Home at last in Bacchus Marsh

Nicole Fitzsimons had been wanting a piece of the Aussie dream for a decade.

But amid booming property prices, the dream of owning her own home was getting harder to turn into a reality.

The Caulfield woman had been renting for more than 10 years. But with one toddler, and another child on the way, she knew she needed the stability of owning her own home.

Ms Fitzsimons will settle on her four-bedroom Bacchus Marsh house in September after co-purchasing it with the state government under its pilot HomesVic program.

She needed to come up with a five per cent deposit for the $475,000 house. Under the program, Ms Fitzsimons is not allowed to sell her house for two years and it must be her principal place of residence. If she wants to turn it into an investment property, she will have to pay out the government’s share.

Last year, the state government announced it would co-purchase up to 400 properties, taking an equity share of up to 25 per cent of each.

“[This program] really suits us at the moment,” Ms Fitzsimons said. “I’m a stay-at-home mum and my husband is working … this was the only way we were going to get into the market really.

“Some people have said, ‘Are you comfortable with the government owning a part of your house?’. The way we look at it is, it’s either the government or the bank.”

Ms Fitzsimons said the program, which offers houses in several areas across the state, including Bacchus Marsh, encouraged her to look in suburbs she hadn’t previously considered.

Bacchus Marsh’s relative proximity to Melbourne’s CBD and Ballarat, where she hails from, was a big selling point, Ms Fitzsimons said.

The government is encouraging more aspiring home owners to apply for the HomesVic program.

A state government spokesman said the treasury and finance department would assess the merits of the pilot program once all spaces had been filled.

– with Domain