The Top Australian Property Hotspots You Can’t Afford to Miss in 2025 with Arjun Paliwal

Thinking About Buying Property? Here’s What You Need to Know! 🏡

Want to invest in property but don’t know where to start? Maybe you're wondering whether you need a buyer’s agent, how to avoid expensive mistakes, or where the best places to buy in 2025 are.

This week on the Ladies Finance Club Podcast, I chat with Arjun Paliwal, one of Australia’s top property experts and the founder of InvestiKit. With over 1,250 successful property purchases, Arjun shares exactly what you need to know before making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life!

🔑 In this must-listen episode, we cover:
✅ What a buyer’s agent actually does (and if you really need one)
✅ Biggest property investing mistakes (and how to avoid them)
✅ Where to buy in 2025 for the best growth potential
✅ How equity works and how to use it to buy your next property
✅ Why most investors only buy 1-2 properties (and how to go beyond that!)
✅ The truth about commercial property—is it a good investment strategy?

💡 Thinking of buying your first (or next) property? Tune in before making any big moves—this episode could save you thousands!

This episode is brought to you by InvestorKit, Australia’s #1 Buyers Agency for 2023 and 2024. They specialise in helping investors find high-growth properties utilising industry leading AI and data driven research process across Australia. 70%+ of the properties they purchase are off-market and they have consistently outperformed national average capital growth rates by over 49%. Whether you’re looking to build your property portfolio or secure your first investment. Check them out here.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro
00:39 - What is a Buyer’s Agent?
02:24 - Do You Need a Buyer’s Agent?
03:43 - Common Property Investment Mistakes
08:10 - Best Places to Buy in 2025
16:26 - Should You Invest in Commercial Property?
19:21 - Step-by-Step Guide to Working with a Buyer’s Agent
21:16 - Arjun’s Podcast Recommendations
22:46 - Book Recommendation: Buy Back Your Time

LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

The Property Nerds Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-property-nerds/id1549122500
InvestorKit Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/investorkit-podcast/id1656185147
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell - https://www.buybackyourtime.com/

CONNECT WITH ARJUN PALIWAL

Website: https://www.investorkit.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arjpaliwal/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/propertybuyersagent/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@investorkit

CONNECT WITH LADIES FINANCE CLUB

Join our free Facebook group - Ladies Finance Club Money Chat
Website: https://www.ladiesfinanceclub.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladiesfinanceclub/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ladies-finance-club/

TAKEAWAYS

• A buyer's agent represents the buyer, not the seller.
• Investing in property requires deep knowledge and research.
• Many investors make emotional decisions rather than data-driven ones.
• Mistakes in property investment can delay future opportunities.
• Diversification across different markets can enhance portfolio growth.
• Commercial property can provide better cash flow than residential.
• Choosing a buyer's agent should involve understanding their fee structure.
• Red flags include agents who are not paid by the buyer.
• The process of working with a buyer's agent includes consultation and strategy development.
• Long-term thinking is crucial for successful property investment.

SOUND BITES

"A buyer's agent looks after the purchaser."
"Most property investing isn't data-driven."
"Queensland, SA, WA are calling your name."
"The first step is a free consultation."

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Molly: Arjun, so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining.

[00:00:04] Arjun: It's great to be here again. Uh, that road show, what, not long ago now, just, uh, I missed it. Actually. Really good to travel around, be part of everything with you and, and here we are again on the show.

[00:00:16] Molly: I know. It was good times. So what I found with that road show, it was.

[00:00:21] So helpful and the content was so fantastic you shared, so I thought, actually, let's do a podcast version of it. So for the people who weren't able to be there, or maybe the people who wanna, you know, they, they missed something, they can actually find this as a resource. So yeah, thanks for jumping on and I'm gonna hit you with the first question.

[00:00:39] What is a buyer's agent? Because we know what real estate agents are, but buyer's agents, I've noticed not as many people know what you guys do.

[00:00:47] Arjun: Yeah, so the best way I could explain it is a buyer's agent is a property professional who looks after the purchaser instead of looking after the seller. Now, real estate agents are typically known to sell the property [00:01:00] at the highest price.

[00:01:01] At all costs. And so for us, the buyer's edge, we're here to try to get the best price, get you in the right market, ensure you don't miss out in terms of many weekends and get access to more property, but also do it without the expensive mistakes. So it's a professional for the buyer. Not the professional for the seller.

[00:01:18] Molly: Yeah, and I love that. So real estate agent looks after the seller. A buyer's agent looks after the buyer. And with a buyer's agent, obviously you guys are very specialized. You do a lot of data, a lot of research. But do you have to use a buyer's agent or do you think you can probably do the research yourself?

[00:01:37] Arjun: Hey, look, you don't have to use a buyer's agent. It's totally optional. I think the key thing though is that. How far is your depth of knowledge and how wide is your horizon? Right? So if you are living in, say, Sydney or Melbourne as an example, and you feel comfortable Sydney, you know, certain areas, that's just one part of it.

[00:01:54] Now what about the whole country? Because if you have exposure to knowing the whole country, I. You're able to make [00:02:00] the best investment decision for your portfolio rather than just based on what you know. And the same goes to what you know about negotiating versus someone who does it every day. And in our case, over 1,250 purchases.

[00:02:12] So doing it many, many times over. So the key is it's that depth of knowledge. Yeah. It's the time you want to commit to this. The actual scope of how far you can go with your decisions rather than just the what you know?

[00:02:24] Molly: Yeah, absolutely. 'cause I hear a lot of people say, oh, I'm just gonna wing it. And I'm like, you know, these are half a million dollar decisions.

[00:02:31] It's a big thing to wing. Or they'll say, oh, I'm just listening to what my parents say. And that's when I go, oh, your parents and property. And they'll say, oh no, they're a plumber. And I'm like, oh, do they buy lots of investment properties? Oh no, they've only got one property. And I'm like. Don't you think that makes them an expert?

[00:02:48] Good for life advice, but property advice probably not.

[00:02:51] Arjun: Yeah, it's a good point you raised. So like 90% of Australian investors in their personal names own one or two investment properties. So the truth is, if you're speaking to your parent, there's [00:03:00] 93 challenge that they aren't an expert or haven't done this many times over.

[00:03:03] The second thing is most people become what we call accidental property investors. Yeah. They buy an affordable home, they feel really good about it, they're on the ladder, and then life changes. They grow out of that home or outta that location, they get a bigger home and they do their best to keep their first one.

[00:03:21] And what do you know? They're now a property investor. So most property investing isn't data driven by the majority of Australia's. It's driven in a way that was an emotional change to another emotional change, and they left over with a property.

[00:03:33] Molly: And I guess, do you get many people coming to you when they are in a bit of a property f or maybe that first investment or that first property hasn't gone as well as they would've hoped?

[00:03:43] Arjun: That's actually the most common time people come to us is when people come through and they actually have made a mistake. Yeah. There's an example I can raise of a lady by the name of Lorna Wang. Yeah. She actually, someone that I mentioned, you know, on the roadshow as well. Lorna is a lovely framed and client of ours, and she purchased a [00:04:00] property in southwest Sydney and that particular property was a unit back in 2014.

[00:04:05] Mm-hmm. 10 years later. That unit has not even increased by more than $100,000. Right. Wow. And so that's a big thing considering most properties in Australia increased that much in just one year between 2020 and 21 or 21 to 22. And so the key thing there is that you've made that first mistake. And here's what's things most.

[00:04:27] Because she hadn't actually seen the benefits of property investing. She delayed her future decision in the past five years. Mm. So we actually didn't meet and start investing to help her until 2019, and she had a better service move. Guess what? You're more motivated. You want to do it again, you wanna give it a crack.

[00:04:46] Yeah. And she would've purchased multiple properties then between 2014 and 2018. Mm. Instead, none taken 2019, she reached out for help and we've now built her an over $3 million property portfolio. With over $1 million in equity [00:05:00] generated in comparison to a hundred k from that one person, uh, one property, the risk has generated that much.

[00:05:06] Molly: And when you say 1 million in equity, for people listening who might not quite understand what that means, can you just break that down?

[00:05:12] Arjun: Absolutely. So that's, if you buy a, a single property, let's talk about that example. A million dollar property in value, that when you have that million dollar property in value.

[00:05:22] If that property has increased in value by a million dollars and it's now worth 2 million over 3, 5, 7, or 10 years, it's now that gap between the purchase price and how much you purchased it for is that growth. Mm-hmm. And then that also your equity, 'cause you've now got that increased $1 million. And what people traditionally do is if they don't have a huge income or a huge deposit at all times.

[00:05:48] Yes, the income can support their borrowing part, but they need to get a deposit for their second or third or subsequent properties. And that's where equity can come in, Andy. 'cause if you now have that property from, say 800 [00:06:00] K has gone up to a million, that's 200,000 in equity. You can access up to 80 to 90% of that money from a line from the bank.

[00:06:09] Sure, you're gonna pay interest on it, but now you can use that money as a deposit and put that towards the deposit for the next purchase. And that's how Lorna was able to massively reduce the time it took. Purchase multiple properties.

[00:06:19] Molly: Okay. Awesome. And could you just maybe just give us a quick overview of where did she buy, did she buy in the same state?

[00:06:26] Were they similar types of homes?

[00:06:29] Arjun: Yeah, so that's a, that's a big one, Molly. With regards to purchasing property, it's unlikely that your backyard is the best performer every single year. So you've gotta go nationally. Uh, we purchased our first one in Adelaide, then we'd even purchased another one in Adelaide.

[00:06:43] We saw the cycle trends in 2019 saying that that was gonna be one of the better cities. And then we moved over to places like Brisbane and Victoria and Bendigo. So the key here is she's now across three states. When you think of the three markets, we purchased her four states, if you include her own [00:07:00] property.

[00:07:00] But the main thing is diversity lets you get the right cycles at the right time.

[00:07:05] Molly: Awesome. And do you believe that property will always go up in Australia even with like potential government changes?

[00:07:13] Arjun: I'm definitely telling you now, it doesn't always go up. Property goes through flat periods, declines, increases in value.

[00:07:21] There are some cities, Melbourne, for example, has not increased much in value over the last seven years. Sydney and as well declined the between 2019 and 2020, but that's just the short moments. If you zoom out over 20 to 30 years, property investing has been proven in Australia. Depending on which city has had growth growths of between five to 8% per annum over a 30 year period.

[00:07:46] And so the main thing there is to recognize property through GFCs, through covid, through lockdowns, through wars, through major policy changes. It's being resilient. So the key is though, if we can take law as example to [00:08:00] diversify, you just increase the chance of something always growing in your portfolio rather than everything like just coming back down or going up.

[00:08:08] We want to see different things happen at different times.

[00:08:10] Molly: Awesome. And so recently on the podcast we had Eliza Owens from CoreLogic on who was awesome, and she was talking to us about some of the states that had been performing really well, which were, I think it was WA SA in Queensland. I don't know if you can share with the audience, but where do you think it's worth buying?

[00:08:31] I mean, I know it's a question you probably get asked all the time. It's a question everyone always wants to know, like. Where to buy, but is there a particular place we should be looking to buy? Or is it dependent on then what you are buying in that location?

[00:08:44] Arjun: So firstly, Eli Owen, a great commentator.

[00:08:47] Mm-hmm. So for those that didn't tune into that podcast and I've heard you mention Renee, I totally recommend you do tune to episode 'cause Steve drops a lot of gold. But with regards to my thoughts, there are some similarities to what she said, which is [00:09:00] the performance for 2025 are still likely to be the market sitting in wa.

[00:09:05] Queensland and South Australia. But let me go that little bit deeper and explain a few cities that are standing out. So wa, you've got three standout cities, obviously, Perth, Bunbury, and Geraldton. If you're heading over to Adelaide or South Australia, you've got Adelaide, Mount Gambia, and Barasa Valley.

[00:09:23] And then if you're heading over to Queensland, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg. Toowoomba and Brisbane. Now, that's in order as well. I'd say the Townsville, Rockhampton are the highest performers of that market for 2025, but all of the cities I've mentioned do have some strong trends.

[00:09:44] Strong trends in play. Bundaberg as well expected to do pretty good, but not as good as the other markets that I've mentioned in terms of that three states, they're the leaders by far for capital growth in 2025, but this is now where it comes down to your own [00:10:00] portfolio. If you're an investor, you've got two approaches you can take.

[00:10:04] I wanna compete with everyone, see dozens of shoes at the open home and go, ah, here we go again. Or I want to go and buy in a buyer's market. Now you might go, why does anyone want to compete with someone? Well, there's never been a time in Australian history where capital growth has existed without competition.

[00:10:23] The only way houses rise in value is through competition frenzy. People missing out, people losing. So if you want higher certainty of capital growth, Queensland SA Wa, they're calling your name based on intensity and competition There. But other people go, well, it's been a few years of some good growth. I don't prioritize high growth in the short term right now.

[00:10:45] Allocated, weight it out. I wanna snag a good deal. And if you are looking at where the good deals lie, well, they're across Tasmania, they're across Victoria, they're across a CT, they're across Northern Territory and parts of regional New South Wales too. In Victoria. There's [00:11:00] Bendigo, Albury, Wodonga, Mildura, GL, Melbourne.

[00:11:03] All of these cities are demonstrating low market pressure. But that's also a good timing if you're trying to get into a market from a negotiating or buyer's market. So that's where it depends on where you are, but the highest growth rates are in that first batch. Is it?

[00:11:17] Molly: Okay, great. And with those cities, is that like the overall average or is that, are we talking houses as opposed to all

[00:11:25] Arjun: houses?

[00:11:26] But, um, I think like, yes, apartments are being, it is like this, wow, it's so affordable in comparison houses. Surely it's gonna go up. There are some cities where big comebacks occurred in apartments like Brisbane apartments were really subdued and they jumped up in valley. Right. Then you see, um, some parts of even per apartments, they're starting to jump up quickly.

[00:11:45] Yeah. But the main thing is I'm a believer that. If you are just catching the jump up, you are missing out a long term thinking. Yeah. The key here is that apartments over like 40 years of investing in Australia have underperformed against houses. Yeah. And so if [00:12:00] you have one big lag gap and it catches up, are you really winning that much?

[00:12:04] If you take a 10% catch up? You just called up amp duty lawyers property, um, piston building reports, buyer's agent, sales agent, capital gains tax selling lawyers, repairs, like that first 10 to 15% catch up Yeah. Is just paying for transacting on property. And so I think the main thing people should consider is going, where can I get long-term gains?

[00:12:28] Mm-hmm. And it's houses. And if you don't have a budget for houses in the city. I gave a few cities with budget more flexible for houses.

[00:12:36] Molly: Awesome. And Arjun, I know you do, you, you, you almost call yourself a data, well, you do call yourself a data company as well because you guys look at so much data across Australia.

[00:12:48] So for people who are like, yeah, I think I wanna use a buyer's agent, are there any tips you would give when looking for a buyer's agent, especially around fee structure? And are there any red [00:13:00] flags? 'cause I've heard, like, obviously you guys do fantastic. You are, I believe the number one buyer's agent voted twice in a row in Australia, but.

[00:13:10] I've also heard stories where people have done a course online and they're calling themselves a buyer's agent. So how do you pick a good buyer's agent and and what kind of fees would you expect to pay?

[00:13:20] Arjun: Let me start off with some red flags that answer that question on like, how do you pick one? Firstly, if you are not paying a fee or that buyer's agency is receiving money in other ways, then you are not the client because remember.

[00:13:34] The seller pays the sales agent. The seller is the client, not you. Yeah. But if you are paying the fees for a buyer's agent, you are the client. And an example is when places sell off the plan, apartments or townhouses, they end up saying their buyer's agents, but they're taking a commission from the developer to sell you that.

[00:13:52] So they're actually a sales agent, but helping the buyer out in that moment of time. So that's the first red flag. The second red flag [00:14:00] is that. You may go off your hunch and say, I want to invest in this city. Then you go in and you take a Google search and you get to that buyer's agent of that city, and then you assume that that city, that buyer's agent well connected, they're gonna look after me.

[00:14:16] But what you've missed is two parts. I'm confident in you, in your research to understand the whole country and make sure that that's the one or not. And secondly, how confident are you that a property in that market fits your overall property plan? So if you are not confident, guess what? When you speak to that person, do you think a local buyer's agent in the city of Brisbane is ever gonna tell you Brisbane's a bad place to invest in?

[00:14:37] They're never gonna say that. So now you're relying on so much of your planning, your strategy, your research. They're just gonna say, let's do it. So the idea there is that if you can say. You've had holistic research, had holistic support, and you feel like that's where they come in, great. But most national companies can also support nationally too, with their buying.

[00:14:57] It depends on your preference on that one. So I'm not gonna say [00:15:00] one's worse than the other, but I just don't want you to go into that. Not knowing your research, not knowing your strategy, not knowing your plan. So that's the second red flag. In terms of fees though, I'd say that the fees range between sort of 15,000 to $25,000 on a per property level.

[00:15:16] Yeah. But then there's also others that charge percentages. For example, if you have a large owner occupied to own that you're living in. You may charge a C buys agents charge a percentage, and that can be between 1.6 to 2.2% of the purchase price. So fees can vary, but in that investment landscape, that 15 to 25 is fairly normal.

[00:15:35] Molly: Okay. So there's not really, if it's fixed or it's a percentage, like both are Okay.

[00:15:41] Arjun: Yeah, it just depends on what type of place you're making. I think in an investment level, I'd say that commercials are quite common. Commercial property to have a percentage base. Yeah. But owner occupied homes to live in are also quite common for percentage based, but an investment residential property, building out your portfolio, it's [00:16:00] fixed fees to services.

[00:16:01] Molly: That actually leads really nicely into my next question, which is actually on commercial property because it's something we didn't touch on the road show, but something that I know a lot of ladies are curious about. How has the commercial property performed and is commercial property a good diversity strategy?

[00:16:20] So if you've got your one or two actual residentials, yeah. Is it. Commercial, something you could be looking at?

[00:16:26] Arjun: Yeah, so I can share a few things. So firstly, commercial where it's most commonly taken up by our clients and where they realize it makes the best fit for their portfolio is when they get to somewhere between three and five residential properties.

[00:16:39] At three and five residential properties, you are probably gonna have an asset base of total pool of value of that two to $5 million. And so at that two to $5 million, this is where people are saying, I feel comfortable to start looking at cash flow rather than gross. 'cause how much more you're gonna keep adding up and it, how much more of a difference does that make?

[00:16:57] So three to five seems to be the sweet spot. Some kind [00:17:00] of get to that five to seven before they move because they feel like they're a bit younger, they have time to buy more residential, more growth. That's the key. The second type of person for commercial is if you're a business owner or highly paid corporate professional and you feel like you've got your home.

[00:17:16] You're a little bit more mature on life in terms of age wise, and you're getting to a life stage where you're thinking, I don't have time to wait for map. Both cycles across presentation property. I want income to be my driver. I can always downsize my family home. I have my super, I have other things that are going on and I think altogether they'll help me clear my debt when that time comes to retiring.

[00:17:38] So I'd rather high income assets, 'cause I've got the capacity, I've got the equity, I've got the savings to do that. And so these are the two timings of entry. But where it really helps is the income game. Because when people build a portfolio, no one aspires to retire with lots and lots of debt. No one aspires to retire with wealth.

[00:17:57] That's just written on paper. People [00:18:00] probably almost always want an income stream to actually grow their retirement space. And if they don't want an income stream, they've got it coming from other sources, whether it be businesses, whether it be other types of investments. And so the main thing there is that if you're really looking to get income commercials that vehicle, because all of a sudden you could have a, you know, $2 million property.

[00:18:21] Then suddenly, instead of having 2% rental yields like they do for residential houses in Sydney, you now have six to 7% rental yields, even after bills such as property management, rate, council, water, um, maintenance, and even other bills like insurance, and depend the deal.

[00:18:40] Molly: Okay, great. Good to know.

[00:18:42] Arjun: And, and on that note, um, as well, Willie, the commercial budgets, I'd say that you don't wanna get into commercial property unless you've got that budget of 1.5 million and above.

[00:18:52] Okay. It's not to say that you can't get in at lower budgets, we've helped people. Mm-hmm. But usually what I've found is that those that we've held really [00:19:00] had a big residential base and are squeezing in that last purchase. Whereas when you get to that 1.5 million above in today's market, you are in a space where you get.

[00:19:08] The best type of deals. That's all.

[00:19:10] Molly: Awesome. And just to wrap up, let's say I am a potential client and I wanna use your buyer's agent service. Could you just kind of like step by step me what the process might look like?

[00:19:21] Arjun: Of course. So the first step is a consultation that's totally for free. Yeah. And this is where we're learning more about your goals.

[00:19:27] We're trying to understand where you're at now and what you feel is missing in order to get there. And if we are able to help. Then there's onboarding to actually work with us as a client. When you onboard, you get allocated a portfolio strategist who's your go-to relationship manager. They're here to say like, long term, I wanna help you get to end goals.

[00:19:46] Not just buy your property. Yeah. They'll map out a portfolio plan to see where you are today, where you're trying to get to, and reverse engineer the property purchases you need to get there. When to buy, when to not buy, when to sell. [00:20:00] Then we move over to the next part, which is providing you all the research from our research video.

[00:20:05] You're getting clear from our strategy, Kirsten, to saying for your portfolio, these markets seem best fit. Mm-hmm. Based on our research. Yeah. Then our acquisitions team come in, they start searching for the property, and anywhere between one to three or two to four months, we're able to go through a few places, list out some, and eventually secure it.

[00:20:23] Then the combination of client success team and acquisitions team come together to handhold from the purchase time all the way through the settlement, and finding a tenant and making sure everything goes smoothly, making sure that you don't have to have much on your hands, much on your plate. Know that they negotiate the best price, find something off market and take you through that process.

[00:20:43] Molly: Great. So then you actually help fill the, you find tenants for the property as well?

[00:20:48] Arjun: Yeah, we work closely with property managers to tell them, Hey, we think it could be this much rental.

[00:20:53] Molly: Yeah.

[00:20:53] Arjun: And then they'll have applications that come in and should the client feel confident, they'll just go off the decision on the property [00:21:00] manager, but should they need to check in with us to go, what are your thoughts on this?

[00:21:03] We're always there to help.

[00:21:04] Molly: Love that. Okay. So if you are wondering what the process is, that is the process. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Arjun. And you have a podcast as well. You've got a property. I do. Property Nerds.

[00:21:16] Arjun: The Property nerds. We're on Spotify, apple, if you wanna check it out, follow us. And also the Investigate podcast.

[00:21:22] So we've got two shows going on.

[00:21:24] Molly: Awesome. So if you love Arjun and what he's talking about and wanna learn more about property data, what's going on in the Australian market, definitely check out property nerds. And my final, final question I ask every guest on this show is, are you reading anything good at the moment or have you read anything that you think would be cool for the audience to learn?

[00:21:43] Doesn't have to be property related, but it might be.

[00:21:46] Arjun: There's a book and it could we get the title wrong, but a guy by the name of Dan Martel and it's about buying back time. I think that might literally be the title, so I have to double check that. But basically I was in the USA recently and I was in a bootcamp in [00:22:00] Miami and one of my, the coaches at the bootcamp recommended that book and it's changed my eyes as a business Don, in terms of the INT impact and EA can make on your life and your business.

[00:22:13] And I've now committed to that and literally this week we're launching a role, so, uh, that is gonna go up on the internet and, um, hopefully have the, the right EA for our business in January in 2025. So, yeah, look, it's, uh, it's something where the book was great. It was really helpful. That was just one segment of it, but I wanted to point that out because more important than reading is also the action you take from what you read.

[00:22:35] Molly: Fantastic. So buy back your time. And actually as well, I saw Dan Mattel was just on my Friend's podcast as well, the a hundred dollars MBA, so I might go check that out. So a few podcast recommendations, few book recommendations. Arjun, thank you so much for your time and sharing so generously all your knowledge with our listeners.

[00:22:56] Arjun: Thank you so much. Cheers.

[00:22:57] Molly: Awesome. And guys, if you wanna learn more about Arjun, I'm [00:23:00] gonna pop all the links in the show notes so you can just pop there and connect with him there.

KEYWORDS

buyer's agent, property investment, real estate, market trends, commercial property, investment strategy, property portfolio, buyer's market, property mistakes, investment advice