Hi Barlow

There’s a lot of good advice here and some very generalised advice. Some are also painting everyone with the same brush when “everyone” are not the same, including you.
Here’s some of my suggestions.
I believe you need to first workout what you want to achieve and why from this investment property.
You also need to know what your financial capacity is and what your personal limitations are, like available time, knowledge, experience etc.
By what you have said, you are looking at buying and holding a IP for a period of time.If that’s the plan, have a good understanding of the differences in cash flow between a new home and an older home, both before and after tax. Your accountant can give you this information.
There are advantages with buying a house and land package, lower stamp duty & title reg, meaning less funds required to settle. Although while under construction you don’t have rental income, generally the stamp duty saving is greater the the interest holding cost, plus the interest and running costs can be tax deductible against your income, even while not having a tenant.
Many sceptical people who have seen the bad side of property marketers, put down house and land packages, however if you do your research and due diligence before committing to a project, you can come out in front with capital growth once the home is completed.
Be careful signing up to land only before finding a builder, there can be a lot of hidden costs (under ground, slopes, trees, encumbrances etc) that can make a good land price become very expensive and if you have signed for the land 1st before knowing the answers, your now stuck with it.
Obtain a fixed priced contract for the house and land for everything to be completed (full turnkey), then check the price against comparison sales, just like a bank valuer would. This will give you a good heads up if you are over paying. Do the same for the rental income, get several independent appraisal letters from local property managers, include a specialist property management firm who’s not part of a real estate agency and also look at comparisons data of what has recently been tenanted.
Select a location that has good growth potential that is being driven by home owners and not dominated by investors.
Main thing is to keep within your means and have a good team you can trust to work with.

Cheers