How 23yo uni graduate scored $744,000 Melbourne home

A uni student managed to turn $1000 of Christmas money into a home in the heart of Melbourne without working a single day.

Evan Vassos admits that the way he broke into Australia’s property market was “unique”.

The 23-year-old university graduate scored himself a $744,000 two-bedroom flat overlooking the Melbourne CBD despite never working a day in his life.

What’s more, he didn’t even need to take out a home loan. The former business student can pay the full cost upfront (and have some to spare) when he settles the off-the-plan apartment in September this year.

He’s earned almost $1 million since leaving high school even though he started off with just $1000. And it was all thanks to an unusual strategy.

“When I finished high school, instead of going to work, I discovered a way to arbitrage bookmakers,” Mr Vassos told news.com.au.

Essentially, he found a way which he described as “risk-free” to make the most of betting odds and promotions to always come out on top, even if it was only by $1.

“I probably started with a grand from all the Christmas money I accumulated,” he said.

“I went from a grand to $2000. A bigger capital base made it easier to exploit the [gambling] promotions and I went from there.”

Evan Vassos studied a bachelor of commerce while gambling to pay the bills.

Mr Vassos asked himself, “How can I guarantee a successful return with no risk?” and decided to try his hand at playing the odds.

“I would bet on anything where the odds were favourable,” he said.

“It’s simple maths. I would look for simple opportunities where the odds would blow out. I would guarantee myself a secure win.

“The most lucrative returns I made were when the bookmakers made bonus bets.”

For instance, one time at an AFL game, a promotion was running where if your team was winning by 24 points and then went on to lose, the bookmakers would pay off your bet.

He won $7000 as he bet against both teams which assured success.

Mr Vassos estimates he made $100,000 from doing this by the time he was 20 years old.

But then the bookies started catching on.

“At 20, I got banned from all bookmakers. It was a strange experience. It’s quite appalling.”

Evan Vassos at a sports game.

Instead of getting a normal job at this point, Mr Vassos decided there were still easy gains to be made.

So he turned his attention to the ultimate gamble – the Australian Stock Exchange.

“The money I was making from betting, I then invested that into the stock market,” he said.

He only invested in companies with small market capitalisations rather than established companies as this gave more room for quick profits.

One time he got very lucky. He invested in Douugh, a fintech company, when its shares were going for 6c each.

He sold when the shares hit 46c per stock.

Now, at time of writing, a Douugh share is worth just 7c.

Mr Vassos said he scoped out these emerging businesses by speaking to people running the show to see how competent they were.

“I don’t like to invest unless I can gauge the experience and knowledge of senior management,” he said.

“Companies conduct online webinars and I’d urge all investors to tune into those.”

He has paid a 5 per cent down payment to secure an apartment in this development.

Settlement for the apartment is in September where he plans to pay the full price.

Mr Vassos believes the stock market is too “volatile” to keep all his money there so he plans to pay off his new apartment and switch out his funds from the stock market into property.

To secure the $744,000 apartment, located in Alphington, he only had to initially put forward a 5 per cent deposit.

This was because he made the most of the first homebuyer’s grant and the first home builder’s grant.

“I want to pay my apartment in full. I’m hoping I don’t need a bank,” he said.

His money is “tracking very nicely”,  he said.