A young Australian woman opened up about the reality of buying a house and pursuing her dreams without rich parents.
Diana Laichyk, 26, works as a makeup artist during the day to pay her bills and has appeared in television commercials and on stage.
She is also financially ambitious, despite the difficulties of trying to make a living in the entertainment industry, where competition for roles is fierce and work is fleeting.
The performer, who aspires to be a full-time television actress in a soap opera, also aspires to one day buy her own apartment in Melbourne.
But he is hesitant to buy in St Kilda, which is home to some of Melbourne’s most affordable apartments, due to safety concerns.
“Depending on the area of St Kilda, there are some security issues,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“As a woman who lives alone, safety is definitely a consideration I would have to take into account.”
Laichyk wants to buy a flat near his parents in Sandringham, with whom he has temporarily moved in after a relationship breakdown.
While they help her with accommodation, she does not expect her parents to help her with the mortgage deposit because they have just bought a new apartment and have exhausted their savings.
‘Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t. “They don’t have anything extra out there,” he said.
Diana Laichyk, 26, works as a makeup artist during the day to pay her bills and has appeared in television commercials and on stage.
You’ve talked about the brutal reality of buying a house without rich parents.
To achieve his goal of saving for a mortgage deposit, he invested $10,000 in a Stockspot account in June 2021.
This portfolio of exchange-traded funds, linked to stock market indices, has since grown to $21,200 thanks to Laichyk depositing between $25 and $340 every fortnight.
“As my jobs changed and my life circumstances changed, the amount I invested decreased, but I never stopped making my biweekly investment,” he said.
“It was always one of my priorities, even if it was only having $25 and saving something every two weeks.”
She hopes to increase that portfolio to $40,000 by the time she is in her early thirties so she can have a mortgage deposit.
“Even if it’s not 20 percent, I’d like to buy sooner rather than later, depending on how life goes,” he said.
“Knowing that I could make a decent deposit on a house makes me proud and makes me feel quite safe and calm.”
He hopes to permanently land a role in an Australian soap opera.
“I’m expressing that every day,” he said.
“I love my day job, but a full-time job in TV would definitely be the dream, but you can’t rely on that, so I always keep my options open and I always make sure I’m keeping the doors open and not closing them. ‘
St Kilda remains relatively affordable for someone earning a median full-time salary of $100,017 and a median apartment price of $521,328.
A borrower with a 20 per cent deposit could still get a mortgage on a salary of $80,000, and banks can’t lend more than 5.2 times what someone earns.
One-bedroom and studio apartments in this area have recently sold for $315,000, which would be attainable for someone earning $48,462 a year, or just a little more than the full-time minimum wage of $47,627.
But Sandringham is tougher, with a median unit price of $836,532 and requiring a salary of nearly $129,000 to get a loan and still be under mortgage stress.