I appreciate the ideas. In regards to your calculations, it's best to account for tax as well. In regards to your suggestions, the first one is too far out and sunshine is literally one of the worst suburbs I could think of to live in. This is for a PPOR not an IP. I plan on being there for more than five years and I have to want to live there. While I won't live in the bottom of the barrel, I don't consider my criteria too picky (within 11km of cbd, 2br, has balcony, has car spot, easy train acccess etc.). For me its a constant mental battle between getting in now with something that I simply don't want to live in, versus waiting, saving and hoping I'm not outpaced by the market.
And there's the rub.
While not specifically picking on you, you have just put into writing, what a lot of first home buyers want & the reason they don't actually buy.
Rewind the clock backwards to when I was young. I would have LOVED to buy in a better place, closer to where I WANTED to be, and a home that was simply nice, not luxurious. BUT, I had to face up to reality. If I wanted to own a home, it would be old, not at all nice, and in a neighbourhood that I wasn't that fond of. In fact a real renovators delight, that in all honesty, these days, I'd demolish.
But, it was mine. The stepping stone to the future. An end of paying someone else for my accommodation, with the knowledge that I could upgrade in the future.
Sometimes you just have to be realistic, or compromise, in order to get what you want, or where you want to go. Within 11km of the CBD, for a young person is a LOT of money, especially if your income isn't that large (OK, I have no idea what your earning capacity is). Think about how this could compromise your wealth going forward. You could buy now, have it mostly paid off within a short period of time, and have oodles of equity going forward for your future.
There are a heap of mostly younger people both on the forum & outside of it, that constantly whinge and complain about the baby boomers & their supposed wealth. OK, granted a lot on here do have wealth, but we are not typical of the community at large, being that this is an investment forum. Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make.
If you are not prepared to do what we did, in order to get ahead, you may not ever get what we have.
We 'oldies' lived through 17.5% interest rates & all kinds of other nasties that hopefully you guys won't, but of course, there's no guarantees in life. We bought crap properties & second hand furniture. Hung sheets as curtains, etc. We did all this because the cost of living was high, wages were low, and interest rates higher. But we didn't let that get in the way of us buying our first homes.
Anyway, this is not a personal dig at you. You have done well with your savings, if my original estimation is anywhere near the mark, this is just my observation of many who want to buy a first home, then complain that they can't, because their expectations are too high. ANYONE who is employed in a full time job in Australia CAN buy a home. There's plenty of affordable properties out there, but they aren't necessarily the homes that the first home owners want, or they aren't prepared to live within their means to save the deposit.