Knox mayor says young people ‘not willing to sacrifice enough’ to buy their own home

YOUNG people struggling to buy their first home are “not willing to sacrifice enough” to break into the property market, an eastern suburbs mayor has said.

Mayor John Mortimore says more young people need to live a leaner lifestyle before they can buy their first home. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

YOUNG people struggling to buy their first home are “not willing to sacrifice enough” to break into the property market, an eastern suburbs mayor has said.

Knox mayor John Mortimore spoke out after a council report confirmed what most had already suspected — that the outer eastern municipality has joined much of Melbourne as an increasingly unaffordable place to live.

The report said Knox’s property prices were rising at one of the fastest rates in Melbourne, and supply of smaller, more affordable houses was not meeting demand.

The report stated that mismatch likely constrained “the ability of younger locals to move out of their parents’ home and start their own household in Knox”.

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Cr Mortimore, 72, said people looking to buy their first home in Knox needed to make sacrifices.

“The whole thing about sacrificing seems to have taken a bit of a back seat,” he said.

“It’s always been a case that to get a house you had to sacrifice certain things, you couldn’t keep up the same lifestyle, you couldn’t each have your own car.

“Certainly during my time if you wanted a house you had a family car. If you needed other ways of getting around you used public transport or found some other way. Now everybody’s got to have a car, late model. The expectations are too high.

Mayor John Mortimore (centre) says younger generations are not prepared to budget so they can enter the property market.

“People expect too much or are not willing to sacrifice enough.”

Cr Mortimore later clarified the lack of sacrifice was “one factor” preventing young people buying their own home.

The other major issue was house prices rapidly outpacing wage growth, he said.

“You can sacrifice all you like but when the prices of housing are going up higher than the rate of pay then all the sacrificing in the world won’t help any body because they’re chasing something that’s moving faster and faster,” he said.

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The council’s report said the lack of medium to high-density housing in Knox was pricing people out of the region.

“Young people, particularly young couples and families, may find that they need to leave Knox to find housing they can afford,” it said.

The lack of smaller housing stock also made it difficult for older residents wanting to downsize, the report said.

Medium and higher density housing makes up only 15 per cent of Knox’s housing stock — less than half the Melbourne average of 33 per cent.

Read the full report here.