Disheartened? How to beat the property blues James Gold, 26, from Sydney is searching for his second investment property, as Gen Y take on the real estate market. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: The Daily Telegraph ITS the great Aussie dream  but is owning your own home fast slipping out of reach for today's 20-somethings? Long gone are the days of buying a three bedroom palace for $34,000 like your grandparents may have - so should we forget about owning a property altogether? Apparently not, according to experts. Does age matter? Justin Doobov from Intelligent Finance says it is absolutely feasible for someone in their 20s to buy their first property. "You just need to go about it the right way," he says. If they have a small deposit, we have to go through the route of mortgage insurance. The bank will allow you to buy a property with as little as a 5 per cent deposit however there are other ways to do it. A lot of clients will get a gift from family of cash, so that someone in their 20s who may only have a small deposit can get their parents to top it up to make it a more attractive amount. It means they don't need to borrow as much and it abolishes the need for mortgage insurance which saves the client thousands of dollars - this is a big help, considering they are just starting out in the property market. Another technique is using a family member's equity as a security guarantee. "This is a great way for someone to get into the market earlier as it allows you to get into the property market without having to wait years to save for a deposit, since the market may move in that time and you may miss out," he says. Rent vs mortgage Doobov says in many cases it can be cheaper to repay a mortgage than pay costly rent. "They need to comfortably afford their repayments because it is a long term commitment and we always outline the costs to clients so that if they are comparing rent to the interest rates on a mortgage, especially right now where interest rates are below 5 per cent, in many cases it's cheaper to actually be repaying a mortgage," he says. Having said that, we make sure we let our clients know that whilst when you're renting your commitments are rental payments and it ends there, when you buy a property, you have maintenance, strata fees, council rates, water rates and other costs and that can add up to anywhere between a few thousand to ten or twenty thousand dollars a year which needs to be factored into your monthly cash flow. He says tax benefits come with buying an investment property, while owning a home you live in means the capital gain on that property is tax free. But whether it's an investment, or your first home, his advice is to get into the market. "The people who have sat on the sidelines waiting for the market to drop have now got into the market and are paying a lot more than they would have paid 10 years ago, and are now kicking themselves," he says. We always say you lock in your profit when you buy, and it is very important to do your research. Save, save, save Ideally you should have six months" worth of loan repayments saved for after your purchase, which financial planner Chris Magnus, from Ark Total Wealth, says takes a great deal of discipline and sacrifice. "Good cash flow management and advice on ways to improve your cash flow can help with this," he says. The trick here is to set yourself a goal and as part of the budget set aside an amount each month or quarter to reward yourself - go out to dinner with friends, or buy that little luxury that you might have sacrificed a little in order to save. It makes your hard work a bit more bearable. Banks like to see a good history of saving to ensure that when you do buy a house, the mortgage payments are not too much of a shock to your lifestyle and you can actually afford the mortgage payments. He says young people considering buying a property should take a step back and think about what their dreams actually are. "Do they really want to buy a house or do they want a house because "that's what just people do"?" he says. I don't think it is out of reach at all, there is always pockets in every city that haven't taken off as yet, so do your homework, set your goal and put a plan in place to achieve it.