First Home Buyers Need a Buyers Agent More Than Ever
By Simon Cohen, Founder & CEO, Cohen Handler
If you’re a first home buyer in Australia right now, you already know the market isn’t on your side. Today’s Domain first home buyer report, published in The Australian Financial Review, puts the hard numbers on what anyone working in Australian property already feels: the average couple looking for their first home can no longer afford an entry-level house in any major city. Not Sydney. Not Melbourne. Not anywhere.
Five years ago, the housing affordability crisis was a Sydney problem. Now it’s an everywhere problem. Entry-level house prices have surged 68 per cent nationally since 2020 while wages have crawled up just 22 per cent. In Adelaide, entry prices have more than tripled. In Brisbane and Perth, they’ve more than doubled. A young couple in Sydney would need to spend over 60 per cent of their income just to service a mortgage on a house at the bottom of the market. That’s not a stretch, that’s impossible.
I’ve spent more than 16 years as a buyers agent, and I’ll be honest: these numbers should concern every single one of us. Not just first home buyers, but anyone who believes property ownership should be part of the Australian story.
Housing Affordability Is Failing First Home Buyers
Let me be clear. I don’t think rising prices at the entry level of the market is something to celebrate. Every dollar added to that bottom rung is another barrier between a young Australian and their future. The data in this report shows that government schemes aimed at helping first home buyers have, in many cases, actually pushed prices higher by adding more demand into a market that doesn’t have enough homes. That’s not a solution. That’s a bandaid.
We need supply. We need meaningful policy reform. And we need to stop pretending that helping people borrow more money at higher prices is the same thing as making housing affordable.
But here’s the thing. While we wait for the system to catch up, first home buyers still need to build their futures. And that’s where having a buyers agent in your corner makes all the difference.
Why a Buyers Agent Matters More Than Ever for First Home Buyers
In a market this competitive and this unforgiving, the idea of going at it alone as a first home buyer is daunting. You’re competing against investors, against other buyers being driven into the same shrinking pool of affordable stock, and against a market that moves faster than most people can keep up with.
This is exactly why the role of a buyers agent has never been more important for first home buyers. Nearly every day, my team and I speak to people who feel locked out, people who’ve saved hard, done the right thing, and still can’t seem to get a foothold. What we bring is access, knowledge, and negotiation power that levels the playing field. We find opportunities others miss. We access off-market properties that never appear on the major portals. We know which pockets of a city still offer genuine value, whether that’s in Sydney, Melbourne, or emerging markets across the country. And critically, we protect first home buyers from overpaying in a market that punishes mistakes.
Whether you’re a first home buyer trying to crack the market, a young family upsizing, or a downsizer looking for the next chapter, every buyer deserves professional representation. The selling side of real estate has had it for decades. Buyers deserve the same.
Rentvesting: A Strategy Helping First Home Buyers Build Wealth
One of the things that drives me is a belief that every Australian, regardless of income, should have a pathway into property. That’s the whole reason we created CH Secure, our affordable investment arm. We built it specifically because we were watching too many everyday Australians feel like the door had been slammed shut.
The reality is, if you can’t afford to buy where you want to live, that doesn’t mean you can’t own property. Rentvesting, renting where you want to live while investing in a more affordable, high-growth market, is a genuine strategy that is helping thousands of first home buyers build wealth right now. It’s not a consolation prize. It’s a smart financial move that can gets you into the property market years earlier than saving for a house in an expensive capital city.
Through CH Secure, we help people secure investment properties between $500,000 and $900,000 in locations with strong rental yields and real growth potential. You don’t need a massive deposit. You don’t need generational wealth. With the right guidance and a buyers agent who knows how to find the right property, you can start building your future with around $70,000 in savings or equity.
I want to be very clear: I’m not telling anyone to be grateful for unaffordable housing. The housing affordability crisis in this country is real and it demands real answers. But I also refuse to accept the narrative that an entire generation of first home buyers is simply locked out with no options. That’s defeatist, and it isn’t true.
What First Home Buyers Need Right Now
If you’re a first home buyer reading this and feeling overwhelmed, here’s my honest take.
The market is tough. The data confirms it. But tough doesn’t mean hopeless. It means you need to be smarter, more strategic, and, ideally, better represented than the next buyer. It means being open to thinking differently about how you enter the market. Maybe your first property isn’t the one you live in. Maybe it’s an investment that starts working for you while you continue to rent in the suburb you love. That’s rentvesting, and it’s a legitimate strategy that we’ve written about before.
At Cohen Handler, we’ve helped our clients purchase more than $12 billion worth of property. We’ve worked with everyone from first-time buyers to multi-property investors. And the common thread across all of those transactions is this: the people who have the best outcomes are the ones who had the best advice and the best buyers agent in their corner.
That’s what we do. We fight for buyers. All of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely. A buyers agent levels the playing field for first home buyers by providing access to off-market properties, expert negotiation, and local market knowledge. At Cohen Handler, first home buyers are a growing part of our client base. We help them find opportunities in competitive markets, avoid overpaying, and navigate the process with confidence.
Rentvesting is a property strategy where you rent in the area you want to live, usually a more expensive location, while purchasing an investment property in a more affordable, high-growth market. It allows first home buyers to get into the property market sooner, start building equity, and benefit from rental income and potential capital growth. Through CH Secure we help Australians find affordable investment properties suited to a rentvesting strategy.
he traditional path of saving for a house in a major capital city is out of reach for most first home buyers right now. The most effective strategies include rentvesting, targeting emerging markets with a buyers agent, and taking advantage of government grants and schemes where they genuinely help. The key is getting professional advice early and being open to a different entry point than you originally imagined. You can read more in our 2026 property market outlook.
Simon Cohen is the Founder and CEO of Cohen Handler, Australia’s leading buyer’s agency, and co-founder of CH Secure, the affordable property investment arm of the Cohen Group.