EXCLUSIVE Corey and his wife finally bought their dream family home... but it came at a grueling cost that too many Aussies can relate to

Daily Mail​

26-06-2025

A hardworking father has shared the drastic lengths he had to go to in order to buy his first home, revealing he worked two jobs and more than 16 hours a day.
Corey Le, 34, and his wife Anna, were working full-time jobs, but had been unable to save for a deposit until they took on extra cleaning tasks, and in just over a year, they saved $60,000 and bought their first property in Pakenham, in regional Victoria.
Mr Le was a machine operator while his wife was a factory worker and the couple's combined salary of $100,000 didn't give them the option to save for a deposit while paying $600 a week in rent.
He told Daily Mail Australia he quickly realised if he wanted to fulfil his dream of owning his own home for his children to grow up in, he would have to find another source of income.
Mr Le decided to start advertising his cleaning services on Facebook and began working extremely long days to fit his new business around his existing factory job.
He began his day at 3.30am for a commercial client, headed to the factory, and then completed cleaning jobs in the evening.
Mr Le said he was grateful to get 'very busy, very quickly', but this meant that sometimes he would work from 3:30am until 10pm, completing eight-hour end-of-lease cleans after working in the factory.
'It's crazy, but I didn't know what else I could do I couldn't say no because then I'd lose that work so I kept going and then we got heaps of work,' he said.
Mr Le then turned to Airtasker, crediting the app with 'opening a lot of doors' and helping him to grow in confidence with his business.
After establishing a customer base, he and his wife set up their own business, Sparkling Clean.
For the first time in his life, Mr Le was able to consistently save money each month and in just over a year he'd racked up $60,000.
The father purchased his first home in regional Victoria for $547,000, and after months of working over 16 hours a day, both he and his wife quit their factory jobs.
'I could've quit earlier because I knew how good the cleaning was going, but if I didn't have a consistent income it would have made it harder to buy a house,' Mr Le said.
The father said he's now looking to pay off his house and one day purchase a bigger family home for his 14-year-old stepdaughter and four-year-old son.
When asked if he ever imagined being in this financial position last year, he said: 'No way, not a chance.'
'But, now I have a small team that help me out and I feel like I've turned the cleaning jobs me and my wife were doing into a really good business, which we're actually enjoying,' he said.
Mr Le said it's really hard for families to find a way to buy their first home, and unless you have a 'really high-paying job it's impossible'.
'Rent, food and childcare is so expensive,' he stressed. 'I never would have been able to buy my home without two jobs.'
The average price of a home in Australia has hit $1million for the first time.
Alarming figures also showed new buyers needed to earn more than $170,000 a year to afford the repayments on an average house in Australia's five major capitals.