Property expert whose six-year-old daughter bought a home shares when he thinks investors will return to Melbourne – realestate.com.au

A property investment expert is tipping investors will flood back into the Melbourne market ahead of predicted strong house price growth in the coming years.

Despite rising land tax costs and increased regulation of the sector, investment firm OpenCorp’s founder and co-chief executive Cam McLellan said his business was advising investors to buy in the Victorian capital ahead of expected future house price growth.

The firm works with mum and dad investors, retirees, businesspeople and professional athletes, including Horsham-born basketballer Mitchell Creek who plays for the Vancouver Bandits in Canada and the Melbourne Phoenix.

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The company’s analysts conduct in-depth research into Australia’s property market, covering population growth, housing supply and land availability to help clients decide where to invest.

They believe signs now point to Melbourne’s median house price growth surging in the next three to five years, or potentially even sooner.

Mr McLellan said although Brisbane and Perth were currently returning the best yields for investors based on typical rents, at about 5 per cent, he was advising clients to look to Melbourne.

“In the last few months, 70 per cent of our clients have purchased in Melbourne,” Mr McLellan said.

“And our clients, over the next 12 to 18 months, will be buying heavily in Victoria.”

Basketballer Mitchell Creek is among the professional sportspeople who engage OpenCorp’s services for investing in property. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images.

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Mr McLellan made headlines earlier this year after revealing how he and his wife Felicity helped their children, including their youngest daughter Ruby – then aged six years old – to buy a Clyde house as an investment for their future.

Ruby and her siblings Lucy, Gus and Hannah saved up $6000 of their combined pocket earned from doing weekly chores to put towards the $671,000 home.

The purchase effectively crowned Ruby as Australia’s youngest homeowner, at the time.

More than 90 per cent of OpenCorp’s clients invested in interstate property in the 2023-24 financial year.

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Mr McLellan said he would advise people with a diverse property portfolio to still invest some of their resources into Brisbane or Perth.

In the 2023-24 financial year, 92 per cent of OpenCorp’s clients invested in a property sight unseen, often outside of their home state.

Mr McLellan said anyone wanting to buy an investment should seek advice from experts with a successful track record.

Since January, Victoria’s largest volume auction real estate group Ray White has recorded 31.4 per cent of its Melbourne auctions as investors selling up, equating to 573 residences.

This figure stood at 29.7 per cent in 2023 and 24.6 per cent in 2022.

Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader said the agency has seen a large uptick in the number of residential investors moving to commercial property to diversify their portfolios.

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Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader said the state government’s land tax increase on secondary and investment properties worth $50,000 or more, reduced from a $300,000 threshold before January this year, was a major reason Victorian investors were selling and looking to buy interstate.

“For investors who spread their risk across states and take advantage of land tax thresholds, the additional cost has seen many review their portfolio to remove this cost,” Ms Rader said.

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