You're paying $600 a week in rent. You're putting away whatever you can. But somehow, the deposit still feels like it's getting further away, not closer.
You're not imagining it. For a lot of Australians right now, the maths genuinely doesn't work the way it used to. Rents have surged across Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and the Gold Coast. Living costs are up. And the deposit target keeps moving as property values shift.
But here's what's changing: the path into property ownership no longer has to follow the script you grew up with. More Australians are finding ways to move towards owning a home while they're still renting. Some of those options are smarter than others.
The traditional advice is simple. Save hard, cut back, and eventually you'll have enough for a deposit.
The problem is that advice was written for a different market.
According to Domain's 2025 First Home Buyer Report, the average working couple aged 25 to 34 needs more than five years to save a 20% deposit on an entry-level home. And that figure assumes rents stay stable, expenses don't blow out, and life doesn't get in the way.
For many Australians, rent alone is consuming 30 to 40% of their take-home pay. What's left after groceries, transport, utilities, and the occasional unexpected bill often isn't enough to build meaningful savings momentum.
The rental cycle becomes its own obstacle. The longer it takes to save, the longer you're renting. The longer you're renting, the more of your income goes to rent. And if rents keep rising in the meantime, you may be running to stand still.
It's not a personal failing. It's a structural problem that a growing number of buyers are trying to navigate.
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Rentvesting has quietly become one of the more common ways younger Australians get a foothold in the property market.
The idea is straightforward. Instead of waiting until you can afford to buy in the suburb you want to live in, you buy an investment property somewhere more accessible and keep renting where you are.
It can make sense if you need to stay in a particular city for work or lifestyle reasons but can't yet afford to buy there. The rental income from your investment property can help cover holding costs, and you're building equity in the market rather than sitting on the sidelines.
The trade-offs are real though. As an investor rather than an owner-occupier, you won't have access to the First Home Owner Grant or most state-based first home buyer schemes. You'll also be managing landlord responsibilities while still paying your own rent, which adds complexity and cost.
Rentvesting suits buyers who are clear-eyed about the numbers and willing to accept that their first property might not be the home they live in.
Rent-to-own has been around in various forms for years, and the sector has grown significantly in Australia recently. Some providers offer models where you lease a property with the option to buy it later, with some of your payments building towards the eventual purchase.
The appeal is obvious. You get to live in the home you're working towards, and you don't need a full deposit upfront.
But the structure is worth understanding before you commit. Most rent-to-own schemes charge an options fee on top of your rent, which is meant to build towards your deposit. If you decide not to purchase at the end of the agreement, or if your home loan application is declined, you risk losing that money. Some contracts also lock in a future purchase price, which can work in your favour if values rise but against you if the market softens.
The regulatory environment around rent-to-own is still developing. Victoria has specific legislation in place. Other states have less formal protections. Independent legal advice before signing anything is genuinely important here.
Buying off-the-plan is another path that suits buyers who are still renting but want to lock in a purchase now.
With off-the-plan, you're buying a property before or during construction, which means settlement is typically 12 to 24 months away. That gives you time to continue saving while the build progresses.
The deposit structure is usually around 10%, paid at contract exchange, with the remainder due at settlement. For buyers still renting, this approach lets you commit to a purchase without needing the full amount immediately.
Through Coposit, buyers can go further. Rather than paying a 10% deposit upfront, you secure a property with $10,000 initially and spread the remaining deposit through manageable weekly instalments while the development is under construction. You stay in your rental, keep your savings building, and work towards settlement at a pace that fits your situation.
It's designed specifically for buyers who are ready to commit but aren't in a position to hand over tens of thousands of dollars at once.
You can explore eligible off-the-plan developments across Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and the Gold Coast through our project listings.
Most rental models work the same way. You pay rent each month. The landlord keeps it. You have nothing to show for it at the end of the lease.
Coposit is developing a new approach called Unrent that challenges that dynamic.
With Unrent, renters live in a property and pay rent in the usual way. But here, the rent they pay accumulates as their deposit. When they've built up enough, they buy the home. The rent wasn't dead money. It was working the whole time.
This is different from traditional rent-to-own models in an important way. There's no additional options fee charged on top of your rent. The rent itself is what becomes your deposit. You're not paying extra for the privilege of buying later.
Unrent is being built around a practical opportunity in the market: developers with completed projects and unsold units. Carrying unsold stock is costly for developers, and Unrent gives those properties a purpose while giving renters a genuine pathway to ownership.
Unrent is launching soon. If you want to be among the first to know when it becomes available, you can join the waitlist now.
There's no single right answer here. The best approach depends on your income, your savings, your timeline, and where you want to end up.
A few questions worth sitting with:
If you're unsure where to start, the Coposit team is happy to walk through what's available and help you understand which pathway might suit your circumstances.
The property market in 2026 is genuinely more complicated than it was a decade ago. But the options available to buyers who are still renting have also expanded. The key is understanding what each path actually involves before you commit to one.
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