I’m 29 and still live at home with my parents: Here’s why they let my girlfriend move in too

A young investor has moved back home with her parents so she can continue building her real estate portfolio.

Liela D’Rose, 29, bought her first property seven years ago when she was a McDonald’s manager.

She now owns three investment properties, but owes the bank more than $1 million after remortgaging and borrowing on her other homes due to rising interest rates.

To help her financially, her parents Nilofer and Ashley let her live with them in Alexandra Hills, in Brisbane’s east, with her girlfriend of three years, Isla.

“It really puts a strain on my relationship with my parents,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘There’s such a big generation gap, they don’t understand what boundaries are, no idea, but my parents are fantastic, they’re so willing to learn.

‘You have to respect each other and respect each other’s space and compromise.’

Things are easier now that there is a one-bedroom granny flat at the back of the house where she grew up.

To help her financially, Ms D’Rose’s parents, Nilofer and Ashley (pictured together above), let her live in their home in Alexandra Hills, in Brisbane’s east.

“We don’t need to disturb them, it’s quite strange,” she said.

“For the past few years, we’ve only had the granny apartment.”

Mrs. D’Rose pays her parents $200 a week aboard and relies on rental income to pay off her mortgages.

The last move home nine months ago also followed Ms D’Rose and her partner living in one of her investment properties and carrying out renovations before renting it out.

“We were constantly in that constant state of renovation and chaos,” she said.

Ms D’Rose, who now works in human resources at Little Real Estate, bought her first investment property, a two-bedroom townhouse in Thorneside, in Brisbane’s east, in 2017 for $245,000.

She expanded her portfolio in 2022 by buying a three-bedroom house in Kingston, in flood-affected Logan, for $425,000, and also renovated that house with help from her father, an electrician, and her brother.

Ms D’Rose bought her third investment property this year, this time with her partner, in Nanango, north of Brisbane.

“What I have sacrificed in this investment journey is the lack of stability,” she said.

There are already tenants living in this three-bedroom house, south-east of Kingaroy, which the couple bought only a few weeks ago.

Ms D’Rose now owes the bank $1.021 million after refinancing her first investment property in Thorneside for up to $380,000, while also taking out a $345,000 loan for the Kingston property and a $296,000 loan for the Nanango house pays off.

The Thorneside townhouse rents for $380 per week, the Kingston house rents for $700 per week and Nanango’s latest purchase rents for $460 per week.

As a landlord, Ms D’Rose has been careful not to increase the rent too much.

“It’s not about extortion for me – my tenant in the Thorneside house, she’s been there for four years and I’ve raised the rent a little bit, she’s a single mother, you just have to find that balance,” she says. said.

“I’ve rented too and you don’t want to pay ridiculous amounts.”

The Reserve Bank’s thirteen rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 are also stressful.

“On the other hand, investors are being swamped with these interest rates,” she said.

Her only regret was buying a townhouse instead of a detached house and having to deal with body shops when bad weather blew a hole in the roof.

“I had huge problems with the Thorneside house with the hole in the roof and the body shop was so difficult to deal with,” she said.

‘It was their responsibility. I had to chase them for a year to sort this out, it was so stressful.

“Other people in the complex had their roofs collapse.”

The last move home nine months ago also followed Ms D’Rose and her partner living in one of her investment properties and carrying out renovations before renting it out.

James Kirkland, managing director of sales and marketing at Little Real Estate, said his colleague was an example of a younger buyer who recognized that being a landlord rather than an owner-occupier was the only way to enter the property market.

‘She is a good example of how the younger generation really thinks differently about their real estate investment strategy than generations before. It was quite easy with the traditional method of putting down a deposit, buying your first home and moving in,” he told Daily Mail Australia. .

“The way the economy has gone and the affordability issues have really encouraged the younger generation to be more creative.”

Liela D’Rose’s ultimate goal is to eventually sell her investment properties and achieve capital growth so that she can one day set up her own dog shelter for stray animals in need of a home.

“I want to try to create some kind of passive income for myself down the road, with the hopes of opening my own dog shelter and saving every dog ​​one day,” she said.

‘I want to live on a large piece of land and spend my time helping animals.’

To pay off her mortgages and pay her parents $200 a week on board, Ms D’Rose also takes on a weekend job running a mobile vegan coconut ice cream company, I Should Coco, from a restored classic Volkswagen Kombi van from the 70’s.

She hopes the Reserve Bank of Australia will copy its counterparts in the US, UK, EU, Canada and New Zealand and cut interest rates.

“Sometimes Australia is a little behind the curve in the way we do things,” she said.