Kathleen Sawyer had been working six days a week, including weekend overtime, when she nearly gave up on her dream of home ownership.
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The determined 26-year-old from Kallangur, in Brisbane's northern suburbs, spent two years putting money away earned from her job as an advanced assistant in aged-care nursing.
But every time she thought she had saved enough, the market had moved.
"I had gone to the bank and they'd advised me how much I'd need to save but when I went back with the amount they'd originally told me I needed, they said house prices had gone up and I'd need to save more," Ms Sawyer said.
At the same time, banks were tightening their lending conditions, requiring larger deposits for home loans, which also impacted Ms Sawyer's borrowing capacity.
"First it was $10,000, then it was $15,000 and from there it kept going up. I couldn't keep up with the property market," she said.
Ms Sawyer managed to save $22,000 over the two-year period but it still wasn't enough.
"It was very disheartening. I was thinking of my future and trying to be responsible with my money but it was so hard," she said.
It was Kathleen's mother, Sylvia, who suggested an alternative route to getting her foot on the property ladder, by purchasing "bricks" of a home through new start-up company BrickX.
The company, which started two years ago, buys properties, divides them into 10,000 shares, or "bricks", and offers them to investors for between about $50 and $150, depending on the value of the property.
The properties range from slick inner-city apartments to charming terrace homes, located in a range of inner-city blue chip suburbs throughout Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. They're all tenanted and investors get a share in the rental returns.
If the value of the property increases, the value of the bricks increase too. For any brick-holders who wish to opt out and sell their share, the bricks can be sold at anytime via the BrickX website.
"We looked really closely at it and did a lot of research and to me, it seemed a great way for Kathleen to get into the market and do it slowly, without having to put all of her savings in," mum Sylvia said.
"It was easy for us to understand and it was reassuring to be investing in property, which is something we felt familiar with, even though it's more like investing in the stockmarket, which looks far more complex."
BrickX CEO Anthony Millet said the the focus was giving property exposure to those who couldn't otherwise afford it.
"It's tough out there. In Sydney and Melbourne particularly, young people simply cannot save enough, fast enough," Mr Millet said.
"This is a way for them to get into the market, buying in safe, blue-chip suburbs that are low risk, with high growth, that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford.
"We have experts in their field who carry out extensive and meticulous research on the suburbs and types of properties to buy, so we can maximise the return on each single property for our clients."
Not surprisingly, a large percentage of BrickX's customers are in the under-35 age group, with some starting as young as 18, although Mr Millet said there are also plenty of older customers who have bought bricks for their children.
Nearly one year after discovering BrickX, Ms Sawyer has invested about $3900, and is adding more bricks to her portfolio each fortnight.
"My rental returns aren't going to make me rich - my first payout was about $4," she laughed. "But this is a great way to make a start in property. I'm in this for the medium- to long-term.
"I'm not giving up on my dream of owning my own house outright but this is something I can continue to do while I also keep saving for my own place to live in.
"It's really been a game-changer for me."
