With Money From Chores (And Help From Dad), 6-Year-Old Buys House

As a lesson in property investment, a father taught his 6-year-old daughter and her 2 siblings how to build a property portfolio — and they ended up with a brand new home.

For one young child in Australia, one of her first purchases may also be one of the largest she ever makes.

“My name is Ruby and I’m six years old and I’m about to buy my first house,” Ruby told Australia’s 7news.

Ruby and her siblings Gus and Lucy each pitched in $2,000 earned from chores and other work in their family’s effort to buy a $671,000 home in Clyde, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. (That’s in Australian dollars. The U.S. dollar value of the property would be closer to $480,000.)

As we’ve seen in the U.S., property values in Melbourne and throughout Australia have been soaring during the pandemic, with concerns of long-term housing affordability creeping into the minds of residents. But that may not be as much of an issue for these siblings in the long run.

The home prices in Melbourne have risen nearly 20 percent in the past year alone, according to data from CoreLogic. Half of homes in the city now sell for more than $986,992.

This makes the McLellan siblings’ purchase on the more affordable end of the market. But their father, Cam McLellan, believes the home’s value will double in the next decade.

“The price on that block has already gone up $70,000, so they’ve done well so far,” McLellan, a property investor, told 7news.

The news agency reports the children earned the money in part from household chores, but also by “packing their father’s revamped best selling book.”

At the end of the day, the plan is for the siblings to sell the home in 2032 and divvy up the profits, 7news reports. In the meantime, the plan is to rent it out.

In Australia, home values have been rising far more quickly than wages have kept up.

Wages across the country rose 82 percent over the past two decades, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. But over that same period of time, home values have shot up by 193 percent.

McLellan, the father and property investor, hopes his lessons will sink in for his kids when they’re old enough. His book was written in part with them as an audience, he said.

“It’s written for my kids to use when they’re old enough, so I’ve outlined all the steps it takes to build a property portfolio,” McLellan told 7news.

Email Daniel Houston

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