay $200 a week in rent, along with helping out around the property where they can.
“I’m sure most people wouldn’t want to move back in with their parents and it is tough,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“It’s not forever, it’s just for now and we can both see the benefit of this in the future and building our portfolio to hopefully have a passive income later on in life.
“I don’t know if we can just fall back on super these days. I don’t think that’s a viable solution for wealth later on.”
She said she was conscious that it would be an "interesting" adjustment for Isla living with her parents, but that they had great relationships.
"Her and my mum get along really well, which is helpful, but there is always a level of politeness that you have to have when you’re with your partner’s family that can be hard for her sometimes," she said.
The couple are hoping to buy a property to live in themselves in the future but D’Rose said this wasn’t affordable just yet.
“Potentially the Gold Coast hinterland or Sunshine Coast hinterland where we can have a bit more space for the dogs,” she said.
“But at the moment the way interest rates are that doesn’t seem like it’s achievable right now so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Great Australian Dream more ‘challenging’
With house prices, interest rates and the cost of living at a high, many first-home buyers are finding they are only able to break into the market with help from their parents or family.
That could be in the form of a cash gift, an offer to go guarantor on a loan, or support like living at home.
Little Real Estate head of sales James Kirkland said he had never seen so many buyers turning to their parents for help in his 20 years in the industry.
“The Great Australian Dream is to be on the property ladder and that has proven to be really challenging particularly in the last couple of years,” Kirkland told Yahoo Finance.
“There is a growing trend of people renting or living in a suburb they want to live in and then investing their money in other states where they can look for either a capital growth strategy or a yield strategy.”
Kirkland said rentvesting was a popular trend - where you buy a property where you can afford and continue to rent where you want to live - while stayvesting and living with parents allowed you to boost your borrowing capacity even further.
“Yes it may be different to the traditional way that Baby Boomers grew up, but at least they’re there and they’ve got an opportunity to really ride that capital growth,” he said.
Kirkland said buyers should remember that property investment was a long-term game.
“There’s transactional cost and stamp duties and all of these things can absorb any equity quite quickly,” he said.
Buying as an investor also means you won’t benefit from first-home owner grants and schemes, which can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Plus, you may face capital gains tax if you decide to sell.
As a landlord, there will also be additional responsibilities like maintenance and repairs, as well as leasing agent fees to consider.
Building property portfolio for the future
D’Rose said she originally decided to go down the investment route because she couldn’t afford to buy where she wanted to live.
She shared that her parents were guarantors on her first property in Queensland's Thorneside, which she purchased for $245,000 in 2017. She lived in the property for a year and renovated it, before moving back in with her parents and renting the property out.
She did the same thing when purchasing her second property in Kingston in 2020, however she and her partner purchased their third Nanago property purely as an investment.
All three properties are now rented out.
D'Rose said she hoped interest rates would come down to ease the cost of her investment properties.
"Having such a high interest rate really affects the net income at the end," she said.
"I don't want to raise the rent, especially at the Thorneside place where I've had a tenant in there for the past three and a half years.
"So I'm hoping that [interest rates] come down otherwise it's going to start costing a lot to have these properties."
In the meantime, D’Rose said her parents were supportive of her and her partner living at home while they continued to set themselves up for the future.
With her dad working long hours as an electrician, D'Rose said her mum said she enjoyed having the company.
“As long as we keep everything clean and tidy in shared spaces, they are happy to have us here,” she said.
“Having that respect and appreciation goes two ways and that’s how I’ve been able to make it work.”
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