Where to Buy Property in Australia in 2025: $500K & $1M Budget Breakdown with Arjun Paliwal

Wondering where the Australian property market is heading? In this episode of Get Rich, Molly Benjamin is joined by Arjun Paliwal, Director and Head of Research at InvestorKit, to break down the latest property trends. 

Whether your borrowing power is $500k or $1 million, Arjun shares smart strategies, property hotspots, and common mistakes first-time investors make (especially women!). They also dive into how to build a winning team, the power of frameworks, and a real story of a first-time investor who turned one property into four — and built over $1 million in equity.

If you're ready to buy but feel stuck, this episode is your sign to take action.

🔑 Topics covered:
✅ Australian property market update (July 2025)
✅ Where to buy with $500k vs $1 million
✅ Property investing mistakes to avoid
✅ Frameworks to help you take action
✅ How to build your investment team
✅ Inspirational success story from a first-time female investor

🎧 Tune in for expert tips and real talk about property investing in Australia — and why now might be your time to get started.

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 – Welcome to Get Rich & Molly’s Money Mission
01:18 – Market Update Intro with Arjun Paliwal
01:36 – Where Arjun Would Invest with a $500K Budget
06:38 – What to Buy with a $1M Budget
07:37 – Biggest Mistakes First-Time Investors Make
09:34 – Where to Start: Your First Steps as a Property Investor
13:12 – The 5-Point Buy-Ready Checklist
15:32 – Real-Life Case Study: Turning 1 Property into 4
16:31 – Final Pep Talk & How to Connect with Arjun

LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Arjun’s Property Podcast – The Property Nerds: https://www.investorkit.com.au/podcasts/

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

• Interest rate reductions are impacting the Australian property market.
• Mixed performances in major cities indicate a recovering market.
• Smaller capitals like Perth and Brisbane are still seeing price growth.
• Auction clearance rates around 60% suggest a balanced market.
• Investors should consider regional areas for affordable properties.
• Common mistakes include becoming an accidental investor.
• First-time investors often focus too much on their local market.
• Building a team is crucial for successful property investment.
• Avoid information overload by focusing on a single trusted source.
• Having a clear financial understanding is essential for new investors.

SOUND BITES

"Melbourne is recovering"
"Get your team around you"
"Know your numbers"

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Molly: Welcome to Get Rich, the podcast that helps you do just that. Get rich and stay rich. Hey, I'm Molly Benjamin. I'm the founder of Ladies Finance Club, one of Australia's largest financial education platforms for women. But before I started helping thousands of women take control with their money, I was a hot financial mess when it came to my own finances and not the fun kind of hot, more like crying in a supermarket, wondering where all my money went kind of hot.

[00:00:29] But here's the thing, if I can go from financial mess to owning a share portfolio, investing in property, and building wealth. Then you can too. My mission is simple to make women rich because when we have financial freedom, we have choices, confidence, and control over our future. Every week on Get Rich, I sit down with some of the best experts in the industry to break down how we can all start investing, growing our money, and creating long-term financial security without the jargon, boring bits or overwhelm.

[00:01:02] Because when women get rich, we don't just change our lives. We change the world. So if you're ready to start making some smart money moves, hit that subscribe button and let's get rich together.

[00:01:16] All right, it is time for another property update with Aja Paal. From investor Kipp, he's gonna be breaking down. If he had 500 K budget right now where he would be buying and investing the best spots. If you have a budget of around a million, what's happening in the Australian property market, what are the Australian current auction clearance rates?

[00:01:36] The one mistake first investors are making and how to avoid it, and the five point framework to help you take action if you're feeling stuck and you haven't done anything. I love this five point framework. Whether you're ready to buy your first investment or you are just curious and wanna start exploring the idea, this is a must listen episode.

[00:01:56] And also, we are very passionate about getting more women on the property ladder. So if you haven't yet, make sure you sign up to our online Wealth Summit happening on the 29th of August. Head over to ladies finance club.com to register for free. All right, let's dive in. So welcome back to the show, Arjun.

[00:02:14] Arjun: Thank you so much for having me again.

[00:02:16] Molly: Okay, so give us a bit of an overview of the current Australian market.

[00:02:20] Arjun: Of course. So I think the big thing right now is that early this year, the kickoff of interest rate reductions had come into play. Most recent meeting though, wasn't a cut, uh, which many people are thinking it will be leading to bigger cuts later in the year.

[00:02:35] I think right now, when it comes to the markets, we're seeing mixed performances, which is actually a good thing. So some of our cities are still a little bit oversupplied. Parts of Sydney, Melbourne are an example where their overall listings are still above some five year averages, but those markets are recovering and they are picking up momentum, which is a good sign to see when it comes to some of the smaller capitals.

[00:02:59] Molly, they've been really on a strong tier over the last few years, but they're still moving along quite nicely. Not as hot as they once were. Mm-hmm. But we still see. Some price growth occurring in these markets like the Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide, and that too well placed as well. It's just that it's not as strong as what we've seen, which is major double digit gains, but still moving in the right direction, especially with, uh, low supply and strong local economies.

[00:03:23] So I think another thing to look at when it comes to the market is also auction clearance rates. When it came to auction clearance rates for the last few weeks, they were trending pretty well. Towards this sort of early July period, they have softened a little bit with most, as per core logics. Auction results still sitting in the sort of sixties when it comes to the clearance rate numbers, which is just a bit above balanced, right?

[00:03:47] So it means that it's, it's a healthy market, but not super, super strong in some of our major cities, but also not that weak at all. I think when auction markets get into the seventies for percentage rates, that's when we're starting to see really strong conditions, which we've had a few weeks in depending on which week you pull from the last couple of months.

[00:04:05] Molly: And when you say CLO auction, clearance rates are at 60%, does that mean 60% of properties that are going to auction are actually selling?

[00:04:13] Arjun: Yeah, absolutely. So it's basically just, uh, the results that are actually getting to the other side. And, uh, when it comes to auction clearance rates, usually 60 to 65% is a balanced market.

[00:04:25] Yeah. And then above 65% is when things are a seller's market. And when it starts trending into the seventies and eighties, it's usually strong price growth to follow.

[00:04:33] Molly: Awesome. So we have Kate, she's got a 500 k borrowing capacity. What sort of properties should she maybe be looking at and what kind of location?

[00:04:43] Arjun: Yeah, of course. So 500 K is actually a very popular budget, but as the years have gone on, it's getting you less and less. Mm. However, there's still some good options across Australia that are proving to have some solid capital growth. Right now, a lot of eyes are set across regional Victor and New South Wales, and in particular in the 500 K budget mark and entry level asset, a house in the cities of like Mildura, Wodonga, or Aubrey.

[00:05:09] These three cities are actually providing some options, although you've gotta be prepared for an older home, maybe some slight cosmetics within 20,000 or 10,000 depending on the property, and likely a three bed, one bath as an inquiry level house. However, the other side of it is they're also renting for between four 80 to five 60.

[00:05:28] So from that perspective, it does mean the rental yields are healthy and it does allow you to hold the asset in the future as rates do come down with healthy growing rents. So those are a couple of regional centers standing out when it comes to houses in that budget. Surprisingly as well, there are some parts of the north.

[00:05:46] East and northwest parts of Adelaide. If you go further north towards the region of Elizabeth, whilst there is a market gentrifying, there are some houses in that five to 600 K mark and other markets I can shout out as well, are towards the fine North Queensland markets of Gladston, Townsville, and Rockhampton.

[00:06:04] Although, again, similarly, some early entry suburbs with renovation potential needs to be considered. I think the main thing right now is that it's. If you're going into 500 K price points, you've gotta be open to change a carpet, change some blinds, change a few taps, chuck in some ceiling fan like combos, things like that.

[00:06:22] Molly: Awesome. And let's say on the other end of the scale, we've got Sarah and Sarah's got that million dollars borrowing capacity. What kind of properties would you be and areas would you be looking at at that million mark? Would it change again?

[00:06:38] Arjun: It would change a fair bit. If I look at what's most popular right now for those coming into our team to speak with us with a million dollar budget, I'd say a couple of cities stand out and the first one is the market of Melbourne.

[00:06:50] Melbourne is recovering. A lot of signs are saying that it's gonna come back around for its run. It's already kicked that runoff. Although depending on where you go in Melbourne, there are some varying performance levels. Personally, I had the scenario for myself of having a million dollar purchase. Where did I go?

[00:07:06] Well, I purchased a house in Melbourne for just over $940,000, so right there in terms of that, and it just settled a few weeks ago. So I think from there, Melbourne is the most popular, but some other notable areas are the likes of Central Coast and Newcastle. They're more New South Wales markets also attracting a bit of interest in that million dollar price point.

[00:07:26] Molly: Awesome. And what in your opinion, are some of the biggest mistakes you see Aussies make, especially women when it comes to property investing for the very first time?

[00:07:37] Arjun: Yeah, the first time investor mistakes. We see them too often and unfortunately we end up having to play portfolio fixer uppers. Yeah, a lot in terms of what we do, but the first one is the accidental investor.

[00:07:50] We see this happen a lot. Like what we do is we see people go and buy a property to live in. Call it a first home, and usually when you're getting that first home, you are either into a stepping stone property, which is something that you like to call home, but you feel like it's not gonna be a forever home.

[00:08:07] And then you essentially go through an upgrade and you've now turned this property that you thought was a great home and you enjoy it and you lived in it. You like the area. Got your, found your coffee spots in bakeries, but then you essentially turned into investment thinking it would be a great investment.

[00:08:23] You've held this for so long, thinking that you're holding property for a long time, it's gonna do well for you, and it hasn't. And so this is a mistake many women and many Australians make, which is that I'm trying to keep that first property as a home, as an investment. And I really want that to stick with me.

[00:08:39] So that's one thing. The second thing that we see that's really common is that when it comes to the first time investing is people will usually just focus on their backyard. Yeah. Uh, if they're looking at their budget, they're basically saying, well, I live in Sydney, or I live in Melbourne, and I'm sitting here and going, well, my city has a few options here.

[00:08:58] I like and know this suburb. And then they go to whatever their budget can do in that suburb. So even if it was a great suburb. They see their price might not do what it needs to for them for a house. So what do they do? Let's buy a studio in that suburb. And as we know, studios and units have not done anywhere near as well as houses over the long term.

[00:09:18] And it sits people back, even though they thought they were in a great area and they could have been in a great area, but just the wrong asset touch.

[00:09:24] Molly: Awesome. And for someone who maybe hasn't bought their investment property and they've been thinking about it, but they're like, where do I even begin?

[00:09:34] What's like three things they can start with? Would it be like working out what the borrowing capacity is? Would that be step number one?

[00:09:41] Arjun: Absolutely. So getting your team around you would be step number one. So what we do at Investigate is we help clients build a team around them. Basically us from that buyer's agency perspective to help you get the right market, the right strategy, and have the right end goal.

[00:09:56] Reverse engineer, so you know what to actually buy at what price point and when. And then secondly is the finance team around you. So from our side, we're able to also say, Hey, this is what we can do from the finance front. That's pre-approval, that's borrowing capacity, that's also finance structuring what happens if you bought personally or in a trust, these different considerations to look at.

[00:10:17] So that's the first thing. And in terms of the first big tip, which is get that team around you. The second tip is actually a bit of what not to do. Many people. Want to do the right things and they have the right intentions, and so they go, well, I need to be better researched. I need to have better intelligence on this.

[00:10:33] I need to have better intel. I'm gonna go out there and find it. Outcomes, a hundred forums outcomes, many Facebook groups, many communities, all the Reddit friends at, yeah, Reddits friends at barbecues home. And the thing is, you've gone from saying, I wanna make a smart decision on this, which is the right intention, and I want to learn, which is also the right intention.

[00:10:55] But then expecting yourself to overnight learn or learn from a hundred of different opinions and actually get a good outcome is a completely different thing. And it's not something you should be doing. If you build a team around you block the noise, look at that singular opinion and back it. Because what happens is that the biggest paralysis isn't from whether they got the right or wrong information, it's 'cause they got too much.

[00:11:18] So that's the second tip I wanna share. The last tip I'd love to share is actually just knowing your numbers. Like many people think that they need a 20% deposit or they need to save all the stamp duty, or they need to have a million dollar budget. We just spoke about a 500 K budget today, still being possible.

[00:11:36] You know, you'd be surprised if you look at the actual dollars needed. You break down a 10% deposit and are comfortable with mortgage insurance. You break down the cost for professionals. Say if you look at a 600 K property, a 12% deposit, so 2% for mortgage insurance and 10% for the property is 72,000. Than if you plus buyer's agent, stamp duty, lawyers, pest, and building, suddenly within about a hundred thousand or a hundred to 120, if you wanted to have some buffers as well, you're able to get that next purchase.

[00:12:05] That could come from equity, that could come from family, that could come from savings and bonuses, tax returns, things like that over multiple years. But the thing is, when someone looks at that money and they're sitting in, say, a major city, they think that's not enough. And that's a big mistake as well for someone who hasn't bought a property.

[00:12:22] Molly: Yeah, it's so true. I've been having conversations with multiple friends and this keeps coming up. They're ready to buy, but something's stopping them. Like there's some kind of mental block there, and it's been like a few years now where I'm like, Hey, what's happening? And I don't wanna be too pushy. But I guess what advice do you have for someone who's just feeling a bit nervous or a bit stuck and they're just not taking action?

[00:12:46] Arjun: Mm, it's a big problem, Molly. It's a massive problem. Uh, I would say they lack frameworks. Yeah, frameworks have been the tool for me to go. I'm gonna act. And it's crazy because even today my wife and I, we humbly have a, you know, $20 million real estate portfolio and we still use frameworks. Like even with all this insights and, and even with all this research, our teams and experience, we are not just winging it.

[00:13:12] We are looking at frameworks and so I'll give you an example framework that could help someone who's stuck and they need that extra confidence to basically pull the trigger. Firstly, in this framework, you wanna create this like checklist, and this is your buy ready framework, right? This is your checklist to go, should I, can I buy?

[00:13:27] The first one is, do you have a 10% deposit plus costs? And the cost, you could round up to 7% to incorporate a buffer of the purchase price for a property, and that could come in the form of your own savings. Family guarantor or equity from another property. If the answer is yes, tech number two, if you were to settle on that property in a few months from now, say two months to search for it, two months to secure it and settle.

[00:13:54] Would you happen to have at least 20 to 20 5K cash left over as a buffer to make sure that you're okay for incidentals vacancies and just general life like interest, uh, bills coming from personal? Yes. All right. Tick number three is are you saving at least 1500. To two and a half K minimum per month after tax from your income right now.

[00:14:17] 'cause if you are in today's interest rates and negative cash flow, if you are negative cash flow between one K to two and a half K, depending on the property purchase size, you are gonna be able to handle that until tax returns come into the mix and you get some of that back, right?

[00:14:31] Molly: Yeah. Number

[00:14:31] Arjun: four is, do you have the borrowing capacity for a purchase?

[00:14:34] And number five is, do you have the team around you to basically go. I've outsourced to my professionals here in my team to help me take action so it's not on me to take action. Example, they've picked the market, they've picked a property, they built a strategy for me, so team borrowing, cash flow, savings, and risk management.

[00:14:56] I still follow the same checklist. Even after dozens of properties later in my portfolio and helping Aussies purchase 2000 plus properties, I still follow the same five point checklist. So you apply framework, you tick all five boxes. It's like, why wouldn't you?

[00:15:09] Molly: Absolutely. And I know they've pretty much, they could be in that position.

[00:15:12] The only thing that missing is the framework and the team. So it just shows how important it is to have the right people in your sphere. Absolutely. And finally, I guess, can you leave us on uh, hi. Can you give us a story about maybe a woman or a couple who you've helped where probably investing has changed their financial future?

[00:15:32] Arjun: Actually, one that comes to mind is a lovely lady by the name of Danny. Danny works at CBA where I used to work at, and uh, her and I have been friends for many years and she actually backed us in our earlier years. We kicked off investigate in 2018 and at 2020. Out of the lockdowns. She goes, I'm just gonna backage.

[00:15:53] I get it. And this is literally the lockdowns are happening. Yeah. She buys a property in Brisbane for just over 500 K and today that's worth just under a million dollars. Now, that's one property. It's the power of momentum from there. She used equity from that one property and purchased three more across Tamworth, Adelaide, and Rockhampton.

[00:16:12] Now together they're generated over a million dollars in equity for her, which has just been unreal over the last five years to go from a first time investor with an affordable Brisbane purchase to have four properties like that.

[00:16:24] Molly: Love it. And we just recently had James on the podcast, James Kerr, and he talked about how he went from.

[00:16:31] Just 40 K deposit to building his property portfolio. So definitely check out that episode if you haven't yet as well. Arjun, thank you so much for coming on and giving us that update, and it is so doable. This is what I really wanna get across. Ladies, if you haven't taken that action, if you're feeling nervous, fearful, that's okay, but get the right people in your corner, start taking action because if you wait another few years, I can assure you.

[00:17:00] You're gonna be in the same spot. So what are you waiting for? This is your little pep talk, your little wake up call. But thank you so much, Arjun. And of course, if people wanna reach out to you and your awesome team, where can they go?

[00:17:12] Arjun: I can learn more on investigate.com au and or connect with me on LinkedIn, which is Arjun Palawa.

[00:17:19] Molly: Awesome. And we'll also put links to where you can contact Arj and his podcast, and they also do a heap of free education and content, so we'll pop the links in there. Thanks so much, Arjun.

[00:17:30] Arjun: Thank you so much, Molly. Take care.

KEYWORDS

Australian property market, investment opportunities, first-time investors, property mistakes, mental blocks, success stories, property investment tips, real estate, market trends, financial growth