Claudia Grentell and her two children Micah, 5, + Maisie, 2. Claudia and her partner (FIFO out of work) bought their house in November and took out an extra loan to pay stamp duty and other costs for the purchase. Photo: Nigel Hallett
First-time buyers Claudia Grentell and Tristan Thomson were more than willing to combine the stamp duty payments on their mortgage to get into the property market quickly.
The young parents, with two children, recently bought a property in south-east Queensland after more than six months of searching.
![Aerial view of the Brisbane Bridge at sunset, also known as the Story Bridge,](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
First home buyers were willing to bundle stamp duty payments into their home loans to get into the market quickly.
Ms Grentell, 24, said she and Mr Thomson, 25, “knew happily” that they would be paying interest on the stamp duty portion of their mortgage.
He said their realtor led them on their mortgage journey – the couple paid $830,000 for the free home, and their mortgage is $840,800, including stamp duty.
“As first home buyers, this is what we are advised to do when we want to buy,” she said.
“If you are not satisfied with doing something the first time, you are happy to be guided.
“Whether it was the right thing to do, I don’t know.”
WEEKEND REAL ESTATE Buyers taking out another mortgage to pay stamp duty. Photo: Claudia Grentell with her two children Micah, 5, + Maisie, 2. Claudia and her partner (who were away working FIFO) bought their house in November and took out an extra loan to pay stamp duty and other costs for the purchase. Photo: Nigel Hallett
The couple had saved about $30,000 for their house deposit and upfront costs.
“Because we use a guarantee, our broker explained to us that we can add some of the credit costs if we want to set aside more money,” said Ms. Grentell.
“We paid some of our legal fees in advance (including the guarantor’s fees), then increased the amount of the loan to cover the remaining legal fees, and any stamp duty we owed.
“That means we were able to save about $12,000 in settlement.”
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The couple had been looking to buy for six months and realized that people were paying more than what was advertised for the houses.
The couple spent the money on repairs and moving expenses.
Being able to shop has ended the weekend run of family open houses.
“We were going to open homes and go back on Saturday and Sunday and then you go and see 50 other people and you think ‘well I won’t even bother’,” he said.
“We looked at it for a long time and realized that people are paying more than advertised for houses.”
The couple would open their homes back and forth on weekends. Photo: NewsWire/Monique Harmer
They ended up with the keys to the house in Beenleigh, Logan City.
“We used to live north of the Gold Coast, but to get into the housing market we decided to buy in Beenleigh,” he said.
“As a family with four children, this move meant that our children could stay at the same school and continue their extracurricular activities.”
Aerial view of the Central Coast, NSW.
And with this month’s interest rate hike, Ms Grentell said it would be a sacrifice.
“We live a low standard of living but maybe it will be the money I will use for pleasure that I will reduce,” she said.
“In terms of being able to withstand the increase, it is affordable but not a good thing.
“We like to go on vacation and the vacation will never come again.
“There will be things like food to eat if I don’t like to cook — it will have to stop and we will have to do a week-long food stall.”
