How to plan your property journey 20 years ahead

Recently, a number of government incentives have been flowing in for first home buyers and investors, but Mr Kumar warned that these incentives are not going to last forever.

“Government incentives could be short-lived, or they could be there for years – we don’t know,” he said.

“Parties change, outlooks change, economies change. So if we’re investing purely because of government speculation from the investor side, not the government side, we are heading for trouble.”

According to Steve Waters, the same principle of long-term thinking is true when choosing whether to make alterations to a property.

Developments like granny flats and tight subdivisions might be welcomed during a low-supply market like Australia is experiencing now, but Mr Waters warned that “in tomorrow’s market, it probably won’t fly”.

“That’s going to be two very close dwellings – they would almost be opening and shutting each other’s windows,” said Mr Waters. “You will get a different type of tenant, there will be a revolving amount of tenants, which then starts to erode the net.”

Mr Kumar emphasised that investors should act with the aim to add value in the long term, rather than reacting impulsively to short-term opportunities.

“Don’t implement strategies today because there is such a short undersupply,” he advised. “When we’re looking at properties – whether we are buying a single dwelling, or coming back to a property that is already existing and we’re trying to construct another dwelling on it – we need to look at not today, but tomorrow.”

The Smart Property Investment Show host Phil Tarrant gave the analogy of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which, although built in 1932, still remains in use today.

“How was it 100 years ago that we were able to build a Harbour Bridge for the future?” asked Mr Tarrant.

“It was huge overkill at that point in time to build that bridge for the amount of cars that are now using it, but it was foresight into the future about creating something that would be as good as it was that day 50, 60, nearly 100 years into the future.”

Ultimately, the key to future-focused property investing is “ignoring all the noise”.

Mr Kumar said that investors need to look at their own needs and make decisions with their goals and circumstances in mind. “Do I need to put in a second dwelling? Do I go back into Queensland? Do I sit back and not do anything and just enjoy the ride?”

At the end of the day, investors must be equipped to ride out slow rental markets as well as fast-paced ones, “because whatever goes up does come down”, Mr Kumar concluded.

Listen to the full conversation with Right Property Group here.

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