Page 12 - Tropic Magazine Issue 223

TROPIC • REAL ESTATE

Wake up

investors!

YIELD PLAY

Sarah Mort from MiHaven talks
about the comfort of bricks and
mortar versus the stock market and other amenities. Most of these
temporary workers will never become
rollercoaster. owner-occupiers in Cairns but they are
Words: Sarah Mort in the rental market. So long as Cairns
needs a top-up of professional workers
I’ve often described the Cairns property to support the economy, this trend is
market as being “bipolar”; cheaper here to stay for the medium to long term
(on paper) to buy old existing houses (5-10 years).
compared to the cost of developing new The Cairns market is full of opportunities
stock. We’ve all endured the curse of for positive yield plays and as long as
the local valuers who, in reality, have a
near impossible task of supporting new our investment portfolios or have time to
benchmark values as there is so little think about building a strong investment
depth to this market for comparative Cairns has become one platform that will support us through
sales. This combined with a range of our longer than expected retirement.
other factors – from the banking royal of the best investment I don’t think we can just assume our
commission to soft population growth - opportunities in superannuation alone will see us
has seen a slowdown in new residential through.
construction with building permit Australia If you live in Cairns or have easy access
approval numbers plummeting since the to the local property market, I strongly
GFC. These factors are causing massive Craig Covaciah, encourage you to consider buying a new
Uberx General
pressure on the availability of housing Manager property. Yes, I have a vested interest
stock, resulting in rental vacancies as here as the co-owner and founder of
low as 1% with little prospect of positive the Federal Government leaves negative MiHaven along with my business partner
change for a while. gearing as it is, the attractions of tax and life partner, James Mort. However,
With this in mind, at the end of 2019 I had depreciation offset from the acquisition we are practicing what we preach. Since
a light bulb moment. I finally realised this of new property is very much the blue- developing our first MiHaven inner-city
town is a yield play rather than the more sky opportunity for property investors home in Parramatta Park, we’ve seen
traditional attraction of capital growth. looking for alternative investment our rental income increase substantially
Cairns properties do benefit from capital options. Especially those of us who have providing weekly income of $630 per
growth, but not to the crazy degree we see money sitting in term deposits lucky to week for a two-bedroom; two-bathroom
in Melbourne and Sydney. Here, the yield be earning 2%. home. For us, we will never sell and
return is incredibly positive compared to Don’t just take my word for it. Urbex will continue to build up a portfolio of
our capital cities. General Manager, Craig Covaciah, properties that will eventually provide us
A key trend in Cairns is the continual has a very similar view: “Cairns has with a steady income in our retirement.
growth and frequency of our transient been affected in that it created an Property isn’t for everyone, but for those
population. At the start of every year, over undersupplied market, bringing the of us who prefer a tangible asset of bricks
200 foreign doctors arrive to work here opportunity for investors to buy land and mortar, it can definitely work.
for a period of 12 to 18 months, Defence and get construction finance to build
personnel work on short term posts, new homes. Rent rates have gone up,
new teachers and many other health the vacancy rates have gone down and CHECK OUT: MiHaven’s latest
professionals are also posted here for Cairns has become one of the best innovative development at 7-9
work. These new workers need housing investment opportunities in Australia.” Denbeigh Street, Parramatta Park.
located close to the city, good schools Our busy lives mean we rarely review

12 • Tropic • Issue 23