Australia's model home owner

Reporter: Rodney Lohse
Broadcast Date: February 26, 2008

Morgan Featherstone may be Australia's youngest home owner. At 13, she has almost paid off a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Brisbane.

"I just thought I would like to buy a house for when I'm older. I talked about it with mum and dad and they said 'yeah, let's go for it'," she said.

Morgan was nine years old when she hit the headlines for being Australia's youngest fashion model.

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Her family was criticised for allowing Morgan to be photographed in make-up for a controversial ad campaign that made her appear years older.

But the modelling paid very well and her mother Amy is now her tenant.

"Is she a tough landlord? Nah, as long as she's got clean washing and food on the table she's pretty happy," Amy said.

When Morgan's modelling career took off, investing in property seemed the logical choice.

"Her money had to go somewhere and instead of just sitting in a bank earning minimal interest, property was the best thing," Amy said.

They did get some funny looks from the bank manager.

"He was a little bit surprised but when we told him how much of a deposit we had, or she had, he was more than eager to help," she said.

Mortgage Choice broker, Andrew Childs, age is not as much of a barrier as income is.

He said young first home buyers actually have it easier than their parents when it comes to buying a home.

"You don't actually need any savings, you need a good strong income, a good strong employment history (and show) you have been at the same place for 12 months to two years," he said.

"When I took my first loan out I had to have a 20 per cent equity in the property and today you don't need that, so we're seeing more and more people with at least a strong income coming into the market."

Paul McManus has just celebrated his 22nd birthday.

The first property he purchased cost $220,000. Its current value is $370,000 and he can build four units on it.

The second property he bought for $218,000 and on the land he is currently building a duplex, which could make him a profit of about $350,000.

He already owns more than $2 million worth of property and is on his sixth investment home, not bad considering he bought his first three years ago.

"Buying the first house was the biggest and hardest step. From there, it snowballed. I bought second house three months later," he said.

Mr Childs said young investors like Paul are happy to take risks.

"Build a portfolio that increases in equity in areas like Queensland, for instance. If you bought property two or three years ago, you are still seeing significant capital gain," he said.

But he said not all investors are as switched on as Paul and Morgan.

"They like to have all the bells and whistles and the plasma TVs and I think that has got a lot of young people in bad debt with credit cards," he said.

His advice for other young home buyers is clear all bad debt on credit cards and personal loans and then find the right house.

"It is research, research, research, and look where you can get the best value," he said.