Rahul and Alika Rai moved to New Zealand in 1990 with little experience in property investment and a dream of early financial freedom. Fast forward
25 years later, the Rais are proud owners of a robust portfolio that spans over four countries making them the masters of their own destiny. Having
experienced first-hand how enriching property investment can be for the ordinary people, Rahul and Alika distilled their extensive knowledge into Buy & Hold – Simple steps to successful real estate investment in New Zealand published
this April 2015. This quick read volume contains structured advice designed to orientate investors throughout the key steps of property investment.
It is a road-map guide for new investors and a portfolio health check list for the experienced. We caught up with Rahul to talk about the
book and his thoughts on investment.
APIA: Firstly,why did you get into property investment in the first place and how did you get started?
RR: We got into it quite by accident. We bought our first home within an year of coming in to NZ in 1990. It wasn’t easy we had to get
3 mortgages. One from the bank one from Housing NZ who used to do some kind of back up loan towards a mortgage and finally $4000 of vendor finance
to reach the required figure. I remember the panic when the solicitor sent us an invoice for an extra $200 for drawing up the vendor finance
document. We were at our final bits of money. And lets not forget the interest rates were around 14%
When we moved to Wellington with the job after about 4 years luckily we kept our house as a rental. That...
