She has become one of the world’s youngest homeowners
We all envy previous generations for being able to buy a three-bedroom home for 50p, as the very prospect of owning your own property today is sure to cause a migraine.
The cost-of-living crisis, coupled with inflation, has well and truly delayed— if not ruined —the long-term plans of people who are saving to one day own their dream homes.
But here’s something to rub salt in the wounds as a little girl in Australia has become a homeowner at the age of eight-years-old.
Businessman Cam McLellan made it his goal to ensure that his children wouldn’t have to worry about owning their own home one day.
He began to give his three kids pocket money each week, teaching them to be responsible with their finances in a world with a tough-as-ever economic landscape.
This culminated in the three children, 14-year-old Angus, 13-year-old Lucy and eight-year-old Ruby, all putting the £3,000 they had saved from weekly pocket money towards a deposit for a four-bedroom home.
And now, just two years later, the property is worth an eye-watering £500,000 after a sharp rise in value from £344,400.
But trio didn’t pay the entire deposit though as their parents topped the rest of it up to help them secure the property – meaning all of their names are on the title.
Cam, who is the CEO of property investment company OpenCorp, told Today.com: “In ten years time when our kids might start looking to buy their own homes, the deposits are going to be $200,000.
“There’s no way kids of today are going to be able to afford a home without help from mum and dad.”
Fearing that housing prices would skyrocket to ‘astronomical prices’, which might result in needing help from ‘the bank of mum and dad’, the parents aimed to teach their kids about the benefits of saving money as early as possible.
Cam told News.au: “The sooner you can get started the better because property prices will only continue to go up because we’ve got a huge under-supply of housing in Australia.”
But the decision hasn’t stopped them receiving criticism – with some trolls accusing Cam and his wife Felicity of exploiting their kids.
“It’s easy for someone who doesn’t have property or hasn’t made sacrifices, to be angry about it and easy to target a young kid who has a leg-up,” Cam said.
“Young adults’ lifestyles are very flamboyant these days. I worked three jobs, I didn’t go out, I sold my car. The young generation need to sacrifice and delay gratification,” he revealed.
The 50-year-old went on to say that his children ‘are not silver spoons’, they just ‘have a leg up’, as anyone else could.
The house is currently being rented out, meaning that the siblings are some of the youngest landlords in the world – and purchasing a second home is already apparently on their minds.
Eventually, Cam says, they will sell this home for a large amount to give them more than enough to put deposits down on their own homes in the future.
