We're all glued to our smartphones these days, but screentime doesn't have to be wasted time. There are lots of apps out there that can help you with everything from saving a deposit to build your dream home, to designing the look of your living room. With so many to choose from, we’ve picked five handy apps to get you started.
Property Calculator Australia
Choosing your dream home is the fun part, but there’s a lot of hard work involved in getting your financial health where it needs to be before you can make that dream come true. Property Calculator Australia is a free tool that allows you to plug in the property price and figure out how much you’ll need to save for a 5-20% deposit. It also factors in things like stamp duty and lenders mortgage insurance. This app makes it easy to get on top of your monthly repayments, whether you're a numbers geek or not.
Pocketbook
Once you know how much you need to save, the next step is getting there. It might seem silly to suggest too many smashed avocado breakfasts will derail your home-buying goals, but it is easy to get distracted from saving. Australian-designed Pocketbook keeps you focused by connecting to your bank account and tracking your spending.
Automatically sorting your outlay into categories like groceries, coffee, fuel, clothes and bills helps you to understand where your funds are going to. You can set up individual goals, get warnings if you over-spend, get alerts about bank fees and handy bill reminders. Offering a snapshot of your spending, it makes saving easy and addictive
SRO Mobile
So you’re racing towards your savings goals so you can build up that deposit, but you might not need quite as much as you think you do. Buyers based in Victoria can check out the State Revenue Office’s great app for first-home buyers. It automatically checks what grants and concessions you're entitled to claim. Every little bit helps with reaching your target.
Houzz
You’ve raised the deposit and you’re ready to move into your newly built Metricon dream home. Now you need to mainline some major interior design inspiration. Founded in Palo Alto, California, in 2009, Houzz arrived in Australia in 2014. Featuring millions of home décor ideas for every room, you can sort by style, colour, layout and size.Wunderlist
Once you’ve moved into your perfectly designed Metricon home, having set and met your financial targets and sorted out your interiors, life awaits. Now you've developed good habits with the help of these handy apps, why let it go to waste now? Wunderlist helps you get your house in order. You can assign errands, organise shopping lists and plan the holiday you've definitely earned after meeting all these goals. Easily shared between family members and instantly synced with reminders, no one can claim they forgot to take the bins out again.
Please note: The aforementioned applications are suggestions
only. Metricon does not offer financial advice. Metricon are not
affiliated, authorised or endorsed by the above applications.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up to our newsletter and
stay up to date with all the latest building news, trends and upcoming
events. Or, for more interior design or style inspiration, visit one of
our award-winning display homes, check out our style gallery, where you can save and organise all your favourite Metricon home designs or head to our new video gallery.