Why this property investor decided to buy in a suburb she's never heard of

11 JUL 2016 By Bianca Dabu 10 min read Investor Strategy

At 27, investor Niusha Zumbo has already been able to build a multi-property portfolio over six years, and as experience is the best teacher, she was able to prove that purchasing in an unfamiliar suburb can turn out to be a great idea.

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At the age of 21, Niusha knows that she had in her the passion for property. However, like many first-time buyers who have had no guidance in terms of investing in property, she was reluctant to make a purchase far from her hometown. Instead of buying an apartment in an unfamiliar suburb, she ended up settling on a four-bedroom house close to home.

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“At that time, I wanted to buy an apartment… but I didn’t really know anything about other suburbs. Being so young, I was too scared to go so far away from home,” she shared.

“It would have been about over $200,000 better off [than the property investment I actually bought].”

Fast forward five years later, Niusha learned her lesson and went on to continue her property investment journey with a much bolder attitude. In 2014, she was looking to buy another property purely as an investment when she stumbled upon a suburb she and her partner has never heard of. 

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Instead of turning the other way and investing in more familiar locations, the couple decided to look for opportunities in Schofields—a decision that turned out to be one of the best they made as property investors.

“We went to display homes. They said, ‘You know… we had a whole heap in Schofields and they’re all sold out. I look at my partner and said, ‘Where’s Schofields?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know but let’s go for a drive.’ Then we saw everything was getting redeveloped. I didn’t know anything about Schofields but I knew it was going to make us money simply because of everything just being redeveloped—there was going to be an Ikea and Bunnings,” according to Niusha.

She added: “We saw a couple of blocks that [haven't] been registered yet… We bought the block off-the-plan at that time for $450,000. I think right now… similar blocks on realestate.com[.au] are worth about $550,000 now… It’s all booming there. There’s so much going on.”

Niusha and her partner are now preparing to develop a property on the block they purchased—a project they would not even have thought to undertake had they not learned one of the most important property investment lessons early on.

Smart Property Investment’s Phil Tarrant advised all budding property investors: “If you can start young, start young. It’s an absolute must. You could get such a head start… That’s going to hold you good in the future.”

Tune in to Niusha Zumbo's episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about how working from the age of 12 set her up for success even in difficult circumstances and all the lessons she's learnt investing in property from the age of 21.

 

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