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A privileged trust fund kid who was lucky enough to enter Australia’s property market before the overseas-investment-fueled capital city property boom says his generation needs to stop buying $4 coffees and travelling if they want to own a home.
Tim Gurner (35) – the grandson of a man wealthy enough to leave him close to $40,000 – twenty years ago – for doing nothing other than being born into the right family, is now worth nearly half a billion dollars. e has delivered a brutal smackdown to some would-be first home buyers struggling to get a toehold in the market.
Funnily enough, he thinks this whole fortune is a result of nothing more than his work ethic – and the fact that his $34,000 loan, adjusted for inflation was actually equivalent to $50k – when the median prices for a home were $325k in Sydney, $190k in Melbourne and $164k in Brisbane.
On 60 Minutes last night, Mr Gurner delivered a brutal smackdown to some would-be first home buyers struggling to get a toehold in the market.
“When I was buying my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for 19 bucks and four coffees at $4 each,” he told 60 Minutes in a segment exploring Australia’s housing affordability crisis.
Gurner says this is mainly because those kind of luxuries didn’t really exist then, because most young people didn’t need to numb the pain of being locked out financially with material purchases and pointless culinary trends.
“You have to start to get realistic about your expectations. There is no question we are at a point now where the expectations of younger people are very, very high.”
Gurner says that unless you had exactly the same luck as he did nearly two decades ago, and came from a similarly privileged family that was able to hand out $40k to a 19-year-old for no reason – you aren’t going to be able to buy a house in a city.
Gurner says if all that hasn’t gone your way, you can always ask your parents for help.
“You might have to buy an investment property first, you might have to share with mum and dad, you might have to buy with a friend, but you’ve got to get your foot in the door and you’ve got to slowly get up the ladder” he said.
He says if, for some weird reason, your parents don’t have the money to help you put down a 20% deposit on a property in the market he helped ruin by selling property developments to the highest Asian-based bidders, then not even God can help you.
“Just show some work ethic and coincidental privilege like I have”
