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Great Australian dream a nightmare as average Australian salary priced out of housing market

“They are living at home longer, marrying later, studying at higher costs, and having children even later than ever before,” he said. “They are being forced to either rely on the bank of Mum and Dad or wait for an inheritance.

Collyer Property Investments boss Aidan Collyer said a growing number of first home buyers were “ageing out of their 30s and into their 40s”.

“I’m speaking to so many people who are worried about ever owning a home at all,” he said. “They have either moved interstate, are considering moving, or have taken up the ‘rentvesting’ trend and are going to keep renting or living with mum and dad and are buying one or multiple investment properties to at least get into the market.

“Clients are sadly also relying on the bank of mum and dad or have resolved themselves to the fact that without their inheritance, they’ve no option of buying.”

                                   – Aidan Collyer

NSW Housing Growth: How many homes will be build in every NSW electorate, western Sydney tops list

“The western suburbs of Sydney continue to boom, but will rely on the promise of new and improved infrastructure and the success of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis,” the buyers agent said. “The NSW Government continues to promise that western Sydney will have everything it needs in the future to thrive, which is why it is attractive to buyers.

“And new transport projects like WestConnex and the Sydney Metro mean that communities like Penrith, Liverpool and The Hills are closer to the CBD than ever.”

The Western Sydney University pro vice-chancellor said cities around the world have established masterplans to address housing shortfalls with “greenfield estates and in-fill development in already established communities”

“The housing crisis isn’t just an issue for the city’s west, it is a whole of Sydney problem that needs to be fixed.”

– Aidan Collyer

As Seen On Australia’s #1 Property Podcast

Full Transcript - Aidan Collyer and the $700,000 Property Deal that Yielded a 7% Return

I keep telling anyone who will listen, really, I’m probably annoying people, but anyone who will listen, I’m saying, you know, buy as soon as you can. And this is why, you know, if I can repeat that cycle in every decade of my life for the next three or four years, I know I’m gonna have a really bright future.

This is Property Investory, where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

I’m Tyrone Shum. And in this episode, we’re back with real estate agent and Collyer Property Investments Director, Aidan Collyer. Noting how house and land packages can potentially boost one’s investing journey, he further underscores his long held notion that time is property’s best friend.

Plus, here about the $700,000 property that yields up to $980 a week.

Fully aware of the fact that many property buyers purchase real estate without seeing the process from an investment point of view, Collyer aims to help direct clients to the right path relevant to their unique situation, whilst emphasising that seeking expertise from those who know exactly what they’re doing is key to successful property investing.

I think it’s 100% spot on what you say, people don’t know where to look, people don’t know where to go and oftentimes it’s, I mean, I talk to clients all the time, Tyrone, dad, they’re talking to, you know, the older gentleman down the street while they’re doing their yard work or sometimes even mum and dad and they don’t necessarily always know best. Again, I’ve been lucky in the sense that I learned from people that had been there, done that and was then and now doing the same thing and so probably one of my biggest tips for people would be talk to people that have actually done it the way that you want to do it because it is so important and learn from those experiences.

Yeah, totally because ultimately if they’ve already walked the path, why would you want to reinvent the wheel when you can just learn from them and follow their path?

100% and once you’ve done, a lot of people get scared, I think, to build and I was scared to build. But no, investment is taking the emotion out of it, looking at the pros and cons and the numbers, what’s your bottom line, doing research, looking at what the market’s doing, looking at past performance and then, you know, talking to your advisors and your accountants and making an informed decision, not listening to someone that perhaps doesn’t exactly know what they’re doing.

Very true. Were there any challenges along the way that you may have experienced or any scenarios that were your sort of your worst moments?

Oh, this is a good story. So when I bought, I think I bought my block of land for the duplex in early 2021. Now, with COVID and La Nina and a lot of the other, you know, the bad weather and things, Land Regio actually pushed out by almost two years.

And whilst that sounds like a problem, and I tend to overthink things, so in my head, it was a problem. When I looked at what the market was doing, you know, the real estate agent in me started to look at the numbers. I had just put down a 10% deposit on the block, nothing else to pay.

I wasn’t paying the loan yet. And by the time the block registered, because I followed the right things, identified the right location, bought at the right time, upon registration, I had a block I had paid $2.45 and it was then worth $4.80, but it hadn’t really cost me anything yet. So again, time is property’s best friend, buying at the right time.

And the block had essentially nearly doubled in value, but the land regio being pushed back, I learned a lot from that time. There was a lot with COVID that was impacting the building industry. It’s settled down a lot now, thank God.

But it was a bit of a rocky time in our industry. It was the double edged sword because, you know, just on the land alone, people had made so much money so quickly. I had clients that had bought multiple blocks.

So we’re talking huge gains in a relatively short period of time. But, you know, build prices went up during that time and all the rest. So it’s now, you know, when I’m talking to clients, that experience that I went through, I think it lets me show them that was probably the worst time that our industry’s seen for quite a while.

And even though people made more money than they probably ever made, it was also just being very aware of the repercussions of COVID and the bad weather and the delays. So I’m very big now with the clients and no one knew those things were going to happen. But it’s very important to me now that clients are buying blocks that are registered and really making an informed decision.

But lots of areas around the country didn’t have those problems because they didn’t have all the wet weather delays and stuff that that particular area had. Western Australia is a great example. You know, I’ve been working over there a lot the last two years and it seems to always be sunny and hot over there.

And they’re not. They haven’t had nearly the delays that we’ve had. Everything’s running beautifully on time.

Without a doubt, Collyer places incredible value on due diligence and being surrounded with the right people who have the right skills.

It’s finding the right areas and also working with the right builders. I’m quite particular what builders I work with. Thankfully, I haven’t had any issues with any of mine, which have been great.

They’ve all been wonderful to work with. They are bigger companies, the ones that I’m working with. And look, it has settled down a lot now.

I’m not seeing too many issues, but it’s that fear, I think, that people have. But again, it’s when you sit down and you show them the benefits, outlining the stamp duty savings, the fact that, you know, how many horror stories I’ve had over the years with people buying an older investment property and all the repairs and everything, you know. When you build a new property, as was my experience, everything’s under warranty.

There shouldn’t be any repairs or they’re very minimal for the first few years. You know, you can get premium rents because there’s that demand for new property talking about if house and land is still feasible. I put together an opportunity for a client the other day for just under 700,000, a dual key property, a house and a attached flat.

And the returns on those at the moment are between nine and nine eighty per week, depending on where you go, you know. That’s numbers to get excited about. That’s a great, you know, almost a seven percent return.

It’s opportunities like that when you sit down and you show people the numbers and how the bottom line potentially might look. That’s when people, you know, you see a smile on their face because they’re like, you know, this is a whole new concept that I hadn’t thought about before.

People’s eyes just go, what is that possible?

Everyone’s used to hearing, you know, 4% return or 4.8%. So it’s, yeah, that’s been a very popular concept that we’ve been putting together for a lot of clients is the dual income. I guess it’s a little bit like the duplex that I’ve done, but it’s, yeah, very popular and very smart, I think.

And it’s really taken off the last couple of years. It’s been interesting to watch that particular space, the dual income investment property is very popular. There is a shortage of supply for housing in our country.

And so when you’re building a property that’s got two properties that you can rent out, I think it works for everyone because as an investor you’re very happy. But you know, most of the time they’re getting stepped up pretty quickly because lots of people need a place to live.

A man dedicated to continuous learning and improvement, Collyer revisits the time spent in the property game so far and points out significant moments that has led him to gain more appreciation for property investing.

As I told you before, I love to travel and I think as a 23-year-old building a new property, I hadn’t thought about the tax implications. And again, I can’t give this advice to anyone, but I remember when I went and did my first tax return after my first full year of owning that property, after it had been built and rented, and I got my best ever tax return that paid for a holiday and then some. And I just remember thinking, wow, because I was used to getting these really small returns.

And that was a big eye opener for me because I just remember thinking to myself, this is what they mean when they say working smarter rather than working harder. I felt like that property was working for me rather than me working for that property. And at that stage, rates were so low.

I had a property that was positively geared in my pocket but negatively geared on the force. So that was a huge wow moment. I think the other thing was just really the other day when you asked me to share my story and I was just looking over the equity game, particularly on, say, the duplex, I probably bought at the right time.

But those duplexes now in the Hunter, one of my friends, good friends, built one around the same time as myself and they just had theirs appraised at $650,000 per side. And I think my total loan finishes around the $780,000 mark. So to have a half a million dollar equity gain in just a couple of years for someone in their 20s, that was a big wow moment.

So, you know, when you go and you look at those figures, and that’s why, you know, I keep telling anyone who will listen, really, I’m probably annoying people, but anyone who will listen, I’m saying, you know, buy as soon as you can. And this is why, you know, if I can repeat that cycle in every decade of my life for the next three or four years, I know I’m going to have a really bright future. And so it’s exciting now in the sense that having gone out and started my own business doing this last year, I can help people find those opportunities because that equity gain in such a short period of time was a big, big wow factor.

Of course. I mean, that’s a huge, huge gain, especially most, let’s just say most people in your age bracket going to work on average income can never save that much in those couple of years.

It’s very exciting, I think, when you look at it like that. But it’s, you know, how do you get that message out there? You know, your podcast is a great platform for people like yourself to be educating and sharing those stories because I think now when people with all the talk of inflation and everything, probably when they’re looking at buying a property, they’re just thinking very, I think, small-mindedly about what is this going to cost me week to week or whatever their thought process might be.

But when you choose the right product and you sit down and you look at your bottom line and you start to look at those numbers, the market is going to outgrow for 99% of people your savings account every time. So when people do sit on the fence, they do cost themselves a lot of money. And I would love to see more people jumping in and choosing to work smart rather than hard.

And don’t let those opportunities go. If you’re in a position to do something, I think, find what works for you and have a go.

Coming up after the break, Collyer impacts the profound words of wisdom he has clung to since he was in his 20s.

Look, I think definitely my first week in real estate when Jim said, buy young, live long. That was a key learning.

His personal take on property investing that he aims to highlight to clients and investors alike.

Real estate for me, it’s not a job. Real estate really has been my life, and it is a 24-7 gig.

He paints a simple, yet clear picture on how drive and determination can ultimately lead you to open doors in property.

It is true that they say the harder you work, the luckier you are.

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory. Sorry.

Further clarifying his strategy, Collyer gives a breakdown of the key things he does before diving into any property deal, while acknowledging that good timing has been a benefit in his journey.

I’ve been lucky again in the sense that when I bought in Queensland, I caught the market there. When I bought in the Hunter, I caught the market there. Then I put the, it’s been putting the brakes on because I wanted to take the next step in my career.

So, my next purchase hopefully will be very soon. I’m working with my broker at the moment, looking at lock in, in WA. So it’s, I’ve been lucky, I’ve had a combination of great growth, great returns.

I think that’s every investor’s dream. But, and I’ve worked with clients that have bigger portfolios than myself. Mine’s only a humble story.

My property journey, I like to think it’s only just still beginning. But, you know, people’s strategies evolve over time. But I think, you know, do your research, buy in a good area.

You know, I do a lot of research on the areas that I buy in and the areas where we work with our clients. And it’s also really important that they find out what strategies are best for them. You know, talk to your accountant, your financial planner.

And information now, as you would know, Tyrone, is very accessible. You know, you can go online and Google, what is the vacancy rate here? You can look on realestate.com and see what a three or four bedroom home in a particular area is getting.

But, you know, it’s not hard to find a good area. But it’s about, I think it’s about buying smart and following the right strategy.

Collyer definitely knows when to give credit where credit is due. With a glint in his eyes, he underscores the timeless wisdom and advice that past mentors have imparted to him.

Look, I think definitely my first week in real estate when Jim said, buy young, live long, that was a key learning. And I was young at the time, so that really applied to me. So I think that’s the biggest thing that’s really stuck with me.

I think, as I said, I’ve had some other great mentors as well. The company that I was working for before had a finance department. So my other big tip to people is find a great mortgage broker and work with a good mortgage broker.

I think that’s a very crucial part of your plan. I know it all by any means, but I think when people go direct to the bank versus you as a broker, I think using a broker, you’ve got someone who can work with you long term on your plan, shop around, find you the best deal. So, that was a big key learning for me that other property mentors have given me was to work with a broker.

I think that’s the two most important things that I’ve learned in my time.

Now, looking forward to the future horizons, Collyer takes a moment to reflect what he would have done or told himself if he could travel back in time to meet himself 10 years ago.

I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I think I would have probably said, just be brave. As I said, I tend to overthink things.

So, you know, I would have said to Aidan, listen to people that have done and are doing what you want to do because if you follow those people, you will bear success. And I think that the same, which a lot of people say is, you know, you are the product of who you spend, five people I think it is, who you spend the most time with. And I think that’s very true.

And again, I’ve been very lucky to have had from day one in my real estate career, lots of successful, really there have been property moguls. I’ve had some great property moguls around me. So I’m very grateful for that.

Yeah, that’s amazing. I guess looking forward to the future. What do you see your journey to look like in property for the next five years

Personally, it was always a big dream of mine to have my own business last year. That dream came true. It was in a decade in the industry.

The time felt right. And my business is an extension of me. So property is real estate for me.

It’s not a job. Real estate really has been my life. And it is a 24-7 gig.

So I want to continue to grow my business. I want to continue to grow my own property portfolio. As I said, I’m buying the coastal areas of WA.

I’m helping a lot of clients at the moment. Beautiful high growth areas with great returns. That’s, I think, will be my next purchase.

That’s on the work front. On the personal front, I think you asked as well, travel has been a big passion of mine, but sadly I haven’t done enough of it. Not nearly as much as I would have liked, but in about two months from today, I’m off to Europe.

So I’m very much looking forward to that.

As personal achievements go, Collyer says he’s just getting started with his travel plans.

There’s a couple of places that I’m excited to go. Italy and Austria have been top of my list for a long time, and that’s where I’m going, as well as one or two other places, but always, always been drawn to Italy and Austria. Scotland is another one.

I’m not going to get there this year. I’ve brainwashed myself. You can only have X amount of time this year, Aidan, so I had to compromise with myself, but Scotland’s right up there, and I think my other two big…

I mean, my list is endless, mate. I could go on and on, but I really have my eye on a safari. A guy I used to work with did a safari, and I’ve done so much.

He went back again, so I’ve always wanted to do a safari, and I’m a big fan of travel guides. The show went on after seeing the trip to the Northern Lights and things that they did. I want to go there, and Antarctica’s another one.

I’ve been getting into ice baths and cold plunges recently. My lawyer got me involved, and it was never something I wanted to do. Then we did the sauna and the cold plunge together.

You do the sauna, and then you go into the ice bath. I felt so good after. I can’t describe to people how good I was on such a high for so long.

Now I’m trying to go at least once a week, so that’s my latest addiction. Where that relates back to travel is the cruise around Antarctica. You can do the dip in the ocean there.

That’s also quite up on the list.

That’s great. How much of all that success that you’ve created has been due to your own skill, intelligence and hard work, and how much of it is because of luck?

Well, I think that I’ve been lucky in the sense that I’ve had great people guiding me along the way. But at the same time, if I hadn’t worked so hard, I wouldn’t have had that first deposit saved all those years ago. To save that deposit, I was working six, sometimes seven days a week as young real estate agents have to to stand out and get ahead.

I think it’s that drive and determination that ultimately got me to the next opportunity and will get me to the next one and the next one. It’s a combination, but I think it is true that they say, the harder you work, the luckier you are.

Thank you to Aidan Collyer, our guest on this episode of Property Investory.

Full Transcript - Aidan Collyer - From Investing Success at 23 to Thriving House & Land Deals

Again, time is property’s best friend. I think my loan repayments then were $320 per week, but Queensland had boomed. The property was then worth between $650 and $700,000, and renting for $580 per week.

So principal and interest repayments at $320, rent at $580 or $585. Those are numbers to get excited about.

This is Property Investory, where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

I’m Tyrone Shum and we’re speaking with Aidan Collyer, the director of Collyer Property Investments. Plunging into the property game at age 23, he has since then harnessed the power of positive cash flow and unlocked the benefits of house and land deals. Now with 11 years of real estate experience, he unboxes his investing know-how.

No matter the time or day, Collyer embodies the very picture of intentional productivity and persistent hard work. As he moves about accomplishing his daily to-do list, he makes sure he hits all the targets, not only for himself, but also for his clients.

I’m a real estate agent, and I have a very specific focus on helping my clients build new investment properties around Australia. Most of my time is spent working with my clients. I find the best blocks of land that we can find.

I’ve partnered up with builders in the different areas that I’m working in, and we try and put together the very best deals, house and land packages. I work with my clients to look at the numbers. I’m working with their accountants and financial planners, so they’ve got the right advice.

And when the properties are finished, we’re helping them get tenants. So, you know, other than clients loans, we’re really providing a one-stop shop for people who are wanting to build new investment properties in a nutshell.

Someone once said, There’s nothing more powerful than a bond with your family, built on love and trust. And this saying has never been lost on Collyer. With a deep sense of gratitude for how his mother raised him, he takes a moment to recount how his upbringing led him to a natural inclination for real estate.

I grew up in Western Sydney in a suburb called Lynae, which is near Emu Plains and the Penrith area. And so I’ve been my whole life around Penrith and Western Sydney. Small, close-knit family, my father passed away when I was eight.

And as sad as that was, I think it gave me a good insight into what’s important in life. And I’ve been blessed that I’ve been raised by the most incredible mother. She’s indefatigable, very strong, and she certainly instilled in my brother and I a very strong work ethic and good moral compass.

Went to school locally, I loved school. I was a good student. Actually, before I went into real estate, I always had a thing where I wanted to do law.

You probably couldn’t find two more different professions, but as I approached the end of my school years, I was just drawn to real estate, and we had sold our house and had a great experience. Then we built a new property, or my mom built a new property. Going around to all the open homes and everything before she decided she was going to build, I thought, you know what, I’ll try real estate for a year, and if I don’t like it, I had the marks that I could go back and do law, but real estate is a career that you get addicted to.

Having an in-depth view of what the property industry entails, Collyer gives his two cents on what he thinks of working in the real estate space means, whilst pointing out how people understandably mistake it for something else.

Real estate is much more than just a property business. It’s a people business. It’s correct what you say about reading the contracts.

There’s so many different facets. And I knew straight away that I wanted to stick with it and I can’t quite believe that next month, it’s been 11 years, which I don’t know where that time’s gone. And that 11 years in real estate is like 30 years in any other career I always joked with my real estate agent friends, because it’s a career with quite a high turnover.

It’s not always what people think it is. It’s the 24-7 gig, but I loved it and I was very lucky and I worked in one of the bigger agencies around Penrith for a man called Jim Aitken and his business partner, David. And they were great to work for.

We had a great team. They had eight offices at the time. And a lot of the people that I met there are still my very good friends today.

And that was probably my first taste on the investment side of things because Jim was very big on instilling in his staff. And I was the youngest member on the team, I think then, that his secret to doing well out of property was four words, buy young, live long. And that translates for me into what I always say now, which is that time is property’s best friend.

And he was very accurate when he said that.

I think that’s what everyone says because it is true. The earlier you get in, the more chance of you being able to actually ride that, I guess you can say property cycle because property goes in waves, ups and downs.

It does. If you just catch one or two of those cycles, it’s amazing what can happen and how quickly it can happen. I’ve been lucky enough to experience that myself and help a lot of my clients experience that.

And I probably bang home too many times to my clients. Time is property’s best friend. And it’s a real passion of mine then, working with young people and trying to brainwash them from a young age with that saying, because it is, that’s been my experience.

And I think, you know, you always think about, I always think about the painting that Jim had hanging in the office, which it was a painting of an old man, but the caption down the bottom said, the young man who waited for the price of real estate to come down. And of course, what we noticed, he wasn’t young anymore because very rarely to long-term to property prices drop. So he did a very good job instilling that belief in me from a pretty young age.

Collyer surely doesn’t miss a beat when remembering valuable insights at a young age, has helped him reach the heights of success. On the same note, he gives us a glimpse of his time spent in Penrith and Western Sydney.

Well, I loved school. I enjoyed going to school. I went to a Catholic school, had a lot of good teachers, a lot of good friends.

I was the school captain in primary school, high school. We had quite a fun, rowdy year that sort of worked our way through. So we had a lot of laughs.

Yeah, I have great memories from school and growing up in the area. And then, you know, Western Sydney is an area that’s changed so much in a time that I’ve grown up here. It’s like, you know, if you go away for six months, you come back, there’s something completely different here again.

And so it’s, yeah, it’s been an exciting time, I think, growing up in Western Sydney, and particularly, I think, having the real estate insight as well. It’s been quite an interesting place to live. And you’ve got the, you know, the lower Blue Mountains was a big part of the area that I worked in.

And also I spent a lot of time there growing up. So yeah, it’s a beautiful part of the world.

It is. And I always like going back out that way just to go for walks and to hike in the mountains because it’s just so beautiful there. And it’s sort of like this hidden gem that a lot of people don’t realize how beautiful it is out there.

You’re right. And I think it is a little underrated, but you know, it’s with the new WestConnex now, the other day I went into the city for the first time using all the tunnels and it was less than 44 minutes for me to get to the CBT. And I remember growing up to get to the city, it was like an hour and 15, an hour and 20.

So I’ve got family that lives in the eastern suburbs and it takes them a half an hour to get into the city anyway. So the world is becoming smaller as we progress more and more.

After high school, Collyer took a leap of faith and dove headfirst into real estate. Little did he know it was a move that proved to be a key to opening the big bright doors of property investing.

I thought I’ll try real estate for a year and if I liked it, I would stick with it. And if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t stick with it. And my first year actually, it was suggested to give myself a broader understanding of the industry.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but I certainly do now. Jim put me in the property management department, which property managers work so hard. That’s one profession of people that probably, they definitely deserve all the Christmas presents and the flowers.

That was a tough gig. I wanted to do sales straight away, but it definitely, I think Jim read my mind and knew where I wanted to go long-term. And I think he thought, I’ll give this young man a broader understanding of the industry.

It’s not just about selling. And so that was an interesting year work in that part of the industry. And then after the year, I transitioned into sales.

It was a blessing because then I didn’t know it at the time how my career would play out and ending up working in the investment space. But then having that insight as a property manager is very useful now, having those conversations with clients. And of course, that’s the sector of the industry that is ever-changing.

And evolving.

Coming up after the break, Collyer reveals how having a decade of experience in property investing resulted in creating a business he views as a passion project.

It’s quite exciting to be able to take people by the hand and say, look, you make whatever decision you think is best for you.

The eye-opening details on how house and land deals can open a world of possibilities.

And so many people I know now are choosing to rent best and they are choosing to take a more affordable path.

He touches on the key information that can help reassure new property investors in the short and long run.

I think the fear a lot of people have is if I buy this property, it might cost me X per week out of my own pocket.

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

Relentlessly tackling all the ups and downs in his property journey for 11 years, Collyer has taken into great account the unique value that house and land packages bring to the table. He now looks back and shares where he actually initially started in the property game.

So I started in traditional property management, then a few years in sales, and I had no plans to really leave the traditional space. I ended up working at Glenbrook, which was a beautiful area to work. It’s sort of one of the first suburbs of the Blue Mountains.

It’s a beautiful village, sort of. I guess it’s got a bit of a country feel to it. It’s only a small suburb.

It’s very pricey now. It’s not uncommon for property to sell in that area now for two, two and a half million dollars. And that was a beautiful place to work.

And it wasn’t really until I started looking around for my first investment property after a couple of years and working and traveling, which is one of my other great passions that very organically and naturally over the coming years, I kind of fell into the investment space quite naturally. I was looking around for an investment property for myself and a gentleman that I worked with pulled me aside and he owned quite a bit of property and his sister owned quite a bit of property and also sold house and land packages. And I was weighing up between buying a unit that the agency I worked for had on the market.

So I could have got myself hopefully a good deal and in Penrith or having then met this lady, I was then explained that there’s another way to do it, which might be smarter. And that was to build a new investment property. And I’ve never actually thought of that before.

I was in real estate, but I was very much focused on your traditional, for sale sign out the front, open home on the weekend. And going through that process and experiencing it firsthand and seeing it work so well for myself, I think I then started sending them quite a bit of work because it was something I believed in. I’d experienced the benefits firsthand, was telling all my friends, family.

And so then it was sort of, I ended up actually working with the company that helped me get my first investment. And I guess it was a bit of a passion project because I’d seen the results firsthand, believed in it. It was an easy sell to talk about your own experience and explain the benefits that I had gotten from doing it that way.

And I guess I felt like I was working smarter rather than harder with the way that I’d done it.

Collyer acknowledges a particular mindset and perspective when it comes to property investing. Now, honestly speaking from his own experiences, he has proven himself as the real deal to those he shakes hands with.

I’ve had some good mentors and some good experiences and I look back now and again, I can’t quite believe it’s been 11 years, but I think gee, you know what? Over the last decade or so, I’ve had quite a varied breadth of experience across some different facets of real estate. But I can honestly say now in particular, that I think having my own business in that investment space, it’s really a passion project.

It’s quite exciting to be able to take people by the hand and say, look, you make whatever decision you think is best for you, but this is what I did, this is what it did for me and I’m able to, and again, particularly I love helping young people, but all people, I can take them by the hand and say, here’s some reasons why you might do it. This way, I can’t give any financial advice, I’m not an accountant, but I can talk about my own experiences which have been nothing but good.

Thankfully, Collyer throughout his career found himself surrounded by the right people at the right time. However, knowing that property investment is a completely different ball game, he doesn’t take all the credit to his success for himself. In fact, he recognizes the advantage of having mentors along the way.

I was fortunate that I had some great, from day one in real estate, I had some great mentors around and it’s, and you learn as you go, I think. I was just at an event the other day talking about what I do to someone and a young person overheard and they started asking me all these questions and then it turned into this whole conversation and everyone was sort of chiming in and by the time the conversation was done, I think I’d sort of converted people because I think in this day and age, 2024, with the world as it is right now, a lot of people are giving up on that idea of home ownership or they are not realizing that perhaps, their first property, if they’re young or any age, really it doesn’t have to be your principal place of residence. I didn’t do it that way.

And so many people I know now are choosing to rent best and they are choosing to take a more affordable path. And when you sit with people and you show them the opportunities that are out there and I guess, educate them a little bit. I was in the industry, but I’ve never done house and land.

I didn’t realize that if you constructed a new investment property, you’d only pay stamp duty on the land portion. So, you know, for a young person on a smaller income at the time, every dollar counts. And it’s those little wow moments that you have along the way that really I think open your eyes to the possibilities that are out there and how easy it can be.

With a distinct property journey, Collyer outlines the story of the first investment property he purchased at just 23 years old, emphasizing his belief that time is property’s best friend.

The company that I met introduced me to the idea of doing a house and land package. It was in Queensland at the time. And we ended up, they provided a lot of research.

I did a lot of research as well. I like to look for where’s the government spending their money? What’s the population like?

What are the vacancy rates? Vacancy rates are a key thing, I think, for investors because for me, if the vacancy rates are ridiculously low, which a lot of the areas at the moment they are, you can have confidence that you should be able to get tenants unless you’re asking too much most of the time. So vacancy rates and that’s information you can easily find on the internet.

That’s a very key piece of information, particularly just from a reassurance point of view, because I think the fear a lot of people have is if I buy this property, it might cost me X per week out of my own pocket. And so it’s looking at things like that, where the big developers were going, and also because it was a new property, I had a lot of conversations with my accountant about what the benefits of a new property might be. And eventually, fairly quickly, I think I was 23 at the time, decided that it was a good opportunity.

And so it was in Springfield Lakes in southeast Queensland. And I think the total price, testing my memory now, but I think it was $420 for the house and land, which seems quite cheap now. But at the time, six years ago, also now, I was very happy with it.

And so we settled on the block of land, and the build time was very quick. And build times in Queensland still are quite good, I think from signing the contracts to getting the keys was about seven months all up. So it was a nice, quick, clean, smooth process from where to go.

Yeah, it was with a larger builder, Australasian Homes is who I went with, I’m sure they won’t mind me saying, and I had a great experience. They were terrific. So it’s a full four bedroom, two bathroom, double garage, standalone home.

And the numbers back when I first, and this shows the time, his property, his best friend, when I first bought it, I think I put in a small deposit. My mum went guarantor on that loan. Thank you, mum, was very lucky in that regard.

And that enabled me, and this is a great message I think for people, that enabled me to still keep a healthy buffer at the time. As I said, when I was in my early 20s, I wasn’t on a huge income and I didn’t want to leave myself with no buffer. So it was a nice, healthy price point where I still felt comfortable.

And I think the rent to begin with was about 390 per week. And fast forward to the beginning of last year, just before Easter, I got an evaluation done on the property. And again, time is property’s best friend.

I think my loan repayments then were 320 per week. Queensland had boomed. The property was then worth between 650 and 700,000 and renting for 580 per week.

So principal and interest repayments at 320, rent at 580 or 585. Those are numbers to get excited about.

Yeah, positive cash flow already. Great. So you’ve done exceptionally well.

And thank God that you purchased this one because I’m wondering what would have happened if you purchased the unit.

The pen width has really boomed as well. But I think for when I compare the two, the unit being an established property, I probably would have had more stamp duty to pay. Rents probably haven’t performed as well when you compare it with the property in Queensland.

And the growth probably hasn’t been quite as strong. But if I had have bought the unit, I probably would have lived in that as opposed to staying at home and going down the investment path. It was a beautiful building.

I still sometimes think, it would have been a cool bachelor pad. But I was very happy that I did what I did when I did it. And I guess you could say that I had such a good experience that that’s when I moved into the house and land space.

And as cheesy as it sort of sounds, I was then able, I guess, to start using my real estate experience combined with my own experience in the house and land space to start doing more of that.

That’s excellent. And I guess from that potential or that opportunity onwards, what happened there? Did you continue to buy more property since then?

Yeah, so my next fast forward two years, and I was now working in that space, putting together the packages. And this was around COVID time. And it was, yes, how can we forget?

And people were very nervous. So my first year in the home and land space wasn’t smooth sailing, particularly being investment based. People were very nervous.

But I remember very clearly around my birthday, which is October, things really started to move again. You could kind of feel it around spring that confidence was coming back and people had sort of realized, okay, the world’s not going to end. We have to keep going.

And so an area that we had identified that was really starting to take off was the New South Wales Hunter region and Central Coast. And so properties number two and three for me were a duplex in that area, again, constructed.

In the next episode of Property Investory, discover how shocked Aidan Collyer ended up from seeing his first tax return after a year of owning a property he built and rented out.

And I just remember thinking, wow, because I was used to getting these really small returns.

What he highlights as the better option to a small-minded way of thinking about property and why he thinks it’s worth looking into.

So when people do sit on the fence, they do cost themselves a lot of money.

He sheds a light on the evergreen tips, whether you’re a freshman or veteran in the property game.

I think it’s about buying smart and following the right strategy.

And that’s next time on Property Investory. Thank you.

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