Hence the term 'investment property'. People who buy such a house already have their own home (or rent with the intention of continuing to rent while investing) and are not looking to sell it and buy ANOTHER house in 10 years time to replace it. They are simply going to sell the investment property and use the profit for whatever they see fit, while continuing to live in their own home or rent for the forseeable future.

The other side of the argument also is that an investment property, researched well, has the potential to create above-average gains compared to a bunch of other property. Location counts. All areas have not experienced the same degree of growth within the last decade.

Don't count on it!

Then again, either you or I could be right. Take your pick, 50-50 chance!

At that price bracket, look into areas like Norlane and Corio. If you can stretch a little more, look at North Geelong. I'm a big fan of the beachside northern suburbs of Geelong and think there's much potential here. Only time will tell, but Geelong is becoming a 'mini-Melbourne'. There's a fantastic lifestyle there with great infrastructure, and the suburbs within ready access of the CBD are still well priced. There's been upwards price movement in Norlane over the past year or so that I've been following it. No surprise I guess. At $190-200K for a 3 bedder on a 700sqm block, the deals won't last forever. Bear in mind that if Avalon does go international, it'd mean good things for Geelong's northern suburbs.

Of course there was also previously talk of a Disneyland in Avalon, but that's a separate thing altogether and I'd assume that is not likely to occur at this time, at least not till economic conditions improve and Australia starts to really pull in tourists.

Yes this is a good idea to aid in paying down non deductible debt. Even better is if your PPOR loan has a 100% offset account that also acts as a transaction account with the features of a cheque book and credit card. This way, if your PPOR ever becomes an investment, you can remove your money from the offset account (hence increasing deductible debt on your previous PPOR, which is now an investment property) and put it towards your next PPOR.

This might be stating the obvious and if so I apologise. I personally know of friends and even relatives who are generally not very careful with what they read and sign, and going through things with a fine-toothed comb is not everyone's forte. If it is too much for you to read ALL the documents before you sign them, then look for a personal friend or relative who you consider to have an eye for detail and see if they can review the article for you.

One of my dad's friends does this. In his old age he is just not as capable as he used to be, and my dad is more than happy to help. In return his friend calls him out for lunch. That's what friends are for.

In this world, the people who are too trusting nearly always get eaten alive by the crooks. The key thing is to never sign (and never spend money on) anything you do not FULLY understand. And for any such official documents, get a photocopy of the document duly signed by yourself, the landlord and witnesses on both sides for your own records and ensure it is exactly the same as the one you originally read. Also, anything major should be lodged or received in writing, even by registered post if necessary.

I find it very disturbing for the agent's email to confirm a 12 month lease and the actual lease that was signed was actually for 6 months.

Doesn't have to be fancy, but near the beach and amenity with unobstructed views to the ocean, with the sunset visible from the deck. This one:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-brighton-109638341

'Nuff said!

Off the top of my head, small issues with a long settlement include:

1. May be necessary to get a legal document written up to gain early access. This comes with a fee of course.
2. If you are fixing your interest rate for the loan and do not pay a rate lock fee, the interest rate MAY increase and you'll be left paying a higher fixed rate at the point of settlement. This has happened once to me. Likewise, fixed rates CAN fall during this same period and you will be better off at settlement. The point is, are you a betting man?

-6.1% for Melbourne from Dec 2010 – Dec 2011. That's not so bad. I lost more money in shares!

Exactly. THIS I agree with you. Posting something of this nature will surely be more productive.

Instead people focus on JUST posting bad news.

There was an article in The Age yesterday which covered precisely some of these points. Of course, even material in the media has to be interpreted with caution. Media is a reflection of public sentiment, which is itself a product of 95% of the population, not the 5% who think differently and hence get different results.

No offense to anybody here. But if you choose to buy one of the squillions of new, off-the-plan apartments within the CBD area, then good luck to you anyway. People might buy these apartments for the 'stamp duty savings' and the 'guaranteed rental return', plus the impression that they should be easy to rent. However they do this without considering the sheer number that are being built, and hence the competition that they are likely to face. Furthermore, in buying these little shoeboxes, they are not considering that young couples looking for more space and privacy, and eventually looking to start a family, will look for a place with some sort of backyard like a house in the 'burbs.

Those who live in inner-city apartments are probably also more transient, leading to a higher turnover of tenants and hence increased costs in terms of advertising and leasing fees. I personally bought in one of Melbourne's outer suburbs, vacancy rate sitting at 1.6% at the moment, scores better than what we're seeing in some parts of Melbourne. Key thing is to buy to meet demand, not hope that demand will meet your purchase.

The Chinese would see Australia (in general) as being high on the livability index compared to their homeland. Furthermore, they may also see the potential here because they have witnessed first-hand, the nature of property prices in their homeland. This attracts them to invest. And the ones that DO invest here have heck of a lot of money. I get this impression that there is a great disparity between the haves and have-nots in China. A lot of them are struggling to feed their family of 10 children, but there's the bunch of mega-rich who are quietly (or sometimes, not-so-quietly) investing in other countries.

LAWL

'Paid property spruiker'? Look at me, I do it for free.

This is just hilarious! In life, people with a brain and a backbone can and will do the thinking by themselves. People hoping for a get-rich-quick scheme are taking a short cut to getting poor. There's no easy way to make money. It's just plain and simple. If it were *that* easy to become mega rich, there would be more of us around in that category.

At least I'm prepared to admit I ain't smart enough to be an entrepeneur, hence I got to slog hard and make ends meet, and do it the old school way. But at least I don't sit around and whinge about the people who *are* rich. That's none of my business. I've got bigger fish to fry in my life than to worry about who's richer than me, or who's sprouting lies.

Speaking of fish, I'm going fishing. No time to waste here!