A Greek-Australian who spent his early twenties mowing lawns and living on baked beans to buy an inner-Brisbane cottage is preparing to sell the property he has held for 22 years. The home at 59 Salisbury Street, Woolloongabba, goes to auction tomorrow, Thursday 12 November.

Peter Pashos, the son of Greek immigrants, bought the two-bedroom workers’ cottage in 2004, at the age of 23, for $300,000. He put together the deposit while working up to seven days a week in a lawn-mowing job and living with his parents, who let him stay at home without paying board.

“I saw the way to get yourself financially stable is to own your own house,” Pashos told Domain.

He was earning about $40,000 a year at the time and set aside 80 to 90 per cent of his wage. “I was eating cans of beans and all sorts of rubbish. I was just so keen to get into something,” he said.

The work ethic, he said, came from home. “My parents worked hard all their lives for the house that they lived in, so I figured that’s the base of what I needed to move forward.”

To keep up with the mortgage, Pashos rented out the bedrooms and slept in the storeroom under the house. After he married and had children, he and his wife chose to remain in Woolloongabba, the suburb they loved, and built a second, high-set house at the rear of the block rather than move away.

The original cottage has stayed in the family. Pashos’s brother now lives there while he saves for a first home of his own.

Pashos, now 45 and working as a Brisbane City Council bus driver, is selling so he can take some of the gains from 22 years of ownership, buy a smaller property and spend more time with his two sons, aged 12 and 14. “We’re just looking to move on with our lives and spend more time with the kids,” he told Domain.

His advice to younger buyers is to start early and stay disciplined. “Don’t wait for something to happen before you start saving,” he said. “Step one shouldn’t be your deposit. Step one should be, ‘let’s get a bit of money behind me and get into a rhythm’.”

The two self-contained homes sit on a single 405-square-metre title with access from two streets. Together they offer five bedrooms, three bathrooms and parking for three cars. The front cottage has two bedrooms, a modern kitchen, a verandah and a private porch. The rear house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a balcony, and a main bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe and en suite.

Place Woolloongabba’s Ben Smith and Melanie Swindells are marketing the sale. Smith told Domain the arrangement lets relatives live close to one another without sharing the same roof, with each household keeping its own front door, kitchen and living space.

The auction is tomorrow, Thursday 12 November 2026.

Source: Domain – https://www.domain.com.au/news/he-lived-on-beans-and-mowed-lawns-to-buy-a-inner-city-brisbane-cottage-at-23-now-hes-cashing-in-1576767/