I finally bought a house - this is why I think home ownership is a 'scam' after living in mine for less than two years
An Aussie has branded owning a home a 'scam' after receiving an alarming letter in the mail less than two years after she purchased her first home.
Evy Kassiotes, 25, bought her first property in Sydney in October 2023, but has been left horrified after discovering how little of her mortgage she has paid off after 19 months.
The bodybuilder, who is currently working two jobs, shared her frustrations on TikTok and said that she understood it was a 'privilege' to own a property, but that it felt like she would never be free from her mortgage repayments.
'Owning a home is actually such a scam,' she said in the video.
Ms Kassiotes explained she had opened a 'letter of progression on the loan' which showed how much she had paid off, and felt as if she was being 'pranked'.
'What do you mean we've only paid $3,000 since October 2023? It's now May 2025,' she said.
The Sydneysider said she was shocked by how much of her payments were swallowed up by interest on the loan and how little difference it made on the original amount.
Ms Kassiotes, like most young Australians trying to get a foot on the property ladder, has to battle a perfect storm of a crippling housing undersupply boosting competition and prices, combined with punishingly high interest rates intended to tame inflation.
Commenters on her video agreed, saying that home ownership had grown unaffordable.
'Owning your own home is the biggest scam,' one viewer said.
'All the fees, all the interest, all the repairs and maintenance, all the council rates, and water rates, and even when you do pay it off your still left with council rates and repairs ect.'
'Daylight robbery! I can't bring myself to look anymore,' another wrote.
'Wait till you work out how much you'll pay for that loan over the course of 30 years…,' someone said.
Ms Kassiotes replied: 'I remember I did a random calculation and almost passed away.'
Another commented that they work in home lending and mortgages were what they did all day and they were 'still bitter about how little' they had paid off.
Someone else advised the 25-year-old to open an 'offset account' to help reduce the interest rate on her mortgage.
'This August we will be in our home two years but just got a little over 26 years left,' they said.
'Just from having a bit of money in our offset account we have knocked 1.5 years off already not paying any extra.'
Ms Kassiotes said she knows owning your home is a 'privilege' but was shocked to learn how little she'd paid off her loan so far despite plugging away at repayments for 18 months (stock)
An offset account is a separate bank account that is linked to your home loan.
Homeowners can deposit their salary, savings, and make everyday transactions in this account and the balance in this offset account is then used to reduce the amount of interest you're charged on your home loan.
Ms Kassiotes noted that she already had an offset account but that it didn't blunt the sting of how little progress she had made on her loan.
Home prices have hit new highs and will likely continue to grow as lower interest rates send buyers piling back into the property market amid a lack of new housing supply.
The median dwelling in Australia was worth $831,288 in May - a 0.5 per cent jump on the month before - data released by property analytics firm Cotality, formerly CoreLogic, this month showed.
Every capital city, as well as the combined regions, exhibited growth of 0.4 per cent or more, in a broad-based recovery largely down to buyers feeling better about their purchasing capacity.
'Undoubtedly, interest rates have had a positive flow through to housing markets since February,' said Cotality research director Tim Lawless.
'But I certainly wouldn't call the rate of growth shooting the lights out. A 0.4 per cent to 0.5 per cent growth rate is much more sustainable than what we were seeing, say, in early 2023 up to mid-2024.'
The trend was echoed in the PropTrack Home Price Index report, also published this month, produced by REA Group.
REA Group senior economist Eleanor Creagh said the trend was expected to continue due to a chronic lack of new housing supply, population growth and targeted buyer incentives.
'In combination with interest rates continuing to move lower, these factors are likely to drive further growth throughout the remainder of 2025,' she said.
After a shallow and short-lived downturn at the end of 2024, the recovery in prices had more to do with sentiment than a genuine improvement in serviceability or access to credit, considering interest rates were still in restrictive territory, Mr Lawless said.
'And we know from historical correlations, consumer confidence and housing activity tend to go hand-in-hand.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Opposition criticises rent control plans as ‘recipe for rocketing' prices
Opposition politicians have criticised the Government's plans to impose rent controls as a 'recipe for rocketing rents' and labelled it a 'sweetheart' deal for investment firms. Three opposition politicians raised a line in a Department of Housing press release that said landlords can increase rents to the market rate after six years of any tenancies created from March 1st, 2026. Advertisement It said: 'All landlords will have the right to reset rent where the rent is below market at the end of each six-year tenancy, unless a 'no-fault eviction' occurs.' Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the proposed 2 per cent nationwide rent cap was an attempt to 'hide your blushes' as landlords can 'hike up rents' now and in the future. She said allowing landlords to reset rent to full market rate every six years was 'the death knell' of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs). She said plans to restrict rent increases except in cases where renters leave tenancies voluntarily, would see one renter replaced by another whose rent will have 'ballooned'. Advertisement 'Students will be amongst the first hit by your actions. Finding affordable rental accommodation has been a constant struggle for students and their families, but you are now ensuring that this will be even harder. She said the plan would see investment funds build expensive rental properties and charge 'extortionate' rent. 'Your first major action in housing is to enable big landlords to hike up extortionate rents even further,' she said. 'At a time when Government should be acting to cut rents and to ban rent increases, at a time when people across the State fork out on average new rent of €2,000 a month – here in Dublin, of course, rent can hit €3,000 per month or even higher – but instead, you create a new opportunity for tens of thousands of landlords to jack up their rents.' Advertisement Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the Government had performed a 'screeching U-turn' on RPZs. She said the RPZs scheme had been called into question before, and was now being extended nationwide. 'So perhaps we should start calling you the Grand Old Duke of Cork, because you led your men up to the top of the hill before marching them all the way back down again. And it's just a mercy, I suppose, that they weren't sent over the top – a mercy for renters.' She said the 'panicked announcement' was sowing fear among renters and uncertainty among investors. Advertisement 'You're extending the RPZ, sure, but if you're hollowing out what is meant by an RPZ, if you're reducing protection to those within RPZs then that doesn't have the desired effect.' Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O'Callaghan said that according to the line in the press release, renters will face 'astronomical rent increases they cannot afford every six years'. 'You're throwing renters under the bus. Incredibly, you're planning even more favourable treatment for vulture funds than already exists. 'They currently pay almost no tax, they charge some of the highest rents in the country, and now, when it comes to rent regulation, you're rolling over to them yet again. Advertisement 'So Taoiseach, who is in charge here? Is it the Government, or is it the vulture funds?' People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the Taoiseach had been asked the same question three times about the line in the Department of Housing press release. He said that rents being 'reset' to the market rate when a tenant leaves a tenancy was 'a recipe for rocketing rents'. 'Not just new landlords, not just big landlords, not just small landlords, every single landlord, which means existing tenants, new tenants – yes, please, if the minister could inform the Taoiseach of what's going on here, what's in the policy, that'd be very, very helpful. 'So what you're saying to existing, new tenants – all of them – is they get the limited protection of the 2 per cent, or [inflation] if it's new, for six years. At six years, it's a free-for-all. They get to reset to market rate. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was accused of getting rid of RPZs months ago, when 'it was never, ever contemplated to end RPZs'. 'What is now emerging are probably the strongest set of rent protection measures we've ever had in the history of the State.' Responding to the criticism of the line in the press release, the Taoiseach suggested the plan does include a provision for when a renter voluntarily leaves that rents can be rematched to the market rate. 'Forget all the noise, the sound and the fury, and go through it detail by detail. This is a well-balanced package.' Ireland Nationwide rent controls planned as Government loo... Read More He said the State is the lead investor in housing in Ireland, contributing more than €7 billion a year, but the Department of Housing said that around €20 billion is needed to get to 50,000 houses a year. 'Now, where do people think we're going to get to €20 billion from? 'I don't believe you can replace all of it by 100 per cent State either constructive housing, State rental housing or whatever.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
No 10 blocked nature concessions in planning bill amid Labour rebellion, sources say
Downing Street and the Treasury intervened to stop any concessions in the planning bill, after pro-housing MPs voiced anger over a Labour rebel amendment that attempted to strengthen nature protections. The Guardian has been told that ministers drew up amendments to the bill last week in an attempt to head off the anger of wildlife charities and rebel Labour MPs amid a backlash against the bill. Two sources with knowledge of the discussions said they were expecting the amendments to be put in the Commons this week. But the amendments never appeared, after No 10 and the Treasury intervened. Fifteen Labour MPs rebelled against the government on Monday night to back an amendment by Labour's Chris Hinchliff to the planning and infrastructure bill which would have imposed new environmental obligations, including a rigid timetable, on developers. MPs from the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a large caucus of pro-housing MPs – had raised the alarm with the Treasury and No 10. The LGG had criticised the amendments on X on Monday, saying its members were 'against these wrecking-ball amendments, and for getting Britain BUILDING'. Hinchliff then hit back at his Labour colleagues in a post, saying he was 'not joining them in doubling down on 20 years of failed deregulation that delivers under 2% social housing a year'. Senior sources suggested there had been strong opposition from the Treasury and No 10 on any new amendments or making any firmer commitments to look at adopting any of the proposals. The housing secretary, Matt Pennycook, declined to comment, but an ally said he had not been minded to accept Hinchliff's amendments in any case. The LGG had argued strongly that mitigations in the bill would mean further delays to new housing and threaten the government's 1.5m new homes target. 'For years voters have been telling politicians what they desperately need: lower my bills, get my wages rising, breathe life back into my local area, give my kids a shot at owning a decent home,' a Labour Growth Group source said. 'Under the Tories, time and again they were ignored. 'This bill is a cornerstone in the government's strategy to show them we are on their side and will deliver those things – we're very clear that demands from pressure groups must not be allowed to derail it.' Leading environmental groups are warning the government that verbal promises over part 3 of the bill – which is focused on environmental obligations – were not enough and the legislation needed to include solid guarantees of environmental results with scientific assurances. Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB, said that without amendments the bill was a regression in environmental protection. 'Until we see actual amendments tabled that address the concerns held by us, many other organisations including the independent environmental watchdog, and thousands of people, we will continue to call for Part 3 to be scrapped.' Speaking at the dispatch box on Monday night, Pennycook said the government would be looking at strengthening national planning policy – rather than directly legislating – on some key environmental policies such as introducing swift bricks for new houses for nesting birds. Pennycook denied the plans would allow developers to damage habitats if they contributed to a nature restoration fund, which campaigners have called 'cash to trash'. He said some of the bill's critics had 'flagrant misconceptions' of what the changes would do. Hinchliff said the nature restoration fund was a 'kernel of a good idea', and said his amendment would give 'ministers the opportunity to rescue something positive from the wreckage of this legislation, ensuring environmental delivery plans serve their purpose without allowing developers to pay cash to destroy nature'. MPs voted to reject the amendment, which was backed by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – but not by Reform UK. Pennycook told MPs he was giving serious consideration to the OEP's concerns, particularly that part 3 of the bill rolled back environmental laws and left protected sites vulnerable to development. Richard Benwell, the CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said the government needed to go beyond verbal assurances and ensure the legislation contained rock solid guarantees of environmental results, scientific assurances that new approaches could work, and transparent delivery plans for nature benefits. 'Fixing the serious risks posed by part 3 will need more than cosmetic change,' he said. Nigel Farage's party had backed an amendment to install swift bricks in new homes, which Pennycook said the government would look at doing through guidance. Pennycook said he would continue to take advice and give 'serious consideration' on what more could be done for environmental protection, with further challenges to the bill expected in the Lords. Hinchliff said that his amendment had been an attempt at compromise. 'Britain's biggest nature charities are so concerned by this bill that they have been calling for the entirety of Part 3 to be removed. 'If we can't improve this bill in the Lords we won't just risk harming nature—there will be severe damage to our relationship with an electorate that cherishes green spaces. I was encouraged to hear that the minister was listening to concerns yesterday - my door remains open - I want to help the government get this right.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Cheaper imported chicken and beef increasingly seen in UK supermarkets
Cheap chicken and beef from Australia, Poland and Uruguay is on the rise on UK supermarket shelves, according to the National Farmers' Union, as supermarkets look for money-saving options. The NFU regularly monitors supermarket shelves and notes that Morrisons is now selling raw chicken from Poland in its poultry aisle. Chicken in Poland is generally produced to different standards from those in the UK, and is cheaper to produce as a result. Morrisons requires that for its UK chicken, poultry must be kept at a maximum stocking density of 30kg/m2, giving the chickens more space to roam. In Poland, this is up to 39kg/m2. The retailer has also begun to sell sirloin steak from Australia, made possible, according to NFU sources, by the unpopular trade deal struck by Liz Truss with Australia. Australian beef, like Polish chicken, is generally produced to different animal welfare and environmental standards than meat in the UK. Feedlots are commonly used and, according to the RSPCA in Australia, the country is ranked D for farm animal welfare compared with B for the UK. The supermarket sponsors the TV show Clarkson's Farm and frequently reiterates its commitment to British farmers. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson, said: 'This is appalling from Morrisons. They seek kudos for their UK sourcing but then sneakily do this, undermining British farmers and undermining their own integrity and brand.' Other supermarkets are also sourcing meat from farther afield than previously. Asda is now selling sirloin and ribeye steaks from Uruguay, priced much lower than their UK counterparts. They are priced at £21.94/kg and £23.70/kg respectively, which is about 20% less than their UK and Irish beef, priced at £27.93/kg for sirloin and £28.81 for ribeye. Stuart Roberts, a beef, sheep and cereal farmer from Hertfordshire said: 'With farmers under pressure from multiple directions I'd be fascinated to learn why Asda have decided this is an appropriate time to start stocking Uruguayan beef. There is no excuse for this huge betrayal of the UK's hard-working family farms. Consumers and farmers deserve better.' Sainsbury's has also been found to be stocking beef steaks from New Zealand. Supermarkets said they were doing this to offer 'outstanding value' to customers. The cost of red meat has soared in recent months, with UK farm gate beef prices at 713.3p/kg on 3 May, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), a 43.8% year-on-year increase. The AHDB predicts that beef production will fall by 5% in the next year due to a decline in farming profitability and an expected cut to subsidies. The NFU livestock board chair, David Barton, said: 'It's deeply concerning to see major retailers now move away from their previous commitments to sourcing British … in favour of imports many of which have been produced to lower standards. Farmers' longstanding partnerships with retailers have supported sustainable supply chains, so this shift is alarming. 'Decisions to renege on sourcing commitments erode trust and damage farmer confidence at a time when the sector is facing immense challenges and, with increased global insecurity, the need to build sustainable food supply chains has never been more important. 'British farmers have invested in higher standards such as reducing antibiotic use in beef and lowering poultry stocking densities in sheds. But delivering these standards comes with additional financial costs. Long-term sourcing commitments from retailers are essential to ensuring that the high welfare British food consumers want remains available.' A Morrisons spokesperson said: 'Morrisons remains 100% British on all our meat counters. In our aisles – alongside our New Zealand lamb – we are introducing trials of some imported meat from trusted suppliers to help us offer outstanding value through the seasons and through any supply fluctuations. 'We are proud to be the single biggest direct supermarket customer of British farming and are looking to grow the overall volumes of British meat through Myton Food Group.' An Asda spokesperson said: 'We always look to offer customers a wide choice of products to suit all budgets, and the country of origin is always clearly labelled on pack so customers can make an informed choice about their purchases. Grass & Grill steaks are provided by a branded partner and available in our stores for a limited time only. All of Asda's own brand fresh beef continues to be sourced from farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland.' Sainsbury's has been contacted for comment.
