'45 years to get a deposit': real estate guru's stark warning

A real estate pro has warned young Aussies hoping to get into the property market that they could be 63 by the time they save enough for a deposit.

Prominent and outspoken Sydney auctioneer Tom Panos posted to his followers on TikTok and Instagram a frightening reality check on the state of the Aussie property market, and the fading hopes of a generation wanting to buy their first home.

In a video titled ‘The solution to the housing problem in Australia”, he gestures to a young barista in an unidentified café, who is serving customers (and probably doesn’t realise he’s been watched more than 26,000 times on TikTok).

“Guess what, see the guy behind us – I know what he is making, twenty or thirty (dollars) an hour, works his ass off and guess what, the latest research … if this guy starts saving up, this guy will be able to get a deposit for a property when he is 63 years of age,” Panos says.

“You have everyone worrying about Brittany Higgins, you have people worrying about left, right and centre, this guy is going to have to have to work for 45 years to get a deposit. But there seems to be a solution to it. There seems to be a solution. What’s the solution?  Set up an Only Fans account, they say. You get $200,000 month.

“You have Only Fans girls buying one, two, three, four properties.

“Thank you Australian government, look what you are making people do to buy real estate. Make the main thing the main thing, and that’s housing.”

Panos is referring to news stories that young women creating racy content on Only Fans are using this side hustle to be able to purchase Aussie property.

Persistent house price growth  has rocketed the national median house price to $1,112,575. A typical Aussie home has risen almost 9 per cent in price over the past 12 months, even as interest rates have also gone up, Domain figures show.

Panos’ video comes on the day the federal government will unveil its annual budget. Last year, treasurer Jim Chalmers pledged the nation would build 1.2 million houses by the end of the decade, a target which has been rubbished as unachievable by the industry, due to sluggish construction rates which were below the 1980’s monthly average for February.

Domain’s latest First-Home Buyer Report, released in February, found that the average time for an Aussie couple aged 25 to 34 to save the 20 per cent deposit required for an entry-priced house is four years and nine months. A 20 per cent deposit avoids the additional charge of lenders’ mortgage insurance.