How Many Australians Own an Investment Property?

Property investment can be a hot topic of conversation amongst Australians, but it turns out roughly just 1 in 5 households own an investment property – there's a few things we can learn from this.

Property investment can be a hot topic of conversation amongst Australians. Everyone has their opinion on how the market is going, and you often hear aspiring buyers worrying that they’ll be beat out of auctions by investors. So, it would be natural to think every second or third person has their hand in the investment pie, right?

But the latest statistics from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) tell a different story. According to taxation data from the 2018-19 financial year, there are approximately 2.2 million property investors in Australia.

That’s less than 10% of the population or roughly just 1 in 5 households who own an investment property.

Just who are these investors and how many properties do they own?

About half of the property investors in Australia are aged over 50; roughly 45% are aged between 30 and 50, while a mere 4.83% are younger than 30.

And out of all these investors, the majority – 71% – own just one investment property (to be clear, this is in addition to their principal place of residence). This is followed by 19% who own two, and less than 1% own 6 or more. That’s only 20,434 people out of the entire Australian population – a very elite group!

What are the key takeaways from this?

The first thing to realise is that not many people have as much property investment experience as you might think. While it’s tempting to have these discussions with friends, family or co-workers, ultimately your best bet is to stick with the experts who have years of experience and knowledge in this field.

You can also see that most people seem to stop after one investment property. I can only speculate as to why this is – did they not have the knowledge to go further or the confidence? Maybe it was both.

Of course, there’s more to investing than just the number of properties you have – other factors to consider include the quality of the properties, your finance strategies and whether you are comfortable investing into new markets.

Why Oli is your best go-to source for property information and education.

I’m something of a property guru, with 70 years of property knowledge and experience behind me. I’m here to be not just a mentor, but also a friend on your journey to long-term wealth, giving you both the tools and confidence needed to start building wealth through property investments.

With me in your corner, this doesn’t have to be stressful! I’ll take you through what you need to know step by step, so you can set strong foundations now that will pay off later in life.

Learn more about who Oli is to get started.

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SUMMARY

Property investment can be a hot topic of conversation amongst Australians, and it would be natural to think every second or third person has their hand in the investment pie. But the latest ATO statistics show just less than 10% of the population own an investment property – and there’s a few things we can learn from this.

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