October 16, 2018 by Rebecca Crommelin
This month, Phil's Property Corner - written by Phil Bertram, the owner of Candour Property Group - reviews the latest Perth property market & economy news, as well as how to get started investing in property with a great case study example.
September saw Perth’s median sale price remain steady at $505,000 with listings on the market up slightly from August. Here is REIWA’s September Market Update if you want to watch through it.
Rental listings are continuing to decrease, down by 3.7% in the month of September. The rental vacancy rate is also continuing its steady downward momentum, down to 4.2% and getting close to the range generally considered to start putting upwards pressures on rental prices (3.5% – 4.0%). The regular improvement in these rental figures is a promising indicator for the property market generally with historical improvement in rentals often being the pre-curser to property market recoveries.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA have released their latest quarterly survey results and this too is pointing the way towards a recovery. The results are now the highest we’ve had in 5 years and we’ve now seen improvement in these numbers over 5 consecutive quarters. This survey is well worth a detailed read, numbers are up across the board with the average West Australian more confident in job opportunities and seeing an improvement in their personal financial position. Another positive point to note is that we have now seen jobs in the mining sector show the biggest improvement in the nation for 12 months in a row now. Whilst this may not be headed for another boom it certainly underpins confidence in the jobs sector locally. You can find the report, 4 pages long and easy reading here.
On a broader level the state’s financial position is beginning to improve also. The numbers are in for the 2018 budget and the annual deficit registered at $618 million, much less than the expected $1.3 billion. This is the best result in 4 years, allowing the government to reduce net state debt for the first time in several years. With both sides of federal politics committed to getting a fair deal for WA on GST, this should give the state government a significant windfall over the coming years to improve the state’s position further. The West Australian has written about this in an article published on 26th September that you can find here.
Last week I met with a couple who have been weighing up whether property investment is a good idea for them for some time. Their family income is just over $110,000, their home loan is slowly reducing and their two kids have just started in high school. On a PAYG position they find that their net income allows them to pay for their costs of living, cover their home loan repayments and to have a decent lifestyle but very little else. We discussed the fact that the ATO is receiving over $30,000 a year from their income and they have $260,000 in equity in their property. Whilst they’ve looked at property investment before, they have never taken the plunge because they just didn’t have any spare cashflow.
In running through rental income and tax that gets paid back to them in their fortnightly pay, we showed them that a property investment was actually going to pay them money to own it. Instead of costing them cashflow, the investment produced additional cashflow - over $6,000 in the first year and over $2,000 in the following years. By using this extra cashflow and an effective loan structure we anticipate they will pay their home loan off 8 years faster, saving them over $65,000 in interest over the term of their home loan. For many clients I speak with, discovering that they don’t need to pay money towards a property investment (in fact, the opposite is often true) is a game changer and makes utilising tax dollars and equity to improve their personal finance position a possibility.
If you’d like to know more the next step is to chat with Phil Bertram. There is no obligation to proceed any further than you’re comfortable with and he doesn’t charge for his time. All strategies are implemented in tandem with your Mortgage Choice Mortgage Broker.
To arrange for him to call you please email him with your name and contact number on phil@candourproperty.com.au and he’ll be in touch.
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