The perils of property procrastination

According to Smart Property Investment’s Phil Tarrant: “You’ve loaded yourself up with a lot of what-ifs here and, often there’s a lot of danger in overthinking and overanalysing stuff. Yes, you need to be educated. Yes, you need to be confident in your decision, but you’ve got a lot of hurdles in front of you to get over.”

Momentum Wealth’s managing director Damian Collins said that there is no such thing as “risk-free” in property investment. The more investors procrastinate, the more they tend to waste money.

“I’ve seen far more money lost by people procrastinating and missing the cycle and waiting for that perfect time in the world to buy something. If you’re educated, you’re buying the right market – a capital city is relatively safe, you don’t buy one of those off-the-plan apartments that are far more risky. You buy the right product there’s risk in it, but you’re certainly making a pretty reasonably sound investment,” he said.

As first-time buyers, the couple must, first and foremost, consider supply and demand in the area where they are planning to make their first purchase, Damian advised.

Look into the number of people and the rate of population growth, as well as the industries present in the area.

The managing director explained: “Demand and supply are fundamental. That’s, at the end of the day, what it comes down to. So where do you get demand from? Well, it’s firstly the number of people. In Sydney, the prices are so expensive because there [are] 4.5 million people, and in Adelaide, you’ve got about 1.3 million people, I think. The other issue is: What’s the growth and the population? Because that will force prices up.”

“The other thing is the industries there: What jobs are going to be crowded there? Is it going to be high-paying? Because you need high-paying jobs. Melbourne and Sydney have the global and corporate head offices. Perth certainly, and Brisbane to a lesser extent, have got the mining head offices around the country. So they’ve got some sustainable industries,” he added.

At the end of the day, budding property investors need only to educate themselves, get proper advice and guidance from field experts and professionals, and then jump in to start their journey.

One of many property investors’ regrets are starting late when they could have began their journey earlier and reaped more rewards from their investments.

Phil concluded: “I reckon if I spoke to (Craig) in five years’ time and said, ‘What’s your biggest mistake investing in property?’ Most likely your response would be, ‘Phil, I wish I had just started earlier.’ Pretty much every investor I speak to says the same thing—they overcomplicate, and they overthink, and they put these barriers in place. If you believe in property as an asset class, if you are comfortable in your ability to service it, to manage your finances, all these type of things, there’s nothing holding you back.”

Tune in to The Smart Property Investment Show’s Q&A session to know more about how investors can prepare themselves in the face of interest rate hikes, how buyers can find the right products to suit their needs and more of the most frequently asked questions about property investment.