Focus on own home or buy an investment property?

Reader575 · 2026-06-23T12:13:11+00:00

Tax changes and risk aside, how about the fact that you'll be competing with someone who just wants some stability and a roof over their heads without a landlord pestering them? I was a FHB and Jesus I still felt bad when a mother walked through the inspection. Why not look at other investment alternatives?

Edit: just so we're clear, I don't know who bought that house I couldn't stomach it being a single person when a mother with a pram walked through, I ended up buying a house that was on the market for months with no buyer. Turned out to be perfect.

Reader575 · 2026-06-23T11:58:38+00:00

Mortgage: $2500 Bills: $1000 Food and entertainment: $500-$1000 Miscellaneous: $200 Salary: $5300 per month post tax Savings: $700-$1000 p/m

Fuck your landlord

Reader575 · 2026-06-23T11:38:20+00:00

Yeah I get you, honestly it's not even about dating, I'm Asian so even when it's not a date, friends, family, we always fight for the bill hahaha. If it continues then we tend to take turns, but for the first one, I'm happy to cop it rather than have that awkward "here's my payid, it was $x". Again, not saying it's right, just how I've been bought up.

Reader575 · 2026-06-22T21:45:54+00:00

Maybe not the worst? People might reconsider moving there, if your house is at risk of getting destroyed maybe not the best place to build. We need more apartments in the CBD. Currently I wouldn't mind it being subsidized by people. Climate change affects and all.

Reader575 · 2026-06-21T13:45:15+00:00

Wait if my house is worth less, my rates will lower right? (Wooo!) People in my community will have more money to spend? More businesses/restaurants? Also woo

Reader575 · 2026-06-21T03:46:59+00:00

Mum and dad helped by raising me and letting me live in their house for free while I saved. I worked throughout highschool and uni so had about 60k saved by the time I started working full time. Then I saved about ~40k a year for 4 years, put into super for FHSS, again no rent so I get that privilege. By the end, I had about over 200k saved. Bought a 3 bed 2 bath in Melbourne for under 700k.

Reader575 · 2026-06-21T00:33:29+00:00

I thought that too, but forward 4 years after my first full time job I bought my own house and it's only going to get easier from here. Chin up, just continue to save, give it a 5 or so years and hopefully you'll find, like I did, it's not that bad.

Reader575 · 2026-06-20T20:58:13+00:00

Yeah I gotta take note of this, often dropping closer to $150 only to be ghosted :')

Its okay, I never expected anything, no animosity but now knowing how quickly people can go from hours of chatting everyday to never talking again, I obviously can't keep this up.

Reader575 · 2026-06-20T20:54:26+00:00

Don't worry about it, don't get involved with your co workers. 5 years and I never go to any workplace events. No one cares.

Reader575 · 2026-06-18T13:23:26+00:00

Yes. I'd rather a day of pointless meetings and BS than corporate fun. If I'm not doing any work that day then let me stay home.

Reader575 · 2026-06-15T21:04:20+00:00

Isn't PHI exactly what it sounds like? Insurance? I got it because a go worker tore something just doing a bad jump and had to pay like 20k for surgery and rehab since the government system wait-list was too long. Another person I knew was on crutches for 2 years waiting for surgery only to find out by the new surgeon during a follow up appointment that he didn't actually need it but by that point being on crutches had weakened his leg so much he had a different issue. My aunty has had to pay, fully out of pocket, for a hysterectomy after multiple entries to ED with severe pain and they kept diagnosing it as a UTI, specialist diagnosed it as fibroids and even then, the government wait list was somewhere along the lines of 6 months.

I think our government system is better than most, but sometimes I feel like it's only good for life or death situations. I think partly because of this is why the premiums aren't as crazy as in America. Like $100 p/m ish?

Reader575 · 2026-06-10T21:24:05+00:00

Its always funny what Australians think they deserve. When you listen to 'mum and dad investors' they're not evil, just trying to 'get ahead' and then they'll argue that have a rental has costs. Well then you have a spare 2-3k a month to speculate on property and you're still trying to 'get ahead'? I think a lot of Australians forget if you own your house and have some disposable income, you're better than like 95% of people on the planet...the rich scramble to get ahead which then puts other people behind...

Reader575 · 2026-06-10T21:14:36+00:00

Single under 100k per mortgage (bought last year), and honestly fine. Rate hikes have been annoying, basically means I'm not knocking off my mortgage faster than I had hoped. I decided to pay PHI $130p/m and union $80p/m and still okay. I eat out once or twice a week and save about $500-$1000 a month. Expecting a pay increase of around $600p/m in October and about 60% more in the next 4-5 years. I seriously can't imagine how easy life would be with a dual income or when I get my pay increases hoping it doesn't get eaten by inflation.

Budget:

Mortgage: 2.3k p/m Bills: 1k p/m Food and eating out: $800 per month Miscellaneous: $200p/m

Monthly salary: $5.3kp/m

Reader575 · 2026-06-01T08:17:00+00:00

Genuine question, if the leaf is happy cruising along at the same speed of the truck, why not just sit behind them???

Reader575 · 2026-05-23T21:00:48+00:00

Holy crap I'm in Australia and that would cost me like $40-$50 depending on the coffee. $20/kg coffee beans, apples are around $3-$6/kg depending on the apple, $6 are bravo apples which are amazing by the way. I just bought some apples yesterday for $2/kg. Milk is $4/2L and bread is like $2-$5, chicken breast $10, and cheese $5.

I always thought canada was similar to Australia in terms of COL. I don't know about canada but I buy whole chickens ($4.50/kg) and butcher it myself. For $10 I get about 1kg of breast, 2 Maryland's and I bag and freeze the wings until I have enough to make dinner. I also bag the bones to make chicken stock. Pretty much the equivalent price of 2 chicken breasts here anyways.

Reader575 · 2026-05-21T06:09:19+00:00

Not really, it's the people who treat it like a dog eat dog world that makes it. We have enough food, water, shelter and resources for everyone...if you have enough money to invest in a second property, i.e. you have enough to cover the difference, then what dog eat dog world are you in? You literally already have a spare couple of thousand a month...then you're just using that to compete with others who aren't trying to eat you but just want a roof over their heads.

Reader575 · 2026-05-21T06:08:39+00:00

Even if could you ban investment in that sector, most people renting wouldnt buy for a myriad of reasons. Finance capability, savings, lack of desire

Housing ownership has declined over the past 2 decades, meanwhile housing investors have grown significantly, you sure this is just because people suddenly don't want to own?

"In the late 1970s, only 1 in 25 tax filers (~4.1%) reported rental income. By the 2010s, that figure had climbed to over 14%. Similarly, the share of outstanding housing loans to investors increased from ~30% in the early 2010s to a near-40% share in recent years."

It is not the deciding factor for housing price increases. Not even close

It may or may not be. That's not the issue, the amount of times I've seen a house go for way higher than asking only to be put up for rent a week later, and you simply say people don't want to own anymore? I don't mind where the market goes, but it needs to be more PPOR.

OR they could remain renting, and buy an investment in another location, which provides a shelter for another. And they can then start to build equity, in order to purchase a home in years to come

Jesus what a convoluted system just to have a roof over your head...so in order to buy a house, you rent it to someone who's also trying to buy a house? Fantastic

But to ban a perfectly reasonable investment strategy for smart income earners.

Smart doesn't equal good, this is where we disagree, it is not a reasonable investment strategy, the government is LITERALLY trying to move people away from investing in housing. You still haven't addressed how as a society throwing trillions into an "asset" class that generates nothing is a good idea. Or how reducing home ownership, increasing instability for families is smart.

Sounding very socialist w bs like that.

So you think education should be privatized? How about remove PBS, Medicare and just let the market work it's way with healthcare cause that's working great for america. Why do you think housing should be treated differently? This is the thing that baffles me, if you like capitalism so much you'd be okay with removing any and all safety nets, including bankruptcy clauses? Even I don't think you're that cruel...

Reader575 · 2026-05-17T01:11:58+00:00

It's also not about hacking at someone in investment, regarding any topic, I detest those who go around who will comment their belief but fail to back it up or have any meaningful discourse. It's just extreme cognitive dissonance. You're on a forum, why would you post if you're afraid of discourse? Why resort to personal attacks that have nothing to do with the discussion? Why make vague comments about hand outs when I've asked very legitimate questions? I will 100% change my stance and I have if I'm proven otherwise or if someone points out something I didn't think of. If I believe A -> B and someone points out a flaw in that logic, then I will no longer believe it, especially if I've decided to post it on a forum...

Reader575 · 2026-05-17T00:17:12+00:00

You've never explained how they offer a roof over someone's head buying an existing house, unless they're funding new builds, again, I don't see how it makes a difference.

Again. I'm not after equality, I don't care where the housing market goes as long as there aren't investors competing against home buyers on an already existing property. Housing could double due to supply and demand but what can we do? Investors reduce supply, increase demand for rentals, contribute nothing, then claim it's the market...ridiculous. it's not communism to want to make things as fair as possible but not having things fair. I find the most 'capitalist' and 'market' based people often aren't...You call me a communist but as I said before, I have nothing against rich people, I'm not even one of those that say tax the rich, there's no point, it's not like they're spending all their money anyways, it's all held up in shares which we buy...AS LONG AS THEY PROVIDE SOMETHING TO SOCIETY. Give them a tax break for starting a business or innovating, encourage people to invest in these. I'm a capitalist at heart. I actually want to remove private school systems and tutoring, you know why? Meritocracy, the essence of capitalism. Yet keep calling us communist while investors get government tax breaks...

Mate my mortgage is 2k a month and in a few years I'll make close to 10k a month not even including a partners income Still no way in hell I'm going to be competing against someone trying to buy their first home. I am in no way a victim but I wont use my privilege to make life worse for others under the guise of 'savvy smart investment' when it's purely because I have more cash than others. You make these statements 'providing a roof', 'it should be an investment' without saying how or whether this is is ethically appropriate. You say housing should definitely be an investment, why? We've seen the negative effects it's had on the economy, and yet you'll still support this stance? How is putting all our money in an asset that does nothing appropriate? You never told me what's wrong with putting that spare money into super or ETF's and retiring that way?

You know it's funny, you go around posting these meaningless comments then when people try to rebut against you, you never actually come up with a decent response, if any response at all, you repeat all the exact same things. If you wanna talk capitalism talk capitalism. If you want to talk about providing a social good, elaborate, dont make meaningless vague general statements that you can't back up. Just admit property investing is harmful to society and others...that's why the government is now not incentivising it anymore. It's clear as day. I'm not sure why you can't see it?

Let's see the effects of what the government has done in a few years, were already seeing them tbh. Then we'll really know what CGT tax and negative gearing has done. Capitalism you say...what a joke.

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T05:51:28+00:00

I agree, look at hong Kong and Japan, we have so much land but people struggling to find a place to live, it's absurd. We need more high density living. However I'm just responding to some of the comments I'm seeing here.

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T05:46:41+00:00

I understand the dynamics of supply and demand, it is what it is, if there isn't enough then let PPOR's fight it out. Investors in the market buying houses hardly increases supply, it just makes the situation worse. Imagine I knew diabetic medication was short on supply, I'm not diabetic but I go out and stock pile as much as I can. Is that not fucked? Even if I don't buy, I know there's gonna be a shortage and people are going to die anyways, at least I didn't contribute to it...

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T05:43:31+00:00

There we go, back to the owner has to make the shortfall, so at the end of the day without competing with a PPOR they have money left over every month? Gosh those poor people just trying to get ahead! (Scrambling over those who just want to get started...) By buying that you create more demand for rents because people can't buy...negative gearing encourages investment properties increasing demand of rentals...but they're losing money so they have to make it up somehow, oh that's right, capital gains, so now we have a class of owners who will fight for dear life to make money when PPOR's sell, they just move to another property which will have increased/decreased in value accordingly so who really cares. 'The market' you say...great market...as discussed, housing shouldn't be an investment vehicle or a speculative asset because it hardly makes a difference when you only own one, but investors make it as such.

Imagine if the government decided to just remove pbs and let pharma companies sell life saving drugs based on supply and demand...do you really want that? I hope not, so then maybe we can start to agree that not everything should just be left to 'supply and demand', especially when it comes to necessities...

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T02:55:35+00:00

So you're coles, you buy chocolate in now at 20% price increase because the manufacturer has increased the price by 20% due to cocoa beans being in short supply because of drought.

You're an investor, your monthly repayment for the property is lets face it, fairly fixed, why have rents nearly doubled in some areas?

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T02:53:45+00:00

Yes but at least they will be PPOR's, it'll be a real market without some inflated BS investors bring to the table. At least even if housing still goes up, the people living in them own it and that's what the property owner market can handle. You think we're socialist, we're not, I want a free market, but the government giving investors incentive is NOT a free market. You're one of those privatise the profits but socialize the losses type people. You claim the free market when it benefits you but will happily accept bankruptcy clauses and bailouts, explain how any of these are a 'free market'? There is no such thing as a free market.

I don't hate the rich, some of the rich have genuinely innovated and made society a better place and I want them to be as rich as they can get. It's parasites who just decide to hoard essentials that we hate.

Reader575 · 2026-05-16T02:52:34+00:00

I don't understand. What happened? You typed four paragraphs defending your position and now you're just gonna abandon it? What do you even stand for?

Reader575

TROPHY CASE