Thanks for your response Richard.

I will weigh up these options, but it seems I should go and speak with a financial planner to figure out which option is best to proceed. Perhaps we are better off renting for an additional year (the year my wife is off work) and then applying for the home loan.

I think we will definitely sit down and agree on an exit strategy, based on all the scenarios discussed above, plus more…

Thanks Richard for your information. Another question. If we say want to borrow $600,000 between us 2 married couples, can we just borrow $600,000 and then halve the repayments on this figure? or would we be forced to take out 2 x $300,000 loans and thus make repayments on this figure? As I think the first option would mean lower repayments.

Joel, great vid mate, well done….Truly inspiring.

Just recently married, so savings his really only just started, only have $5000 saved in an ING account (5%). We're putting away $1100 per fortnight into the ING account automatically. The remaining cash is for general expenses/bills/rent etc. our goal is to save $40,000 by December 2010. Plus the FHOG, and some family equity of $20,000 this will bring our deposit to $67,000. Less after paying for all the costs and fees associated with purchasing a property.

Colin:- After doing some budgets in excel, based on a worst case scenario of a 7% interest rate (assuming that if it did hit 8, my wife will be back working by that time) on a $330,000 loan, i can just scrape through on the one income with the paid maternity leave and Family Tax Benefits (not much I know). With about $100 or so left per week on leisure/entertainment activities after accounting for all expenses.

We've just signed a 12 month+ lease in our current rental, taking us through to 2011. So we have no choice now but to hold off on buying until then.

It's funny you mentioned the granny flat, I may have the opportunity to move into a brand new extension/granny flat that a family member is thinking of building. Might move into this in 2011 after the lease is up, pay cheap rent while having kids, and therefore retaining our deposit, and hit the banks up for a loan when my wife is back at work.

That's another question I had, would the banks give us a loan if we walk in with my wife pregnant (but working), would need them to assess us based on two incomes to get the loan amount we want.

Thanks for the advice all. Seems I should sit on it for a year, do some more research, so i'm armed and ready when I go into battle in 12 months time…Just hope the prices and interest rates dont rise TOO much….