The problem for most Australians is that they do not understand what a $20,000 house is like. In most cases they are in slums where you would not want to get out of the car let alone buy.

I am directly involved with development and large purchases. Stop wasting your time and money on third rate investments.  The problem is that most Australians are buying cheap property in slums and they are using cash to pay for them. It is important to understand that they banks for the most part are not interested in funding property. However there is huge demand that cannot be met in new construction.

It comes down to what you can afford. Naturally a house in Camberwell is great but you wont get anything much under 1 million. Therefore the returns are not high enough. There is nothing wrong with apartments and townhouses. I have over the years brought a lot in places like Elwood though I looked at 20s to 50s apartments because they are large and spacious. I now mainly involved in property development

You need to remember that most of these companies are really just trying to sell you property. As an example how many companies are selling house and land packages in outer areas. What you may not know is they are currently making around $30,000 per deal. One company was selling properties in Cairns because the commission was $50,000. Most of these marketing businesses are more about what they will make than whether this will be a good investment

You cannot not make a judgement on one months figures. You have to look at the very least 12 months figures and then look at the trends. These simply make quick headline grabs

The fact is if you have money to spend be selective as to where you buy. There are plenty of better locations than Detroit

The only way I see that you can get finance is through commercial deals.

If you are looking at say apartment complexes you can get about 65% from a commercial bank.

Being able to leverage at 65% makes the deals far more attractive

Yea its gone up in value with all the idiots that have invested there. Dont waste your money on this third rate city

Hotel suites in my view is a bad investment. What you are talking about is something that will still cost you $130 per week. However the investment will have no capital growth. So you are loosing $130 per week for a product that will not go up in value. I am sure they sold you on negative gearing. This should be a secondary point. The investment need to stand on its own two feet. You should always do your own due diligence. You think you have a great investment however in time you will realize that you have brought a dud.

If you buy a property for $400,000 and one grows by 5% and the other growths by 10% and all you are going to do is hold for 20 years the difference on the end value is well over 1 Million dollars or around $80,000 PA. An investment like think you can still negatively gear and get great capital growth which is what will really create wealth.