There are a lot of questions that we get asked on a regular basis, but one of the most common ones is “What sort of property is the best investment, and where is the best place to invest?” Ok, I know that’s cheating because it’s really two questions, but let’s roll with it.

The answer is: That depends.

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all investment property. In order to work out what strategy you should choose and what type of property you
should be looking for, you first need to know the answer to these questions (in no particular order):

  1. What is your starting financial position? How much available equity do you have, and what level of provable income do you have? What is your borrowing
    capacity? Are you limited by equity or provable income?
  2. What do you want to achieve from property investment over the long term?
  3. What are your short to mid-term life goals? Will, any of those goals affect your income in a positive or negative way? E.g. Having a family, financing
    children’s education, reducing your hours at work etc.
  4. What is your timeframe? For example, if you are wanting to get out of your day job within the next 6 months, your plan/strategy is going to look
    completely different to someone who is happy to work for the next 40 years.
  5. What level of risk do you feel comfortable with? Different types of property incur different levels of risk. For example, a house in the suburbs
    has a different type of risk associated with it than a boarding house or a commercial property. Likewise, different strategies have different
    levels of risk. For example, buy-renovate-hold vs development-hold.

Once you know the answers to...