Aussie family who sold their house to pay for chance at IVF’s surprise home luck

A family who made the heartbreaking decision to sell their home to pay for a chance at a child have had a wave of good fortune that will get them a year of “essentially rent-free” living.

A family who made the heartbreaking decision to sell their home to pay for a chance at a child are about to get a year of “essentially rent-free” living.

And they’re not alone.

A major Melbourne developer is offering to let tenants in their estates convert 12 months of leasing costs into a deposit to build their own home, sparking calls for more creative solutions to the state’s housing crisis.

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Two years ago Harley Williams and Bree Daly sold their Bendigo house to fund costly IVF treatments for a sibling for Bree’s son, only to watch their hope of one day returning to home ownership blown apart by an extraordinary interest rate hike cycle that smashed their ability to borrow.

Harley Williams with his partner Bree and son Logan in Eynesbury where they rent. Picture: Ian Currie

With rents following mortgages skyward, they’ve spent the past 18 months fighting to stay ahead by swapping barista brews for instant coffee, store-bought lunches for homemade meals and carpooling to cut petrol costs.

“We were looking down the barrel of starting again with all the saving and the sacrifices we did in our 20s,” Mr Williams said.

After recent good news that they now have a bub on the way, the golf pro at the Eynesbury Golf Course was surprised when the developer they are renting a home from emailed them with an offer to have their next year of rent converted to a deposit for a new home in the estate.

“It’s a bit of a relief, because you are now paying towards your future — rather than someone else’s,” Mr Williams said.

With the cost of living rising “astronomically” in the past three years, the pair believe they would have spent five more years scrimping a deposit together to buy back into the market if not for the offer from Resimax, who is developing the Eynesbury estate to Melbourne’s west where they now live.

Harley Williams with his partner Bree have signed on to build a new home in the estate with the developer of the estate, who owns their current rental, agreeing to let them put this year's rent towards a deposit on their new purchase. Picture: Ian Currie

“And any developer coming up with these sort of solutions, it’s vital to help young people to get into the market,” Ms Daly said.

Mr Williams added that Victorians needed as many developers to come to the table with similar opportunities for buyers as possible.

Resimax chief executive Aziz ‘Ozzie’ Kheir said they had looked for a way to help Victorian renters who were being “increasingly locked out of home ownership due to the rising costs of living” when devising the scheme on offer to hundreds of tenants across their housing estates.

What they wound up was a program that lets tenants live in homes “essentially rent free for a year” as they fast-track savings.

“I see this as a growing responsibility of the private sector, who have the tools and resources to get these long-term renters into the market,” Mr Kheir said.

“The public sector has failed to deliver any impressive, inspirational housing and purchasing incentives to stimulate home ownership. If we are to see any shift in market conditions, the private sector must step in and deliver on those promises.”

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine seconded Mr Kheir’s call.

Mr Caine said while he would love to see the government back private operators behind “brilliant” initiatives like this, they would be difficult to scale at a statewide level.

“We need to pull every lever to solve this wicked problem,” Mr Caine said.

“But if you combine government plans with more initiatives like this, we can start to have an impact.”

He added that while state-government plans to build 800,000 homes across the decade would help end the rental crisis, short-term solutions were still vital.

Mr Caine said an initiative for the state to purchase vacant apartments from developers to become social and affordable housing, as announced in the Victorian Housing Statement released by the Allan government last year could also provide almost immediate relief when it commenced.

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