A young Aussie has revealed the unorthodox but highly effective way he managed to save a very healthy house deposit – and plenty of other Gen Zers are using the same method.
Mason is a 23-year-old tradie working on the Gold Coast who recently became a qualified electrician after being an apprentice for four years.
Despite earning a decent salary of between $90,000 and $110,000, he knew that, with the way the housing market is heading, it would still take him a significant amount of time to save up enough money for a house deposit.
House prices on the Gold Coast, in particular, are surging, with values closing in on Sydney and jumping almost nine per cent in the past year.
The Gold Coast median house price is now around $1.32 million, according to a recent PropTrack Home Price Index, making it the only regional market in the country where prices outstrip its capital.
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In comparison, Sydney’s median is around $1.581 million, but grew at nearly half the rate as the Gold Coast market, rising 3.8 per cent in the past year.
On top of this, Mason is planning to buy a property on his own, meaning he won’t have someone else to shoulder the finical burden.
A recent Finder.com.au analysis of PropTrack and ABS loan data found Aussies now need to earn about $200,000 a year to be able to afford a typical house in our capital cities without going into mortgage stress.
Finder.com.au insights manager, Graham Cooke, said it is a “sobering reality” that even a six-figure income isn’t enough in many suburbs to comfortably service a mortgage in 2025.
Given all of this, Mason knew he would have to get creative when it came to building a big enough deposit to get him onto the property ladder sooner rather than later.
Which is why he turned his attention to cryptocurrency.
Speaking to news.com.au, the tradie revealed he first dabbled in cryptocurrency when he had just turned 18 and, admittedly, “didn’t really know what (he) was doing”.
He ended up losing about $10,000 and decided to cut his losses and move on.
“I didn’t touch it again until I was 21. I was on a job site with a guy who loves crypto and we started talking and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll chuck another $5000 on and see what happens’,” he said.
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He put that initial investment into Arweave, which is similar to Bitcoin in the sense that it is a decentralised blockchain network.
When that investment “nearly doubled”, Mason quickly realised this could be his ticket to saving a house deposit.
With that in mind, he continued to invest more in the crypto market, making most of his money through Ripple, a blockchain-based digital payment company.
After investing a few initial lump sums, Mason essentially left his investment alone, checking it frequently but deciding not to engage in any day-trading activities.
This method led to him saving around $100,000, which he now plans to use as a house deposit.
“Crypto was the only way I could think of to get into the housing market young,” the 23-year-old said.
“Because there’s no way in hell I would have been able to save the amount of money I’ve made on crypto just by working.”
Mason is now looking to buy a unit around the $700,000 range.
He had previously estimated that he would only be able to afford a $400,000 property if he was just relying on the income from his trade.
Mason is far from the only young Aussie who has turned to investing in more volatile, non-traditional assets in order to top up their annual income.
A recent YouGov survey, commissioned by Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx, of more than 3000 adults across Australia found a third of Gen Zers are now dealing in digital assets like Bitcoin.
The analysis revealed more than 1.8 Gen Zers have entered the cryptocurrency market over the past few years.
Among the 82 per cent of young Aussies who reported making money from cryptocurrency trading in the past 12 months, the average stated profit was just shy of $10,000.
This is equivalent to six and a half weeks of the average Gen Z annual salary of around $80,000 a year.
Swyftx CEO Jason Titman said soaring real estate prices were one of the key drivers seeing young Aussies diversifying into emerging asset classes.
He said young people are “totally disconnected” from the Great Aussie Dream of homeownership, with cryptocurrency representing a different pathway to get ahead.
“There is a feeling among Gen Z investors that if you want to get on the property ladder, you need a level of exposure to more volatile assets,” Mr Titman said.
“We’re close to the postcode now where crypto could flip equities as the preferred investment for Gen Z and Millennials.
“If current trends were to continue, more young Australians would invest in crypto than stocks within a couple of years. It is astonishing.”
While it is clear Mason has found success with the crypto market and it is becoming an increasingly popular investment for young Aussies, the 23-year-old warned “you still need to do your research”.
He said, just like stocks, there are situations where you can “just get lucky” and you buy something and it immediately goes up in value.
But he also pointed out that it can be “very volatile” and you need to know make an educated choice about where your money is going.
“It’s just like stocks, you don’t go and buy into some random company just because some guy on TikTok told you to,” Mason said.
“Make sure you do your own research and, if you are comfortable with it, then go for it.”
