"Homebuyers need someone to hold their hand," says broker

The leader highlights the importance of educating first-home buyers

By Mina Martin

03 Feb 2022

Satyan Mehra, director and chief advisor, at iConsult, said there are many challenges facing first-home buyers, including house prices going through the roof, professional bias, and coming up with the deposit. But these are just the known issues, he said, and sometimes what clients need is someone to hold their hand.

“Some of the things that we observe is lack of knowledge,” Mehra said. “So, perhaps maybe they don't have enough resources out there relevant for them or maybe sometimes we see that they don't have the right education in terms of how the auction process works, how the finance rewards work, what they can do… Sometimes it's a little bit off edging the action… A lot of first home buyers are a bit nervous, or perhaps they sometimes need someone to hold their hand and guide them through the process.”

Mehra said that while these “smaller” challenges might appear not significant, they are important in the first-home buyers’ journey in finding properties.

“If they had someone who could sort of guide them through, hold their hand in terms of finding properties, guiding them [on] what different types of properties would mean… how do you sign up for sale and purchase agreement – getting all of that now, it's quite helpful.”

Whatever challenges first home buyers face, Mehra stressed the importance of giving them all the education they need – what risks they could be taking, where else could they be looking, and so on.

“All of those little things, along with image of getting themselves then sort of taking action, would help them, perhaps, overcome some of these challenges and get into their first-home buyer journey,” Mehra said.