BRETT GRONK | Real Estate | Contact
For generations, home ownership has been engrained into the Australian psyche.
It is the yardstick by which most other achievements are measured. If you do not own property, you are nothing. It’s true that now is the easiest time in a long time to get aboard the property train. It’s part of the reason why the value of property has gone up so high so quickly.
Property underpins a person’s self-worth and that cannot be more true for Martin Dollrimple, of Betoota Heights.
Late last year, the 35-year-old personal trainer decided he was sick of seeing other people get rich playing property so he took the plunge.
He bought a second-hand apartment that was built some twenty years ago during the great Australian construction boom at the turn of the millennium.
For years and years, Martin lived a frugal lifestyle. He told himself that one day, it will all pay off. Either Real Estate or Domain would do a feature article on him. The apartment, which is worth five times his annual salary, will only go up in value. It might even be worth a million dollars one day.
But now, he says, as the world goes to shit, he wishes he just didn’t buy it.
“I had most of my money in index funds before I ripped them out to buy the flat,” he said.
“So far, I think my property investment has gone backwards. Whereas, if I sold at the end of last year and just waited for a while, I could’ve bought in the dip when lockdown happened and now I’d have three house deposits with the way the market’s gone,”
“But when I bought the house, I felt like I was a success. Now, I’m worried that I didn’t do the right thing by buying a twenty year old apartment. Please tell me I did the right thing.”
More to come.
