Property
We think property is probably the most important part of your wealth management strategy. This is because it is hard to become financially secure without owning at least one property. If you can own more than one, things get even better.
We advise on all forms of property: residential homes, investment properties and commercial properties. And we don’t just advise on your own property, either. We often find ourselves showing clients the best way to help their adult kids buy homes.
We always start with your family home. We do this because the family home occupies a special place for most Australians. Our home ownership rates are amongst the highest in the world.
Residential property also occupies a special spot in Australian investment history. It is historically the highest earning asset class, with an average annual return of over 8% compounding in the 10 years to 31 December 2015, and 10.5% per annum in the 20 years to the same date (source: ASX Annual Investment Report June 2016).
Homes account for around 43% of all household wealth in Australia. And, pretty importantly, they give you a place to live as well.
And this is just family homes. When you consider the impact of investment properties as well, you find that being wealthy is really a matter of owning property.
This is why property simply must be a significant part of your financial plan. You need to decide what to buy, how much to spend, how to borrow (and how much) and how to repay the debt if you want to make property investment work for you.
Basically, your wealth starts with property and expands from there. That’s why we do, too.
Relevant Articles...

What’s the Drum on Capital Gains and Residential Property?
Did you know that there is a kind of tax that is great to pay? It’s called a capital gains tax and it’s great for one simple reason: you only pay it when you make a capital gain! A capital gain means you sold an asset for more than you bought it for. That is always better than the alternative, which is selling an asset for less than you paid yourself.

How to Find Yourself Singing in the Rain
Last week we discussed how the Governor of the Reserve Bank Phillip Lowe recently recommended that home borrowers ensure that they have a ‘buffer’ against the time when interest rates inevitably rise. Interest rate buffers are not the only type of buffer in good financial planning. Buffers are used in many areas, but the need for buffers always comes from the same source: understanding that the way things are now is not likely to be the way things are in the future.

Housing’s Tug of War
This week, we saw another version of the tug of war at play in Australia’s residential property market. APRA is trying to pull prices in one direction while other arms of Government strive for the opposite result. Time will tell whose arms are stronger, but people wanting to buy homes should be barracking for APRA. A win for APRA would save people years of hard work.

Half of Everything is Housing
This week we came across an interesting little read from Fidelity International, an international fund manager. Their article examined the composition of Australian household wealth as of the end of 2020, which is about as recent as the data gets when it comes to this kind of thing.