Housing crisis: Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather clashes with Labor over ... trends now
Mira Almasri, a 35-year-old single mother, is renting a one-bedroom apartment with her two children aged nine and 14 in Mosman on Sydney's well-heeled north shore for $600 a week.
'In Sydney everything is expensive. Even to breathe is expensive,' she said.
Ms Almasri, who works in a bridal shop in central Sydney, said she had given up all hope of owning a Sydney home.
'It's impossible to buy in Sydney,' she said.
Stephanie Zizer, 35, first got on the property ladder four years ago
'Even if you earn loads of money it's still hard. All my friends who have bought houses in the last two years say they are not happy at all because they are paying high interest rates.'
'I get around $1,000 a week after tax and I'm paying $600 for a one-bedroom apartment. Add on food, petrol, electricity - it's too much.'
Ms Almasri, who is originally from Lebanon, has not been able to return home or travel anywhere overseas for five years now.
'I can't put any money on the side,' she said.
Ms Almasri, who has been in Australia for 14 years, is looking for a three-bedroom house for herself and her two kids.
In her current unit, she sleeps on a sofa bed in the living room while her children share the sole bedroom containing two single beds.
Santos Tiwari, 35, is an entrepreneur who runs several coffee stands across Sydney and has just opened a dumpling bar in a laneway off George Street in the CBD.
Zoe Janssen (pictured) is working as a paralegal while she studies law
Santos Tiwari (pictured) has just opened the Dumpling & Momo bar in central Sydney
He bought a five-bedroom house in Adelaide in 2015 which he rents out for $550 dollars a week.
But he says property in his home city is absurdly priced.
'It would be nice to buy one in Sydney but not the amount you have to pay now - it's just ridiculous,' he said.
'I'd probably buy somewhere else in Australia rather than in Sydney.'
Mr Tiwari lives in a two-bedroom house with a harbour view in Gladesville, in Sydney's lower north shore, which costs $700 a week.
Jacob Burrows, 22, an electrician from Perth, Western Australia, hopes to buy a property within the next 12 months despite interest rates being at their highest since 2012.
He has done a lot of research, including reading a book about a man who owned 30 properties by the age of 30.
'It's fairly hard at the moment because everything is so expensive,' he said.
Mira Almasri (pictured), a single mother-of-two has given up all hope of home ownership in Sydney because the city is 'too expensive'
