2021 – Capitalising on an unprecedented property market boom

First home buyers

If you haven’t bought your own home yet, I think it’s time to take action.

If you buy your own property now, you can enjoy the capital growth that will come with this next property boom. This accumulation of equity can also set a great foundation to buy an investment property in future as well.

Investors

For investors, the situation is a little more complex. I have been investing in property for more than 20 years, and have experienced multiple cycles in various cities in Australia. I’ve also seen how investors typically behave in each cycle and how some of these behaviours can negatively impact their longer-term goals. In my experience, investors need to do the following:

• Invest strategically and with purpose – buying a property isn’t the same as investing, nor is it equivalent to building long-term wealth.

Many investors ignore (or are unaware of) early market upswings. They only invest when people around them start to do so – buying for the sake of buying and blindly entering the market. These investors tend to buy when the market is close to peak, and then sell too early, either at a loss or with little capital growth.

Even in Sydney, if you had bought in 2014/15 during the price growth of 2013-2018; yes, you would have achieved some growth already. But those who had the foresight to buy early – even if it was during the long period of flat price growth between 2003 and 2013, or even earlier –  would be those who profited more.

• Have a sense of urgency and don’t waste time in endless research

I’ve also encountered another type of ‘quasi-investor’ – these are people who have read endless market analysis, been to innumerable investment courses or seminars – and talk about all their knowledge and research, but never take the next step to invest. For this group, they are inevitably held back by concern about whether it is ‘the right time’ and swayed by negative opinions or media headlines. As a result, they miss out on potential gains in cycle after cycle.

When I first started investing in 1998, I had no idea about ‘market timing’ because I was inexperienced and didn’t know enough to understand the whole picture. What I did have was a professional team who had done it all before, and who I trusted to guide me. As a result, I went ahead and bought seven properties in a 12-month period, producing enough assets and income to build wealth for life. Because most importantly, I also learned the importance of holding them long-term to grow in value.

Acting on good information is key – and it’s what has helped me personally and many of our customers. Last week, our Sydney branch held our first in-person seminar since the pandemic. One of the audience members came to thank me. He said that in 2013, he learned of the early signs of the market upswing through one of our seminars. He acted quickly at the time, and accordingly, achieved great success in the last cycle.

No one knows the day a boom will come, so the only way to be sure is to make sure you’ve got some property in your name ahead of that time!