With median dwelling values running high, and a clear need for new buildings, putting your dream home on a new plot of land is a great option. Why buy an existing house if it's too expensive? Building can be more cost-effective, not to mention giving you the freedom to tailor the place to your own specifications.

Of course, before you start building, you'll need to have the right financing arrangement in place. Building might be cheaper than buying a home outright, but it's certainly not free. You'll need to take a careful look at the market and evaluate your options before making any decisions.

A growing market for home construction

If you're mulling over the possibility of building a home in Australia in 2017, you should know that you're not alone. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were a total of 17,639 new dwelling units approved in February alone, which represented a 0.8 per cent increase over the previous month. Building is on the rise.

With this steady growth comes a more competitive market for construction. New building companies are sprouting up, offering their services with all sorts of projects. This complicates the equation for families. Who will you build your home with? What price will you pay? Answering these questions has become a lot more complicated.

Getting a feel for the building process

Are you wondering when it's a good time to build a new home in Australia? Here's one sound answer: Not until you fully understand the process involved. As YourHome correctly noted, building a home tends to be a long and complicated ordeal.

Do you have a reliable builder you can work with?

It begins with choosing a builder. You need someone not just good with their hands, but also skilled with project management – setting and following a budget, coordinating smaller sub-projects and working with employees and contractors. You also need to be savvy about drawing up legal agreements and enforcing them fairly, as well as making sound financial decisions.

Preparing for the costs that lie ahead

It's only natural to have concerns about how Australians can build new homes. After all, it's difficult and expensive. Research from Allianz found that the average cost of a building project has more than quadrupled within one generation – it was $65,000 in 1988, and $282,000 now.

One way to make the process a little easier, however, is to enlist financial help. At Mortgageport, we offer land and construction loans that are easily customised to meet your needs. Talk to us today about how we can help get your next building project off the ground.

Are you currently looking at the property market, and feeling very unsure that you'll ever be able to buy your own home? We don't blame you, with places like Sydney showing median dwelling values over the $1 million mark, as of January this year according to CoreLogic RP Data. If you look around, though, you'll find a suitable place to buy on an appropriate budget for someone in their 20s.

That's why the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a drop in first-time buyers in July 2016, as stated in an ABC News article from October 2016. Up to 14.1 per cent of the buying market was predicted to be first-timer buyers, but the real figure was only 13.2 per cent.

However, there are affordable pockets for all buyers – no matter if it's your first time or your fifth. Buying a property in your 20s is a great way to set yourself up for a successful financial future, but it will take some planning, and a suitable first-home buyer loan.

How young should you start preparing to buy a property? We think your 20s is a great time.

How can you buy a home in your 20s?

It seems unfathomable to buy a home so young, with your current job (and potential entry-level salary) but it can be done. It requires dedication, careful planning, and a great mortgage provider. Buying your first home before your thirtieth birthday means you've got a whole lot of time to pay off the mortgage, for one thing, so you shouldn't stress about your finances.

That being said, you will need to come up with an initial deposit. If you're buying by yourself, you will need to save for a number of years, most likely, and be strict with yourself about not spending unnecessarily. Say the home you're buying costs $400,000 and you need 20 per cent of that for a deposit. You'll need $80,000, which is just over the average salary in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Even if you put aside a full 50 per cent of your earnings, it would take two years to get enough for a deposit, and many people won't be earning that much. The sooner you start saving, the less your finances will be affected by your home purchase.

Why should you buy early in your life?

Buying soon is a great move, because the real estate market in Australia keeps getting more expensive. Figures from the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index from 2016 indicate that the median price of a house in Sydney has increased by 45 per cent since June 2012. Over the last year, CoreLogic reports that it has increased by 16.59 per cent!

It's not a great idea to focus on expensive suburbs when you're buying your first home, because you'll need a larger deposit to access a suitable first-time buyer mortgage, and your monthly repayments will be greater too. Find a house, or apartment, in an affordable suburb that you think feels like home, and put in an offer (after you've saved a deposit and have mortgage pre-approval, of course).

Buying in your 20s means you'll have financial security later in life, and that you won't be paying higher prices for the property you want when the markets rise even more! Get in touch with Mortgageport today to discuss your home loan options.