A new study has revealed the best and worst jobs to buy a home in Australia.
Younger Aussies looking to make their real estate dream a reality are better off pursuing a career in IT, engineering or dentistry rather than nursing or teaching according to research into the best occupations for homebuying.
And if you want to be a tradie and earn a home, make sure you are careful about what trade you choose.
That research has thrown new light on Australia’s housing affordability issue by revealing the time required to save for a home deposit by occupation
Finder head of insights Graham Cooke said the research showed school leavers and those looking to change career faced a brutal choice.
Following the career you love, which may even be a critical job for society, might not get you a roof over your head,” Mr Cooke said.
The comparison group’s analysis assumed the person earned the national average wage in their industry at each stage of their career and purchased on their own. The modelling also factored in inflation, living expenses and the time taken to acquire a qualification in each industry.
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![Best careers for would-be homebuyers](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1024 768"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Choosing a career in roof tiling could get you into your own home sooner. Picture: David Crosling
Nurses, creatives, teachers and many others have been placed on a blacklist of careers where professionals stand no hope of ever being able to afford a Sydney house.
Upon leaving school, each of these professionals would take well over 53 years – longer than their whole career – to scrounge together a 20 per cent deposit for a house purchase, the Finder study revealed.
Sydney was the only city in Australia where such a situation existed.
Nurses, teachers, painters, psychologists and those in creative arts jobs would need about 25-30 years to get a 20 per cent deposit for a unit, the research showed.
A career in IT, engineering and some trades would get Sydneysiders onto the property ladder the fastest, the research showed, but it would still be a long wait.
Those working in computing and information systems would take an average of 39 years to get a deposit for a house at the median Sydney price and 20 years to save enough for a unit deposit. Engineers and dentists would take a similar amount of time.
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It’s a tough slog for nurses to afford their own homes. Picture: David Caird
Careers in medicine – although having the highest peak earnings – meant a wait of two years longer for home purchases because of the increased time required to get qualifications and lower starting pay.
Lawyers and business managers would need about 45 years to pull together a house deposit and 21 years for a unit.
Mr Cooke conceded that Sydney workers often earn more than the national average, but he said this would be balanced out by the higher cost of living, with city rents by far the highest in the country.
“There is a chasm between Sydney and the rest of the country when it comes to how incomes compare with prices. It’s become impossible for so many different types of workers to afford a home,” he said.
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Roof tilers have emerged as the surprise career that could be a fast track onto the Melbourne property ladder.
But the wrong job could potentially add 17 years to the time needed to save a deposit for the city’s typical home.
The data from Finder reveals dentists, IT professionals and engineers have the quickest path to homeownership, with wages ramping up speedily enough to get them a six-figure deposit in 25 years — though roof tilers weren’t far behind at just 26 years.
But a job in nursing, which with usual wage growth would take 35 years to save up, could make getting a foot on the property ladder far harder.
The same goes for a gig in communications, 36 years, sign-writing and painting, 40 years, and the creative arts, 41 years.
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A career in IT could be a good choice for homeseekers.
Timelines have been calculated for saving a 20 per cent deposit for today’s $921,000 median Melbourne house price, but factor in price growth in line with the city’s 10-year average growth.
“Your career is your income, and that can make the biggest difference to your lifestyle and your home,” Mr Cooke said.
Australian Roof Tilers Association chief executive Cathy Inglis said the trade’s surprising position in the rankings would be down to it taking as little as two years to become competent enough to earn an $85,000 wage.
“And with the amount of roofs that have had to be done after storms, many have gone from project homes into insurance markets where they can get much better pay,” Ms Inglis said.
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Young Queenslanders embarking on a career as a nurse, plumber or teacher face a staggering 30-plus year wait to get a foot on the property ladder. But those starting out in IT, engineering or dentistry could be fast-tracking their way to homeownership.
The analysis of selected careers by comparison site Finder highlights how wage growth has failed to keep pace with soaring property prices, with 25 years the minimum needed to save for a 20 per cent deposit for even the top-ranked jobs.
Finder’s data shows it would take 25 years to save a deposit for a typical house in Brisbane priced about $850,000 for young professionals qualified in computing and information systems, engineering, or dentistry. A typical post-uni salary in those industries was between $66,700 and $90,000.
A medical graduate on a starting salary of $75,100 would need to save for 26 years, or 27 years for a roof tiler earning $85,000.
At the other end of the scale, school leavers considering a career in the creative arts could face a lifetime on the rental rollercoaster, with 42 years needed to scrape together a deposit from the starting salary of $52,000.
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For many Aussies saving for their own home is going to take a long time.
Sign-writers, painters, and glazers didn’t fare much better, with a wage of $64,324 translating to 40 years of saving.
Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke said the bottom rung of the housing ladder was higher up than ever before. As prices continued to rise, young Australians’ choice of career path could mean missing out on the great Australian home dream, he said
“Your career is your income, and that can make the biggest difference to your lifestyle and your home,” Mr Cooke said.
“Any student trying to make the case to a disgruntled parent for a creative arts degree won’t get a lot of ammunition out of this.”
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Young South Australians are facing a brutal choice between the career they love and “the great Australian dream” of owning a home.
New research has revealed the staggering difference in time it can take for professions to save a deposit for a house – a decades-long process for some, including nurses, teachers and those in the creative arts.
But with less time needed to lock in a solid wage, the statistics from online comparison site Finder show learning a trade as a roof tiler, plasterer, carpenter and stonemason could get you on to the property ladder sooner than any other profession.
According to the data, those working in a trade with an annual salary of about $75,000 to $85,000 would have saved enough money for a $300,000 house after six years and 13 years for a $500,000 home.
Owning your own home is very much still the great Australian dream.
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The Finder research uses typical wages to calculate how long each career would take to save a 20 per cent deposit.
It factors in time spent studying or in an apprenticeship, entry-level incomes, how remuneration is likely to ramp up based on historic data from government surveys conducted for Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching, as well as inflation-linked growth for wages.
It also deducts income needed to cover the cost of living and rent, which also have inflation factored into them, with feasible savings extrapolated from the remaining income.
