Johnine Graham rummages through a shopping bag for a packet of chives.
She spills them onto a chopping board, making a start on dinner as two of her sons, David and Daniel, chat in the lounge room.
The scene might seem ordinary, but Ms Graham never expected it to play out under her own roof.
"To me and my little family, [this] is probably the best house in Esperance," she said.
"It's almost unbelievable.
"[My children now] know that wherever they go, wherever their lives take them, they can always come back home. They will always have a bed and a room."
Ms Graham, a single mother of four living on Western Australia's south coast, had long felt home ownership was an impossibility, too far out of reach to contemplate.
It was only after meeting with a financial expert who visited her workplace that she realised it may be within grasp.
But even after being approved for a loan, it was difficult to secure a house before it was snapped up by another buyer with a cash offer.
That is where her employer, Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, came through with a unique model of support.
Working towards prosperity
To get Ms Graham's house off the market and give her breathing room to finalise her loan, Esperance Tjaltjraak bought it, before selling it to her, with settlement expected in the next few weeks.
It might seem like a huge step for an organisation to take, but chief executive officer Peter Bednall said it was in line with its commitment to improve the lives of Aboriginal people, believing asset ownership had a huge influence over prosperity.
He suspected that across Australia, conditional offers were being passed over for those offering cash, which made things even harder for first time buyers to get a foot in the door.
Mr Bednall said the situation had been exacerbated by the lengthy process involved with accessing finance, even from social impact style investors.
"We can see at times there's a real gap in rhetoric that social-impact style investors use," he said.
"Often the credit process just resembles any other credit process of any other financial institution."
Removing barriers to prosperity
Intergenerational wealth, passed down through inheritance, never had the chance to accumulate in many Aboriginal families.
According to 2021 Census data, 42.3 per cent of Aboriginal families who completed the census own their home, compared with 66 per cent of the wider community.
Mr Bednall said the post-COVID boom in house prices increased the gap between homeowners and everybody else.
"The removal from traditional lands, the forced relocation to reserves, the inability to own private property, has seen that intergenerational wealth through the family home is just not particularly commonplace [among Aboriginal Australians]," he said.
"[It is] now reinforced with all the different challenges of getting into the labour market, getting into the housing market."
He said Esperance Tjaltjraak had bought five residential properties this year, renting three of them out to Aboriginal families who had been unable to find homes elsewhere.
High demand for low interest lender
Kirsty Moore, CEO of low interest lender Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), agreed the current market conditions were difficult.
She said IBA had seen unprecedented demand, with more than 7,000 expressions of interest in the past financial year from those wanting to buy a home.
But despite requiring deposits as low as $1,500 and working with clients that mainstream banks would not serve, only about 9 per cent were pre-approved for a loan.
Of those, many took a long time to find a suitable house.
Ms Moore attributed that to cash offers being more attractive to sellers, but also rising property prices and worsening affordability.
"That lower level of disposable income is inevitably going to mean that you've got less money available to service a loan," she said.
She said IBA was trying to improve and speed up its processes to help clients cut through the tight conditions.
Another lender available in WA is the Keystart Aboriginal Home Ownership Scheme, which has options for both full and shared ownership with the state government.
It approved 47 loans this year between January 1 and December 9.
Ms Moore said IBA had recently signed an agreement to offer similar shared equity loans in Victoria and would like to broaden the program in the future and help people into more appropriate homes.
"Rather than trying to squeeze a family of six into a three-bedroom home, maybe by having a shared equity co-investor … you can actually buy a property that's got the right number of bedrooms," Ms Moore said.
She also said there might be opportunities for groups like Esperance Tjaltjraak to embark on shared equity arrangements.
Overcoming 'stereotypes'
Ms Graham said she often thought it strange that few Aboriginal people owned homes or land in Esperance, despite is native title achievement in 2014.
"They tell you that it's yours," she said
"But it doesn't feel like it's yours."
The feeling was exacerbated by her experience as a renter, where it often seemed she was bottom of the list.
"Being a single mum. Four kids. Aboriginal. You know, there's stereotypes," Ms Graham said.
"One time I was knocked back 10 times for 10 rentals."
She said it took a toll on her self-confidence so, to avoid disappointment, she set the bar low, applying for houses that "weren't very nice" and struggling with a sense of feeling of judged during inspections.
Ms Graham hopes to help other Aboriginal people believe in themselves and also make plans to secure their own houses.
"That's where I think I'll be in the best position to help," she said.
"My lot that's coming through here has the same mentality that I had.
"[I'll tell them] don't let anyone tell you you can't, because you can."
