Inside the trick that gets first homebuyers in the market faster an cheaper

These first homebuyers struggled to find a fully-built home; but managed to get in the market by making one smart move early.

Married couple Matthew and Emma Elliott put down a land deposit at the start of their housing market journey, and found its value went up by $70,000 within the year.

Mr Elliott said the pair wanted a safety net while they looked for their family’s first property, searching near their current home in Thornlands.

“At least we had something locked in, so if the prices were to surge … we wouldn’t have the competition,” he said. “We didn’t really want a bidding war. We just wanted to pay the value.”

Parents and first home buyers Matthew and Emma Elliott found the land they bought for their family’s new home has already shot up in value by $70,000. Picture: Liam Kidston

The pair put their name down for a 431 sqm block, which would allow them a place to build on if their home search fell through.

According to ABS data, Queensland approved the building of 38,102 new homes in the 2024/25 financial year: more than 5,000 than the government approved the year before.

But Queensland is still expected to need 10,000 more homes approved each year, to meet Australia’s National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029.

The family struggled to find a pre-built home outright, and counted themselves lucky to have one of Queensland’s limited new home lots. Picture: Liam Kidston

While they had their safety net, the Elliotts had less luck in purchasing a house outright: finding themselves being priced out of some homes, with offers falling through on others.

“In terms of what we could afford, there wasn’t really much on the market for what we needed,” Mr Elliott said.

The couple decided to built on their land, located in Urbex Realty’s ‘Arc on the Point’ development in Victoria Point.

‘Arc on the Point’ is one of Urbex Realty’s multiple new land developments across the state, with new home lots on the site selling out in September.

Land packages for the site near Brisbane’s coast sold out in September, though Urbex retains a waitlist for both this and several nearby projects.

While the couple bought their land for $531,000, a recent re-evaluation found its current worth came in at $605,000.

“It’s gained 70,000 or so in the year,” Mr Elliott said.

The Elliotts said buying land as soon as they could, then saving for their home build, allowed them to afford a full-sized house rather than something smaller. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Elliott said while they searched the job market, the money they’d saved allowed them to build a home bigger than they expected: a four-bedroom house for their family at $401,000.

“Serviceability went up a lot, because I got a second job and Matt was picking up overtime, and the interest rates dropped significantly,” she said. “We were only in townhouse territory at the end of 2024.”

“Our grandparents are here, our parents, and our daughter goes to kindie nearby … the only way we could stay was to buy land and build, and we were actually quite surprised at the build price.”

Originally published as Inside the trick that gets first homebuyers in the market faster an cheaper