How I saved a deposit for a home as a single freelancer in one of the world’s worst housing markets.

The saving strategies that worked for me!

I bought a home as a single woman and freelancer in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets.

That sentence would have seemed insane just three years ago.

As a working-class woman of colour who grew up with a single parent in poverty, the concept of owning anything, let alone a whole house, was a pipe dream for most of my life. I cried when I was able to buy my first car because no one in my family could afford to buy one before that. I was the first person in my family to go to university and embark on a career, instead of a dead-end job.

Still, a home is not a car. And for many people in their 30s, a home is simply out of reach. It is impossible to save for a house deposit when you are paying half of what you make in rent.

When I started to dream about buying a home, a quick look online showed me that many of the saving tips for people who had the same dream seemed to be aimed at middle-class people. This means the kind of people who have some sort of capital, family help and the ability to spend six bucks on a Starbucks coffee on a daily basis.