For many women, owning property is about finding freedom

Eight years ago, Alice Hidajat returned home from work to find the ceiling of her apartment had collapsed. Water was gushing down, ruining nearly everything she owned.

She had recently moved to Sydney from Adelaide, all her family were overseas and there were few people she could turn to for help. It was one of the worst days of her life.

“I was horrified,” Hidajat says. “I was helpless, watching this whole disaster happen, and it was all so overwhelming. I knew I had to immediately pick up my life and figure out what was to come next.”

Happily, her next move was her best. She moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a fully restored art deco building in Potts Point and loved it so much that she’s still there today.

“It’s really become home to me now,” says Hidajat, who is the business development manager for a global law firm.

As she lives by herself, it offers her everything she needs: In the building, she has a supportive building manager and neighbours who’ve become friends. Outside, there’s a gym next door and a slew of coffee shops down the road.

“Having migrated to Australia as a teenager and then coming to Sydney on my own, I just love the sense of community my home here has given me,” she says.

For most people, home is usually where the heart is. But for women like Hidajat, it is often also a gateway to security, freedom and happiness.

Setting up the next steps

In Melbourne, Jacinta Costello feels the same way. For many decades, her house in Brighton delivered all she dreamt of for a happy family life.

She and her husband Greg bought the plot of land on a quiet street and built their five-bedroom home in 1987.

At the time, it proved perfect for them and their three children, who were soon to become four.

“They were able to walk to school, climb along the fence tops, cycle along the enormously long concrete driveway, go to the park around the corner and later catch the train to secondary school,” Costello says. “They had an absolute ball.

“In the quiet times, I’d just love sitting in the back garden on the deck by the pool having breakfast, and I enjoyed the gardening.”

In addition to giving Costello the life she had always wanted, buying that block of land also cemented the family’s future. The couple later subdivided the property and built a second house that they sold to pay school fees.

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Now, a new stage of life requires a new sea change. As Costello has recently retired from her business teaching women to cycle, and their adult children have borne them five grandchildren, she and Greg are at last leaving the family house and building a new one in Queenscliff.

She’s crafting her next chapter, but her Brighton home will always remain her fondest property.

Moving to Moss Vale

Young mum Jacqlyn Paneras is also looking for a change with her upcoming move. Currently living in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield, Paneras and her husband Lance are now building a house in Mittagong in the NSW Southern Highlands.

As a busy corporate communications executive at developer Novm, she predicts it may be hard to slow down the pace. But with three young sons all under four years old, she’d like to try.

“It’s a big decision, but we’ve decided we really want to make this move,” Paneras says. “We need more space, and I’ve been driving down there regularly since 2017 for a new project we’ve been doing in Moss Vale.

“Every time I approached the area, I became so much more relaxed and felt a weight lifted off my shoulders.  

“I’ve just fallen in love with the place and I think it’ll be great for the children. We can afford a much bigger home than we could in Sydney for an equivalent suburb with good schooling.”

As a city slicker, she realises it’s going to demand a major adjustment.

“It’s a big transition, but it’s exciting to think of a slower pace, meeting different people and giving us time together as a family,” Paneras says.

“It’ll give me, my husband and our children the dream lifestyle I’ve always wanted.”