How to invest $500k for a 50 year old in WA

I know someone who may be coming into $500k or so if they can sell their home for about that. They are 51 or so, without a lot in super, the $500k property is their main asset…

Without thinking about way to not sell it an use it as equity, the thought occurred to me that if they say were to buy 5 or so 1b/1b units for around about $200k each leaving about $100k owing on each and then were to rent them out for around about $200/wk some quick calculations over say about 15 years i think they should be on target for paying them off, about when this person might retire.

At that point they could then keep them and receive around about $1000/wk in today’s money as a passive retirement income or sell them down as they want to use the funds.

This is not taking into account things like strata fees which no doubt can be a bit, 1b/1b units are usually fairly functional so not a lot of maintenance on them. if around cafe strips/unis (say Vic Park) i think there would be a fairly high chance of good occupancy…

I was thinking of telling them about maybe managed funds as property at the moment seems to be a bit of a dicey investment but this wouldn’t really be counting on growth int he value of the assets.

I know 5 units is probably not ideal, hard to value add to units as they are usually in a big building with dozens/100s of the exact same units so hard to differentiate etc…

Anyone else have any creative thoughts on the real estate sector?

Regards
Mark