$ 250 K available !!! What shoudld I DO with it ?

If I where you I would put 25,000 into Silver/Gold and put it in a safe

Then i would take the rest and buy a undervalued nice and fairly new 2br apartment close to CBD which has a minimum of 8%+ yield before adding your 225k deposit.

I believe property at the lower price range such as cheap units are a better alternative in the current Melbourne environment as these propertys will generally have a higher yield and being cheaper they will be affected less by falling property prices.

You could leverage yourself much higher then this and buy many property's, But leverage is a double edged sword and can work against you, you are somewhat safer imo by being much less leveraged while your still uneducated. Personally I don't really believe in massive leverage.

Then I would wait for the Melbourne housing market while it continues to deflate.

While this is happening I would take 6 months to educated myself on building wealth/property investing, Books are much better value,  You can get a lot of books for $300. Many seminars are more expensive then this…

Some good books:

Anything by Robert Kiyosaki, Start with Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Money Secrets of the Rich: Learn the 7 Secrets to Financial Freedom

Steve Mcknights books are fairly good reads.

The richest man in Babylon

Education is more important then anything, You need to educate yourself if you wish to prosper

But that's just my opinion, And others on this site might have a totally different view.   

First take some legal advice. There are a number of strategies you can do to protect the money and some strategies for future tax savings. You can still have access to the money too.

What would happen if you enter into a relationship and then it ends with the other party claiming your mum's gift?

Make sure it is properly documented as a loan.

Also, if you are going to buy a new PPOR in the future then you will want to make sure you are able to free up as much cash as you can for that purchase. If you place all your cash into this one then you will be worse off with tax.

A way around this, to a certain extent, is to borrow 105% for this one including costs. You could borrow 80% off the bank and then the 25% off your mum. Any extra your mum wants to give you keep in the offset account – make this loan IO too.

Then in 3 years time you can get this house revalued and refinance your the loan you have with your mum and pay her back. The interest on your new increased IO loan for this property should all be deductible as it would all relate to the property.

Then your mum will have the cash to re lend or gift to you to buy the new PPOR.

Hi,

I don't think you are doing it right and you shouldn't proceed until you do a lot more research. If you do it will be ok, but there are so many ways to enhance it to make it much better.

eg if you buy a unit for $200k and have a $100k loan with the bank, you then later buy a PPOR. This would mean you are losing $7,000 in tax deductions per year. Imagine the compounding effect of that over 30 years.

With the loans from mum I would recommend you do it all properly with properly documented loan agreements and direct transfers from her to you so you could prove it as a loan later on if necessary.