Yahoo Finance Vera is building a granny flat after being priced out of the property market
More Aussies are building granny flats as property prices and the cost of living rise.
Sydney newlyweds Vera and Anthony Ippolito are preparing to move into a granny flat at the back of Anthony’s parents’ property.
The couple started building the two-bedroom granny flat in Ashbury in November last year, after realising they wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a property in the inner-west.
“My husband and I were born and raised in the inner-west area. Our family and friends are important to us, so we hoped to stay in that area but the cost of living and prices of property at the moment are crazy,” Vera told Yahoo Finance.
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The couple own an investment property in Blacktown, which they purchased in 2017 to get a foot in the door.
“We couldn’t afford to buy something in the inner-west so it was either moving to Blacktown or selling that property. But we still wouldn’t have been able to afford anything in the area,” Vera said.
“It started out as a joke to build a granny flat, but then we did our homework and research and it seemed like something that was affordable for us.”
Vera and Anthony have spent just over $200,000 building the granny flat and have chosen to make upgrades to the standard fit-out since they intend to live in it for the foreseeable future.
“We are still working towards and trying to save for a bigger house. The granny flat has definitely helped,” she said.
‘Breathing room’
Vera and Anthony aren’t the only Aussies turning to granny flats as the cost of living soars. Buyer’s agent and former heavy metal drummer Rodney Holder has built two granny flats on his properties in Brisbane and Canberra. But instead of living in them, he is renting them out to help cover his rising mortgage repayments.
Rodney originally built a granny flat in his Manly West property in 2008 to give his friend a place to live. Back then, he bought the one-bedroom granny flat from Bunnings for $35,000 and paid $50,000 for a builder.
“My buddy was living with me in the backyard after we built it and absolutely helping with paying the mortgage on the first property there,” Rodney told Yahoo Finance.
“We had a couple of babies and my wife wasn’t working so it was a massive financial help of having some income come in and also providing a place to live for my best mate.”
This year, he also finished building a two-bedroom, two-bathroom granny flat at his property in Canberra, which cost him $170,000.
Rodney, who himself rents a property in Brisbane, is now renting out the two properties plus the granny flats.
“The granny flats have given a bit of extra breathing room … having that extra rent coming in to be able to meet the mortgage repayments, the rates, land tax in Canberra, insurance and building repairs. It’s also contributing to easing the housing crisis,” he said.
Growing trend
Granny flats are a growing trend among Aussies, with new data from Oneflare finding a 67 per cent increase in granny flat jobs posted on the platform over the past year.
Oneflare CEO Tim Fung said many Aussies were struggling with the rising cost of living, so some were deciding to build granny flats to either rent out and create a second income, as a place to live while they saved for a deposit, or as a space for their children or grandparents to live in.
“[The] granny flat trend is growing on Oneflare, where hundreds of customers have been posting jobs to build and renovate them,” Fung said.
The digital marketplace said it had collectively quoted more than 500 granny flat jobs in the past six months.
Each state and territory has different rules around secondary dwellings like granny flats and it can also vary depending on your council.
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