Sydney Based investor and Buyer's Agent

Hi All,

I am a Chartered Accountant and a buyer's agent based in Sydney.

My property story actually began when I met my girlfriend (now wife) nearly 15 years ago. We were in our early 20's then and her parents had encouraged her to purchase an investment property - a 2 bedroom unit in Artarmon (Sydney's lower north shore).

We later lived in the property as newly weds: picture a tired two story red-brick walk-up, a few minutes walk from Artarmon station. The property was in a state of dis-repair - old kitchen, old carpet, and the front door holding on by a thread.

This property became the foundation for the portfolio we grew over the subsequent 15 year period.

We built a very substantial Sydney-based property portfolio focusing on three ingredients that always work:

1. Location: Buying in awesome locations, but avoiding the premium of new or off the plan. Walk-ability, particularly to transport is a critical criterion;
2. Land content: low-rise properties where the land is driving the appreciation.
3. Layout:- livability. No bathrooms off the living room!


As we started to have children, we continued investing in property to de-risk the loss of income at the time. This was critical: we de-risked with property, not from property. So our portfolio grew.

Eventually we decided to add to the portfolio with one acquisition per year. Not too fast, not too slow. Realising that property is a game of inflation, compounding and time, we focused on asset accumulation, in a particular logical order.

We now have properties all over Sydney: lower north shore, inner west, southern beaches, St George Area, and south west Sydney.

Now, nearly 40 years old, we have multiple sources of passive income that has nearly replaced most of our active income.

My full story is in the Smart Property Investment podcast - see below.

Now I am a buyer's agent. My job is to help people purchase the right sort of properties that create enduring generational wealth.

Best,

John Comino

Podcast link below:
A purely Sydney-based portfolio - Smart Property Investment

 

Do you work with lower income clients that aren't able to get into the Sydney/Melbourne markets due to cashflow?

Would your advice be to focus on increasing income so they can get an anchor in one of these global cities?

 

Hi John S,

My advice would be to go for growth properties in capital cities, and accumulate them slowly so that they mature into yielding properties over time. This is the best strategy.

Investing for yield doesn't improve your net worth, and most people spend the small amount of positive cash flow anyway.

My clients are a mix: my last client was a school teacher who wanted to invest in Eastlakes, Sydney. We put them in Carlton, Sydney - a fantastic unit 15km from Sydney CBD, which we paid $585k and returning 4.2%.

In the major capitals, you can generally get yield from tired two-storey walk up apartments. So there is both yield and growth if you pick the right assets.

 

Mainly units, however I do own units, townhouses and houses. Houses are further out - the last house I purchased was in Wiley Park around Christmas 2017.

I initially purchased units in good locations - again, tired red brick walk ups - and this gave me a foundational yield that allowed me to buy land later on.

 

Gotta love it @John@bridgetobricks. Most punters would consider Wiley Park almost inner city.

 

Thanks Scott, true Wiley Park isn't that far away from the CBD (18km). But it is an under-loved and affordable suburb by Sydney standards.

 

Have you seen any loss in value over the last year for the middle ring suburb red brick walk ups?

 

Hi John,

No, these have been my most solid performers in recent times.

The Wiley Park house I bought in December 2017 would be under water. But the units I bought between 2014-2016 are all up, even in this environment.

Remember, that the buildings are old and therefore fully depreciated. So I am de-risked by just relying on land appreciation and inflation.

The real danger in terms of over valuation is not old units - it is detached houses, in Sydney at least.

At under 3% yield, houses have no attraction to investors. These are most likely to correct, along with new and off the plan units.

Hope this helps.

John

 

Hey John, do you recommend old low rise apartments in Melbourne or just Sydney?

 

Wow, I had forgotten these posts. I don't have a view on apartments in Melbourne, as I don't operate in that market. I suspect that the broad principles of investing apply though: low rise, older style properties with good locations and high land contents s will prevail in most markets across time. The apartment markets in Sydney and Melbourne are different to the other capital cities.

 

Awesome thanks I was reading your posts about units as being good value now. I agree with this! Good research mate.