If I could afford 12(!!) houses, I'd reckon the rent itself would be enough for me to stop working. 12 x 1200/month  = 14,400/month. Just like the news of the young Aussie bloke who has 12 properties around AUS generating 200k per annum.

Hey Garysydney, any opinions on Doonside? I'm doing more research now cuz I saw a nice place that's about 20-20+ mins walk from station, which seems alright.
The house is in pretty damn good condition, but the garden is huge, and so much work needed to tend to the front & backyard, which my missus loves, but not me. Spiders galore too.

And one weird small door that leads to under the house, any idea what that's for? Someone will probably have to crawl to get into that spot.

However this site says its pretty dodgy an area (safety score 5/10 vs like Chester Hill (8/10):
https://www.microburbs.com.au/NSW/Sydney-We...cktown/Doonside

I'm pretty happy my rent isn't going up, but always good to know the rent is going down. I have heard of landlords offering 2 weeks rental off, or other benefits to attract potential renters. But then there's my colleague who's landlord wanted 2k deposit from her, and gave her the wrong bank account. She banked it in to the wrong account and the bank could only reimburse 800 as the wrongly banked into account owner withdrew everything out of the account.

On a side note, another paid just paid $795k for a 10yrs old 3BR townhouse in Castle Hill, within 500m of Castle Towers and the new metro. Owner was asking $859k initially, went for auction with $820k reserve and highest bidder came in at $770k and passed-in and finally sold at the said price. Comes with a huge 100m2 lawn too which is a steal really given that it ticks all the boxes in terms of locale. I remember during the good times it will definitely not be sold below $900k

Just proven how bad the market is these days.

It's a little bit sad for the buyers though, although probably you'll be in a good bargaining position when that happens and you do choose  to invest into those new luxury apartments. What happens when the apartments do't have any other people living in them and only a few tenants? What happens to the strata?

Everybody knows there is a housing bubble in Sydney and Melbourne.....and everybody knows housing bubbles will inevitably burst, with a lot of pain....

It's like a non fundamental bull runs in the stock market....or bitcoin.....someone's gonna get hurt....like Peter Russell says....

It could go down to 30% to 40% drop.

Get your war chest ready....when people start throwing properties, it's time to strike....

A little story....in 1998, in the midst of the Asian currency crisis, many properties in KL went on fire sale as owners geared in USD went belly up....one company was cash rich with little foreign debts....and bought up several properties in the Bukit Bintang area..... Starhill, Marriott and lot10 bought at only 323mil......guess who....lol

That's what friends are for right? Haha, I find it ironic that he was telling you off for being too pessimistic when he chose to go all in. Now when tides have turned against him for his recklessness without proper backup he has to come to you for help. I honestly won't know how to deal with a friend like this. I'm stingy as is, and lending big amount of cash I know 80% chance I won't be getting back is just not gonna happen for me. But my cousins said in life must be generous, and in turn one will receive generosity back.

Based on how much your friend is able to repay, I think if he just sold his 2 properties and bought one unit in the west suburbs (even Strathfield) he'd survive based on his current repayments - if he can get another loan. 6k is massive (to me), and it sounds like two properties near 800k each. Well one way or the other, he'd have to make a sacrifice. Can't be going around expecting people to keep bailing you out of your own mess. At the end of the day he's your friend and it's your call. Good luck dealing with this and hopefully it doesn't put a strain on the friendship.

In the event he goes bankrupt, he'll still have a loan amount attached to him, and if he plans on ending the bankruptcy he still has to repay that off. Isn't a smaller amount better than having 500k looking you in the face instead? Though if the bank takes and sells his belonging/properties the loan amount will drop, I think it's probably better if he can settle it on his own terms by dictating the price of house now before it gets too bad. Otherwise, unless he plans on staying bankrupt as long as possible if it occurs...

Based on the flow of the thread, barely anyone thinks there'll be a sudden upsurge in prices of properties, especially with investor sentiment about Sydney/Melbourne. To me, even a a loss, selling off one house drops the mortgage amount by a fair amount (50%? assumptions), and repaying 3-4k a month vs 6k is a lot more manageable. If prices continue dropping, the longer he holds onto it the more of a loss it becomes unless sold off ASAP. If he could borrow from a few people to offset that loss, then he only has to pay for the house he's currently staying in. In my opinion, the denial to accept what's currently changing in the market will cost him more.

If I had kids I'd have set aside some money each month, and hopefully he did that so that it won't sting so much. Otherwise the eldest would probably have to help out with household income by getting a part time job, or even to cover her own education cost. My missus knows of a few colleagues who bought a house or two currently on interest only. I would agree it's a lot, but probably 1 or 2 out of 10 property owners would feel this.

Sorry to break the property conversation.

I know this is foolish.
But i was trying to do some property investment under a 190 visa, not yet have a full time job there.

If I send AUD 2k thousand a month to my personal Aussie bank, treating it as freelance marketing job myself in Aussie under a business ABN. Can I still pass the pre-requisite for bank loan?

i know it may be foolish to get double taxed (local income tax and tax from ATO), but as far as I know, under new bracket first 20k aud will be tax free.

All good, that's what forums are meant for anyway.

The company I work has a really high turnover rate, so they're always hiring. Not a great start, but it's a good foot into the permanent job role. Big, but plenty of messy processes we're working on fixing right now. Not sure if they have marketing roles though.
That's quite informative, good to know if I ever have to deal with that. So if you're a PR, lost your job and declared bankrupt, do they deport you back to the country of origin?

Some part of me really wants to see the prices of houses drop, though it'll be crap for your friends, and by extension yourself, if they want to borrow money from you. I've already seen a least 2 houses now which I was somewhat interested in drop by 15k & 20k respectively. Won't be surprised if they accept an offer of another 15-20k less.

Are houses that are part of a community levy any good? Don't quite want to be pay like 1k+ a year for a pool I may not use. Will it help improve other things besides the pool which is what the levy is attributed to?

Some of the houses have community levy, a fund for upkeep of public facilities (swimming pool, park, etc.), which is rather similar to strata. Two of the town houses we saw without strata, instead have community levy.

One house had a 200+/quarter levy for swimming pool upkeep.
Another had 70+/quarter for private road maintenance.

Checked out Randwick's price on domain, pretty much all auctions. It an indicator for me to keep away, haha..

It feels great you have so many buddies to keep in touch with. I only have a small group of pals who are all back in Msia, whom I quite miss but they have their own lives to live. I can see myself 30-40 years from now with my missus, probably a quiet life and eventually a quiet death too. That is if no major problems kills me off earlier. Maybe then I might have to contemplate if I should return to Msia or not, if there's anything worthwhile left in Msia to go home to.
Morbid thoughts aside, @Aussiebum, , I believe you'll need to be able to prove that you've been together for long enough a period of time, maybe 3-5 years. If you have pictures dating back to those dates it'll be easier for you. Another supporting documents like joint bank accounts or purchases will help your cause too.

Checked out Randwick's price on domain, pretty much all auctions. It an indicator for me to keep away, haha..

How it Sold: Lilyfield bidder bids against himself four times for $1.795m home
Link : https://outline.com/42cd4c

Should teach us how to avoid bidding against ourselves like that article, haha..

Most agents look at me like I accidentally vomitted into their shoe when I say I'm only interested in a property if it's like 20-30k less. I was accompanying a friend who went to check out an auction, and the agent asked me where I was from. When I said "Chester Hill", he never spoke to me again after that.

Oh yes, the new has reported an increase of private loans as people are unable to get loans from banks. On and off I still hear private loan ads on radio "Borrow up to 5k to fund your dream holiday!". White I do get the desperation to get away from work (and lack of holidays like in Msia), I don't understand the urge to have immediate fun but lose out in the long run.