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House sitting and taking care of people’s pets, mostly cats, helped Lel Sebastian to save the deposit for her first home.
Lel Sebastian spent decades watching her friends buy their first homes, until she figured she had missed the boat.
Then she made one last ditch effort, moving back to Melbourne from the affluent Byron Bay area in NSW, saved a deposit by pet sitting and even signed up for the federal government to own a chunk of an apartment alongside her to give it a crack.
She will move into her first home in the coming weeks, ending years of worrying about her future.
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“I have watched all my friends around me buy their first home over the years, and I’m the last one to do that,” Ms Sebastian said.
“A few years ago I was saying to my son I could actually be homeless.
“You hear stories of people all the time who struggle when they get older, and they do become homeless or are forced into a situation where they are sharing a home.
“But now, while I have shared equity, it’s my place and I can’t be kicked out. I’m not at the whim of a landlord.”
Ms Sebastian returned to Victoria in 2024, but rather than rent a home to move into she signed up for a house-sitting service — mostly taking care of other peoples’ pets while they travelled.
Lel Sebastian saved on rent by house sitting, which helped her save a deposit for her first home — when coupled with the federal government’s co-buying scheme. Picture: Tim Carrafa
“It saved me paying rent and they didn’t have to pay for a cattery,” she said.
“I mostly took care of cats, and one lovely dog, and that helped me get reacquainted with Melbourne too.
“And that’s how I saved my deposit.”
It also meant she got to experience different suburbs, and different home types from houses to apartments.
Ms Sebastian was also an early adopter of the Albanese government’s Help to Buy scheme, under which the federal government co-buys a home with eligible buyers — reducing the upfront costs as well as their loan size in return for a share in any increase in the value while the first-home buyer owns the property, or until they buy the government out.
“I’m still planning to work for another 10 or so years, and this meant I could buy something with a bit more money up my sleeve,” she said.
“I was probably the perfect candidate; I’d been working my whole life, but wasn’t in a position to buy without it.”
Cats have proven an unlikely housing affordability solution.
She had inquired about what she could borrow before the scheme became available for her, but had found it would be quite limited to very small homes.
Ms Sebastian said she was both surprised and heartened to hear she wasn’t the only first-home buyer to find they hadn’t “missed the boat” later in life.
“Now that I know those stats, I’d say don’t give up and don’t be ashamed. It’s probably down to circumstances out of your control for a lot of people.”
Other tricks that helped her save up and change her housing situation included making her own coffee, and having learned to manage her finances and stick to a budget earlier in life.
She also enlisted the help of LP Advisory buyer’s advocacy, who she said had helped make the process seem a lot less intimidating — and given her the confidence to make a move.
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