Is $4 coffee, smashed avo the reason you don't own a home?

Here's what you said on Facebook

Developer Tim Gurner, 35. Picture: Contributed

A YOUNG rich lister who made his fortune off the back of Australia's capital city property boom says his generation needs to stop buying $4 coffees and travelling if they want to own a home.

Developer Tim Gurner, 35, is worth nearly half a billion dollars but has delivered a smackdown to some would-be first home buyers struggling to get a toehold in the market.

"When I was buying my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado for 19 bucks and four coffees at $4 each," he told 60 Minutes in a segment exploring Australia's housing affordability crisis.

"You have to start to get realistic about your expectations. There is no question we are at a point now where the expectations of younger people are very, very high.

"They want to eat out every day, they want to travel to Europe every year."

Mr Gurner, who ranked 157 on this year's Financial Review Rich List after making $473 million in 10 years, started out by taking over a lease on a suburban gym as a 19-year-old, using $34,000 given to him by his grandfather.

He sold the business a year later to a competitor and went into property development, riding the boom in Melbourne and Brisbane. His Gurner company now has 5000 apartments worth $2.7 billion on its books.

What do you think about this?Do you agree that his generation need stop buying $4 coffees and travelling if they want to own a home? Here's what you said on Facebook:

Aaron McQuilty - "How funny that he at least got capital off grandad." Nathan Laughton - "I thought this exactly!" Aaron McQuilty - "Makes it so easy to start actually starting with something."

Sam Russell - "If only we all had $34,000 given to us for investments. But it's totally cos he didn't buy coffee..."

David Vesey-Brown - "When he recieved the money that would have been enough for a house deposit, it would be worth about 100k today!"

Hannah Winter - "I don't buy coffee and hate avocado. Should that entitle me to a $500k average home loan even though our household income is

Thomas Coyne - "Oh yes, it's because we eat avocado and drink coffee and has nothing to do with the fact we don't all get given money from family to buy property like he was. Rich and out of touch."

Aidan Larder - "Maybe the problem is the price of housing has gone up by 10 since the '70s, but the annual wage hasn't gone up much at all..."

Keryn Monckton - "$4 for a coffee, geez where is he living? It's more like $6 for a large plus extra if you want soy/almond milk."

Kev Boddington - "All this talk of coffee is making me thirsty. I need a coffee..."

Stephanie Page - "Hmm... if mine are $3.50 does that change things!?"

Sam Russell - "I don't even drink coffee and yet where is my house?"

Mellissa Haywood - "$34,000 he was given to kick start his way, not everyone is lucky enough to have somebody to loan you this sort of money. Rents are so high, saving for a deposit is a joke. "This guy was able to purchase back when homes were cheap and now the homes have gained much more value. "I work full time and yet was told no to a home loan because I don't already own my own home, I don't have any shares and the brand new car I owned was a bucket and not worth anything so what are people expected to do."

Ninette Prospero - "It is people like him who raise rents to provide himself with Armani suits and cause this financial struggle for the common man. I bet he was not homeless!"

Originally published as Is $4 coffee, smashed avo the reason you don't own a home?