Property investment is a great way to build wealth for the future, however many people purchase property without giving any consideration at all to how the property may perform in the future.
To purchase right, ensuring a strong and consistent rental income return, solid capital growth or both requires research before you make your final purchase decision. Here are some tips:
Research the Area
Property investment magazines like API (Australian Property Investor) provide data that gives you useful historical performance data on every Australian suburb. This includes, how many properties were sold, median house prices and price growth over 3 month, 12 month, 3, 5 and 10 year periods plus median advertised weekly rent and other useful data like vacancy periods and market indicators.
Property Portals
Websites like realestate.com.au are becoming more and more useful for data research including what properties sold in that area in the last month, what they sold for, suburb profiles, demand and trends.
Property Investment Advisers
Please use caution here as there are many property spruikers who give wrong and biased advice. Ask for testimonials, look at their track record, ask lots of questions and get the right advice as it could make and save you a lot of money!
Buyers Agencies
These are qualified licensed real estate agents that source property on your behalf. Again, finding the right agent with the right knowledge and know-how can lead you to the right investment opportunity. Be willing to pay a commission, as this could be a small investment for big future returns.
Spend quality time crunching the data, sourcing right advisors, become educated on the key growth drivers and reap the future rewards.