The latest data from Mortgage Choice’s The Saturday Telegraph revealed that one in seven first home buyers in Sydney is now in his/her 40s or even 50s, thanks to the continuous rise in house prices. In the past, 40 was the age that most people wanted to have fully paid off their homes, but today, more and more buyers are preparing to spend their golden years chipping away at mortgages.

“Part of it is a lifestyle trend; people are living longer and taking longer to settle down,” said Real Estate Institute of NSW president and Cunninghams Real Estate managing director John Cunningham. “But there’s also an affordability issue. To buy a median-priced house in Sydney, buyers need to stump up a $200,000 deposit.”

According to Finder.com consumer advocate Bessie Hassan, the age of first home buyers continue to creep up in recent years, with one in three now beyond 35 years old.

“It is quite scary when you think about people paying off their home loans in their 60s or older, but for a lot of young people, the rite of passage of going to university, getting married, and buying their first home is gone,” she said. “If they do want to get into the market earlier, they need to realise that the Australian dream of a house with a white picket fence is really a dream.”

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