Sean standing in the kitchen of his new Salisbury East home.
SA Housing Trust tenant Sean Brown describes moving into his new Salisbury East home, built under the Affordable Homes initiative and sold through the new Rent to Buy program, as "winning the lottery".
A long-term renter, including the last five years with the Trust, Mr Brown is thrilled about finally breaking into the housing market.
"Getting into the housing market is the hardest thing, and now it's finally happened," Mr Brown says.
"I wasn't expecting an opportunity like this through the Trust, so it's pretty amazing.
Mr Brown will rent the two-bedroom, detached property in Salisbury East for two years at 75 per cent of market rent. After that, he will have the option to buy the home at a fixed purchase price, protecting him from further rent increases and allowing him to save for a deposit.
"It's like winning the lottery, but I have to work for it, and I feel better about that," he says. "It's amazing."
Having worked in the construction industry and now managing major event setups, Mr Brown admits that with the rising cost of living and the competitive, expensive housing market, he had given up on homeownership.
“You look at everything since COVID and there was no way I was going to be able to do it," he says.
"When I started out the bank was saying you need $40,000, then it was $60,000, then it was $80,000. It got to the point where I didn’t care anymore but I saw Rent to Buy through the Trust was an option, so I signed up for it.”
Looking to the future, Mr Brown is excited about the chapter ahead and the security this opportunity brings.
“It will be a massive change moving to Salisbury East, but this opportunity won’t come up again. It was too good to pass up.”