Residz Team 3 min read
If you’ve had headaches, are feeling tired, or have an upset stomach you could be suffering from… the property market. It often turns up in adulthood when you become a property buyer.
However, the property market affects adults of all ages, and is shockingly difficult to diagnose and treat in the current climate. We’ve ignored a range of medical experts and can’t help at all. But read on to see if you recognise your condition and symptoms.
With more than 30% of their income going on a humongous mortgage, this terrified soul presents with a loss of appetite, poor sleep, and mood changes that range from irritability to anger. Finder's Consumer Sentiment Tracker showed 27% of Australians are struggling to pay their home loan or rent but mortgage stress can hit buyers even when they can make repayments. For this group, symptoms ramp up when interest rate rises are mentioned, which is happening frequently this season. Pain is extreme for the Buyer’s Remorse sub-group. Relief rarely comes from eating smashed avocado on toast. Note: many sufferers come from other age groups.
Surviving on boiled rice and 2-minute noodles, the deposit saver may complain of stomach cramps and a sense of feeling ‘on edge’. The effort to save a deposit fast enough to enter a runaway property market means the Drained Deposit Saver is always worrying. They self-medicate by cutting out most pursuits, including restaurant dinners with friends, parties where you have to take a present, brand name anything, and weekends away. Coming out of Covid lockdowns makes this condition very painful. Relief often comes from the bank of mum and dad.
Determined to age in place, this sufferer is racked with pain from sore joints and back. Most of the symptoms come from insisting on doing all maintenance jobs themselves. However, a fair amount of pain is caused by seeing all the jobs that still need doing on a property that’s become a burden instead of a haven.
This group of property market sufferers have it the hardest. The No-Property Despairer is unable to do much but sit back and watch the (gravy) train leave the station. Symptoms range from outbursts of anger, aching heart, and nausea to complete lack of interest in anything that appears permanent. While difficult to treat in Australian capital cities, sufferers of No-Property Despair can sometimes find relief in converting a van into a camper, or finding a quiet corner of regional Australia.
A long-time sufferer of the property market, the Duck Paddling Generation X-er has a home that’s risen enormously in value but family debt that’s declining much more slowly in real terms than that of previous generations. With high mortgage repayments and high living costs, this group is crabby and can have difficulty concentrating. Some symptoms are relieved by drinking quality wine and boutique beers on the balcony of their ridiculously-overpriced suburban house. Resorting to travel as borders re-open can also work, but compounds the longer-term suffering for temporary relief.
The most common group has to be the Obsessive Property Peruser. This sufferer can’t stop looking at houses for sale, reading articles about real estate, typing random addresses into Residz.com, watching house renovation and country escape shows, or looking at house and garden magazines and websites. They take heart at any predictions of a property market correction, at which point they’re convinced they’ll find a bargain. With its crick neck pain, dull headache, dry mouth, and sore eyes, obsessive property perusing is a nasty affliction. Victims can feel overwhelmed, but more often they report feeling excited and inspired. Relief can come from changing sofa cushions.
Image: Stressed person
