“We tell you we’re unhappy with our property, and you have the audacity to try and sell us another one?”
These words on the other end of the line were from a couple I’d helped buy an investment property 12 months earlier.
The catalyst? A fresh valuation had just landed, and it wasn’t the number they’d hoped for; it was just a touch more than they paid.
I took a breath and gave them the only honest answer I had: Yes, that’s right.
Then I reminded them of a discussion we’d had a few years back. That year, they bought their first investment property with us in the South Australian capital, Adelaide. Within 12 months, it had grown by nearly $100,000.
Their only feedback back then: “We wish we’d bought two.”
Now here they were, with the chance to do exactly that.
First things first. Their new property isn’t a dud, it sits in one of Australia’s fastest-growing suburbs, surrounded by employment opportunities, shopping centres, schools, a university campus and a hospital.
The property wasn’t the problem. The market simply hadn’t moved much in a year.
And that was exactly the point I was making. You’ve heard property doubles every 10 years. What nobody tells you is how. It doesn’t climb a smooth ramp. It climbs an uneven staircase. It bubbles along, then jumps, then bubbles along again.
If you look at 50 years of Australian median house price data, the pattern is clear. Roughly three quarters of a decade’s growth arrives in just a quarter to a half of that decade. The rest of the time, the market is catching its breath.
A flat year isn’t a reason to stop or change plans. It’s the time to double down.
Further, I wasn’t asking them to do anything I haven’t done myself. In 2011, I bought my first property in Southeast Queensland. Then I waited. For four years, the market barely moved. In 2014, with prices still crawling, I bought a second.
Then… bang. Back-to-back years of strong growth.
That growth gave me the equity to triple down and buy my own home, again in Southeast Queensland. I still own all three. Over 15, 12 and 10 years, all three properties have more than doubled, while the first has tripled.
If I’d sat on my hands in 2014, my portfolio wouldn’t be a patch on how it looks today.
I’m doing it again right now. The two properties I bought in Melbourne in 2021 have grown about 10 per cent in five years, which is less than I expected. So, I just bought a third.
When the fundamentals are strong and prices haven’t caught up, that doesn’t signal a problem. It signals an opportunity.
Plenty of investors face my clients’ dilemma today. The property you buy now might not be worth much more in 12 months.
My advice? Buy as many as you can.
The window won’t stay open long; six months, 18 months, nobody knows. But when prices take off, you’ll wish you owned two instead of one. Six instead of four.
My clients already know that feeling. They lived it in Adelaide. Now I believe they’re standing at the start of a similar run over the next three to four years. This time, they could own two before it happens.
The irony of it all is when the market is hot, people complain there’s too much competition. When it pauses, they complain it’s too soft or rates are too high. There’s always a reason to wait.
The investors who build real wealth don’t wait to feel comfortable. They keep moving forward and increase their pace when they see everyone else hesitating.
So yes, I had the audacity. Because the moment that feels most uncomfortable is so often the moment that pays off the most.
