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Buying a home has always been the Great Australian Dream, but making this dream a reality is becoming increasingly difficult for hopeful first home buyers and investors alike.

Making matters worse is the fact that prices soared throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. CoreLogic data shows that property values have increased, on average, between 16.7% and 25.4% over the last year.

But that doesn’t mean buying a property is necessarily out of reach.

Furthermore, current market conditions might help you get into the market. Why?

Many of us welcomed 2022 with anticipation of how life may need to adapt yet again, to this new era of COVID-19. Talk of interest rates, a slowing property market, fast changing rules, new variants, and a pending election creates lots of speculation of how property might perform over the coming months.

What’s important is that we recognise that market trends are returning to more ‘normal’ patterns of growth and that 2021 was the exception.

The ‘Great Australian Dream’ for many Aussies is to eventually own their own patch of bricks and mortar.

In recent years, the prospect of home ownership has shifted from ‘future goal’ to a ‘pipe-dream’ but with the 2020/2021 HomeBuilders Grant, more than 137,000 Australians received up to $25,000 in cash to contribute to building their new home. Now with the stimulus winding up, and prices having risen over 22% in the past 12 months, home ownership may have slipped out of reach for many people.

Many people ask me: “When is the best time to buy an investment property?”

Is it when you’ve completely paid off your own mortgage? Or before you’ve paid off your own home, when you’re still many decades from retirement?

If buying your dream home is already out of your budget, do you hope the market falls or do you rentvest to get a foot in now?

Should you buy when the market is going through a growth phase so you can gain quick equity? Or wait till the market cools and you can negotiate a better deal?

Brisbane has taken the lead as Australia’s fastest growing city according to the CoreLogic statistics released today. Having increased in median values by 2.54% in the month October, the Brisbane market outperformed Sydney (1.5%) and Melbourne (0.99%) thanks to affordability and liveability.