Contrary to popular belief, the world doesn’t owe you a living — nor does it owe you a house

Contrary to popular belief, the world doesn’t owe you a living, writes Caleb Bond. Nor does it owe you a house in the city, so suck it up and get a proper job.

If you want that flash house that’s walking distance to all the top latte action, best get yourself a high-paying job or consider buying somewhere in your price range. (Pic: iStock)

Buying a house means you need to get a highly paid job.

There, I said it. You can start writing the headlines now. I’m out of touch. I hate poor people.

That’s what was said about Joe Hockey when he declared getting a “good job that pays good money” was the stepping stone to home ownership. And Michael Sukkar was put through the wringer this week for saying the government was “enabling young people to get highly paid jobs, which is the first step to buying a house”.

Boy, what an outrageous thing to say. Fancy thinking you need money to buy a home. What a disgrace — off with his toffee-nosed head!

His crime, of course, was being correct. You do need to be paid well to buy a home. That’s a fact.

And it’s a fact we have to live with. Contrary to popular belief, the world doesn’t owe you a living — and nor does it owe you a house.

It certainly doesn’t owe you a house in the inner city.

The sanctimony over Sukkar’s comments isn’t coming from the people who are working and saving to buy a home. They’re too busy earning a living to complain about such frivolities.

Shock horror, living in the inner city is expensive. But the whiners won’t have a bar of it. It’s apparently everybody else’s fault they can’t buy a trendy flat in Newtown or Glebe. They’re obsessed with the idea of living close to the city. They have to be near the bars and the night-life (what Sydney has left of it) and Clover Moore’s bike paths.

But we all have to make sacrifices. The Baby Boomers might’ve had it good — rowing through the rivers of gold and picking up great swathes of property — but their parents didn’t.

Less whining and more strategic planning will get you a start in the property market. (Pic: iStock)

The struggle to afford property is nothing new. People on low incomes have been unable to buy near major cities for generations. But strangely, they came up with a plan to enter the market.

Yes, there are suburbs outside the inner-western border. Suburbs where people thrive and families grow. They’ve existed for a long time. And — I’ll let you in on a secret — you can still get reasonably sized properties for south of $600,000.

Crazy, right? But oh no, that’s not good enough for the Greens-voting yuppie set. They’d have to degrade themselves to live out in the suburbs with all those working class people.

No one denies that entering the property market is hard. But if you expand your scope a bit, things become a little brighter.

Start saving as early as you can — I’m already squirrelling money away at 17. Then, when you have enough for a deposit, buy a small unit in an outer suburb. It might take you longer to get to your raves, but suck it up. If you have to sacrifice an hour’s commute to get your foot on the property ladder, you’re doing all right in the grand scheme of things.

If that still doesn’t work, look at the regions. The cost of living is surprisingly affordable and they don’t have anywhere near the traffic problems of Sydney.

The most crucial part of home ownership is taking the leap of buying your first property. Once you have that, you’ll soon learn how wonderful capital gains can be. Then you can borrow more and trade up.

If you get your head into gear, you might even get a well-paying job.