I remember seeing an article in Australian Property Investor magazine about student accommdation, an option may be to lock them into a 12 month lease, with it commencing at the start of the school/uni year with suitable conditions to cover yourself if they break early, eg a guarantee provided by parents, stuff along those lines.

Hi Jamie, great advice there.  As an example, my offer was 5% under asking price, and this was based on the past 3 months of sales in the same and surrounding suburbs for properties similar to what I was going to purchase (2 bed/1 bath/1 car space) as well as looking at 3 bed houses for comparison as well (No 3 bed units built in the era within t…[Read more]

JacM wrote:
Also I'm unclear on whether the equity cannot be accessed while there remains a debt on the property, or whether the equity cannot be accessed at all.jac

You can certainly access the equity in a property where there is an existing debt, so long as there is sufficient equity to meet your needs and it falls with in the maximum LVR…[Read more]