As trusted experts in financial planning and property investment, we regularly have new and long-term clients come to us with questions on their property investment choices.
Whether it’s a discussion about buying a family home or building a property portfolio, the steps to successful investing remain the same.
It is integral to understand why you are investing, as well as how that investment is going to meet your needs and what compromises will be necessary in order to do so. Being clear on the answer to ‘why’ lays the foundation for determining the best steps on ‘how’ you do it.
Why Investing in Property can Help or Hinder your Financial Plan
Many of our clients are either looking to buy their first home, upgrade to a new home or invest towards their retirement, and it is ideal that you can hold your asset for as long as possible.
One of the biggest errors we see people make is that they do not think forward far enough on their decision and when a property is subsequently sold, after a relatively short time of holding it, which can lead to tax implications and transaction costs, that may have otherwise been avoided if there had been adequate financial planning for their investment property.
The most successful property investors we see are focused on buying quality assets that are affordable for their circumstances and, in doing so, these investors are not put in the position where they are forced to sell, when they otherwise would choose not to.
They have properly considered the ideal ownership structure, to minimise the risk of losing the investment due to being sued and considerate of tax implications.
They have also considered their other goals and objectives for the future and how a significant capital purchase in property could impact on these plans.
Property Investment and your Financial Plan
Financial Planning and Property Investment should operate in tandem to work through and understand the real costs of your property decisions.
The interest cost of holding it is one aspect, but consideration must also be made to the other related costs, including rates, maintenance, capital improvements, property management and buy & sell costs.
All of these costs combined over the life of the property represent the true cost base or hurdle rate of the investment to put you in profit.
When viewing the property market on the whole, it’s important to understand that it is made up of a series of sub-markets that could affect both your financial plan, and property investment options.
The median property price in a major capital city, for example, is the average of the performance of all collective suburbs in that city.
Naturally, this means that some suburbs are performing better than the median of the city and some are underperforming.
The same principal then applies when investing in a particular suburb, there is a median made up of all sales in that suburb, but this means some areas within a suburb have outperformed others.
Financial Planning for Your Property Investment
Property analysis can come down to the asset selection on an individual street or selection of streets and there can even be a range of factors why the performance of one property on a street has a considerably better growth profile than another on the same street.
Things like land to asset ratio; aspect of the property relative to natural light; slope of the block; and how new or not the building on top is, will all determine the ultimate value of the property you are buying.
With this in mind, it is essential to really understand the market you are investing into as you don’t want to over pay for your property investment.
We’ve all heard the stories about record prices being achieved and the speculation that price overshoots value and you don’t want this to be you.
The only way you can truly feel confident that you have paid fair value in this scenario is to have a good enough understanding of where value sits in a market.
While this can take months of time watching the suburb — both online and attending open for inspections and auctions — it could prove a very valuable use of your time and in turn result in a better property investment outcome.
Yield Financial Planning is Here to Help
Good fortune needs great planning, so if you have any questions about your investment properties and how this benefits your financial plan, contact us and talk to one of our advisors.
Important Note
