By Thivakar Pushparaj

If you feel as though you are waiting, holding out getting on the property ladder because you want to wait for the perfect home – take a look at these reasons for using your first home as a stepping stone.

• Sometimes when people buy their first home, they feel disheartened that they cannot afford their dream home. The good news is that your 1^st home is only a stepping stone.
• It doesn’t have to be the only house that you ever own or live in AND you don’t have to wait until you have paid off your whole mortgage before you buy another house.
• If you think of your 1^st home as a stepping stone, it is about getting you into the property market so that you start paying off a mortgage and building equity in your house.
• Building equity gives you options at a later date to either sell the house and buy another one – OR to borrow against that equity to buy a new home and to rent out your 1^st
• This means that you don’t have to live in your first home forever. You just have to build equity as fast as you can so that you can use it as a stepping stone to upgrade later.