Interest rates have never been lower, meaning that with enough toil and thrift it should be dead easy to pay off a mortgage.
Yet home prices across Australia have gone through the roof and, for most, the dream of purchasing is increasingly elusive.
According to comparison site Finder, aspiring owners need a six-figure deposit just to get their foot in the door.
Eleven per cent of them would need more than a decade to scrape together the required amount, a survey of 1,028 first-time buyers found.
The dream of many residents of owing property in NSW (pictured) is becoming unattainable due to house prices
One in three young Australians are relying on the bank of mum and dad to get into the housing market as prices surge.
Saving up for a 20 per cent mortgage deposit is a logistical challenge with Sydney s median house prices in March surging by 4.3 per cent to a record $1.112million.
National property prices last month climbed by 2.8 per cent, the fastest monthly pace since October 1988, to $614,768, CoreLogic data showed.
Even the mid-point price for a house or apartment in Australia is a stretch for someone earning an average, full-time salary of $89,000.
Little wonder younger Australians are turning to their parents with 32 per cent of first-home buyers relying on the bank of mum and dad to either fund a mortgage deposit, service a loan or cover the full purchase price, a Finder survey of 1,028 property newcomers found.
More than half of Australians seeking their first home are being saddled with an average of $6300 in additional fees for unexpected services, a new study has found.