A young Australian has spoken out about the reality of buying a house and pursuing her dreams without wealthy parents.
Diana Laichyk, 26, works as a makeup artist by day to pay her bills and has appeared in TV commercials and on stage.
She is also financially ambitious, despite the hardships of making a living in the entertainment industry, where competition for roles is fierce and work is volatile.
The performer, who aspires to become a full-time TV soap actor, also wants to buy her own apartment in Melbourne one day.
But safety concerns have made her hesitant to buy St Kilda, which has some of Melbourne’s most affordable apartments.
“Depending on the St Kilda region there are some safety concerns,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“Being a woman who lives on my own, safety is definitely a consideration I have to make.”
Ms Laichyk wants to buy an apartment close to her parents in Sandringham, with whom she has temporarily moved back in after a relationship break-up.
While they help her with housing, she doesn’t expect her parents to help her with a mortgage down payment because they just bought a new apartment and used up their savings.
“Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t do it. They don’t have anything extra lying around,” she said.
Diana Laichyk, 26, works as a makeup artist by day to pay her bills and has appeared in TV commercials and on stage
She has spoken out about the brutal reality of buying a house without wealthy parents
To achieve her goal of saving for a mortgage deposit, she invested $10,000 in a Stockspot account in June 2021.
This portfolio of exchange-traded funds, tied to stock market indexes, has since grown to $21,200, based on Laichyk depositing $25 to $340 every two weeks.
“As my job changed and my life circumstances changed, the amount I would invest decreased, but I never stopped my fortnightly investment,” she said.
“It was always a priority of mine, even if it was only $25, to put something away every two weeks.”
She hopes to build that portfolio to $40,000 by the time she is in her early 30s so she can have a mortgage deposit.
“Even if it’s not 20 percent, I would rather buy younger than later, depending on how life goes,” she said.
‘Knowing that I can put down a decent deposit on a house makes me proud and gives me a safe and calm feeling.’
She hopes to land a permanent role in an Australian TV soap.
“I manifest that every day,” she said.
‘I love my day job but a full-time gig on 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 doors open and not closing them .’
St Kilda is still relatively affordable for someone earning an average full-time salary of $100,017, with an average apartment price of $521,328.
A borrower with a 20 percent down payment could still get a mortgage on an $80,000 salary, with banks only able to lend 5.2 times what someone earns.
One-bedroom apartments and studios in this area recently sold for $315,000, which would be feasible for someone making $48,462 a year, or only slightly more than the minimum full-time wage of $47,627.
But Sandringham is tougher, with an average unit price of $836,532, requiring a salary of almost $129,000 to get a loan and still be in mortgage stress.