Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or a great big chunk of iron ore, perhaps), you’ll know that there’s a huge mining boom in Western Australia at the moment. While we won’t go into what we think about the mining industry, we will say that the boom has not been of benefit to everyone. Housing prices are skyrocketing, leaving disadvantaged people with little bidding power – in particular, refugees. But that’s where one Perth couple come in.

Jarrod McKenna and Teresa Lee have found a property where they can house three refugee families with them, offering affordable accommodation until people have established themselves in paid work and have enough funds to rent elsewhere. As it is a double block, there’s potential to build more units on the property to provide even more affordable accommodation in the future. However, despite having paid the deposit for the property, banks have rejected their mortgage applications as they are viewing the couple’s efforts as a commercial investment instead of as a personal property.

Jarrod and Teresa need $600,000 to purchase the property and do minor renovations which would mean refugee families could live there within a month. However, with just four days to go, they have only collected a little more than half of the amount they need. So they’re asking the community to be their bank. If you’d like to donate or lend funds to them, you can find out more on their website and facebook, or search #firsthomeproject on twitter. With refugee families set to benefit, this is futures trading that everyone can take part in.