Australia Is Heading Into Recession in 90 Days

George Markoski Hello and welcome to the Positive Property Show. Tonight’s topic is Australia is heading for a recession in 90 days. Hi, Christina. Welcome. Christina Markoski Good afternoon, George. This is a depressing topic, but at least we’ve got 90 days to prepare and get ready, by the sounds of that. George Markoski Yes. Now, if everything goes the way it is at the moment, we’re going to be heading into recession in 90 days. But what I’ll talk about is not only why we’re heading for a recession, but also what does it mean for you as a property investor? Because that’s the important thing as well, right? Because basically the economic cycle with the world, with Australia, it goes through seasons, right? You know, let’s say you’ve got summer when it’s really good and then you got slowing down, which is autumn, then you got winter when it’s negative, then you’ve got spring and you’ve got summer. Now always after summer there’s an autumn and after autumn there’s a winter and after winter there’s a spring and after spring there’s a summer. Christina Markoski So it’s always going to come back around like a circle. George Markoski It’s always going to come back around and it’s in cycles. And what we need to realise as investors is that the market’s either going up or it’s going down. It’s got its different seasons. But also interest rates have got their own cycles as well. They’re either going up or they’re going down, property price going up or down. So there’s a lot of macro and then micro factors involved, right? And what happens is people get overexcited and greedy when property prices are going up. Christina Markoski Of course. George Markoski And then when we’re heading into recession, people get fearful and they’ve got fear. Right. And the thing is, fear and greed are not good emotions to have when it comes to investing. Christina Markoski Well, they’re always the extremes that people seem to exhibit. And I feel like a lot of people have also got that herd mentality. Whenever people are panicking, it creates more panic. And it’s just this never-ending cycle that perpetuates itself almost. George Markoski It does, it does. And what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to take off our emotional hat and put our investor hat on. And when you put your investor hat on, total peaceful. Imagine sitting there like a monk. Right. And you’ve got your Dave Asprey glasses at the moment, which is really cool because I remember when I was in London, I had dinner with Dave Asprey from Bulletproof Radio and he was wearing those glasses, true to form. Really cool guy, really smart man. So there’s seasons and what it comes down to is this. And I’m going to go through all the facts and figures in a minute because there’s a lot going on at the moment in the world. George Markoski We’ve got the Strait of Hormuz that keeps opening and shutting and we’ve got wars. Christina Markoski We’ve got the Middle East war at the moment, which is affecting a lot of stuff. George Markoski Well, exactly. And there’s a lot going on and people panic when a lot’s going on and get scared. And the thing is, what needs to happen is one thing — you’ve got to get down to the principles and really follow the core principles of investing. Because there’s money to be made whether there’s a recession or not. Because in Australia, 15,000 markets all got their own little property clock going up. Christina Markoski There’s always going to be opportunity whenever there’s a crisis. George Markoski That’s right. And when there’s no crisis, there’s opportunity as well. And when things are going well, there’s opportunity. When it’s going bad, there’s opportunity. And with our strategy at Positive Property, the strategy I’m using is what all the richest people in property have done. Because if you look at Australia, there’s a lot of people that came in from the Balkans, from Greece, Macedonia, Italy, in those areas, immigrated to Australia and they were really old school. What they did is they accumulated property after property and became very wealthy with the long-term gain. Right. Because you’ve got lots of different people talking about different strategies. You’re flipping, you’ve got NDIS, you’ve got multiple rooms and you’ve got renos and your development, and there’s all these different strategies. Airbnb, lots of stuff. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski And when you look at all of them, the real one that really works is the old basic method of buying a property and holding it long term. Because the long term, that makes your money. Simple. Christina Markoski But it works. George Markoski Yeah, it’s very simple. Christina Markoski Not simple, yet effective. George Markoski Look, it’s not that exciting. It can be exciting because when your property goes up, it’s exciting, but really it just sits there and grows. But you don’t really get that involved. Right. And what amazes me is people want excitement sometimes. You know what I mean? Like, it amazed me — I remember we had these clients and they bought a property and they ended up selling it to my business. Remember that? And what happened was that property now has doubled, but they spent that money, bought a business, went broke, and now they’ve got nothing. And I feel sad for them because that’s the risk you take. Christina Markoski When you’re doing a business. George Markoski Yes. And if they just kept that property, kept their jobs and did nothing with that money, they would have doubled it, but instead they got it and worked really hard, quit their jobs and did that. And the thing is, I’m not having a go at people having a go. Right. I actually want to encourage people that want to start their own business, do something they love, but you’ve got to do it from a position of power. And what I say to people is this — if you haven’t done this already, this should be your number one goal. You know what that is? Replace your income through property. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Because once you replace your income through property, then you can go do those other things. Christina Markoski Once you’ve got multiple properties, then you’ve got enough to leverage and play around with. Because you’ve got a safety net of having so many properties that you can afford to do those sorts of things. George Markoski Exactly, exactly. Christina Markoski And one or two, it’s a lot riskier. George Markoski Yes, that’s right. And if you get a property portfolio, then you’re bulletproof. Christina Markoski If you’ve got 10 properties and then you sell one to do a business, it’s like neither here nor there. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, you’ve still got nine other properties that are supporting you long term. George Markoski That’s right. Wouldn’t it be a great position where you can sell one property? It doesn’t matter. You can just sell this property for a million dollars, take the equity out and it won’t make any difference. Christina Markoski Just for the fun of it, you could go start a business just for entertainment purposes. George Markoski Well, that’s the best way to do it. You know what I mean? Find your passion, right? Christina Markoski Use property to fund that dream. George Markoski Exactly, exactly. And that’s what you should do. So that all said, what I’m going to do is let’s start the presentation. Let’s talk about what’s happening in the world. Christina Markoski I’m excited to see some stats actually. George Markoski Yes. So recession in 90 days — what it means for property. We both look very concerned there. Very concerned. Okay, what we’re covering tonight: state of the world, Trump, RBA, building material inflation, supply collapse, what it means for investors and some real people, real results. Okay, let’s go. State of the world, the macro factors driving Australian property. Okay, so the oil crisis. Oil prices are rippling through global supply chains and basically every part of our society depends on diesel and depends on transport. Right. Fertiliser, oil, plastics. So there’s a lot of knock-on effects but the oil crisis is creating a lot of inflation. Christina Markoski That’s what we’re seeing worldwide. George Markoski Yeah. Now look at this. So the Strait of Hormuz — a lot of countries rely on fertiliser coming from the Strait of Hormuz. Right. Christina Markoski Wow. So we’re the third highest. George Markoski Yes. Right. So now this is the deal though. If you don’t get fertiliser on time when you need it, planting season. So this is what you need to plant — to plant, you need fertiliser. You also need diesel for the tractors and everything else like that. And obviously you need water too, which we’ve got. So without the diesel and the fertiliser, if you miss the planting then you’ve got 12 months of food shortages. That’s a long time. Right. And it’s amazing that Australia relies on 32% coming from there. Christina Markoski Huge percentage. Yeah, I’m shocked it’s that high. George Markoski Look at that. Sudan, Sri Lanka, Australia, United Republic of Tanzania, Somalia, Pakistan, Thailand. Well, Pakistan have broken a deal at the moment with Iran and America. No wonder they want to get their fertiliser. They’re like, we need this. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Consumer confidence is collapsing, so inflation is sticky, petrol’s climbing. The RBA has got a catch-22. Right. They cut rates, inflation stays hot and the currency weakens. Hold or hike and mortgage holders get crushed. So what do they do? They’re really stuck and they don’t know what to do. I know what I’d do. I’d cut rates a little bit. Just ease them down a little bit. Not overboard. What they need to do is just slowly bring that down. Christina Markoski That would bring back more confidence in the market and have people not being so tight with hoarding their money because they think it’s all doom and gloom as well. Because you’ve got to keep that money circulating. George Markoski Yeah. So the RBA, they’re pricing a few more rate hikes this year. They reckon it could become an 18-year high if we get a few more rate hikes. That’s what they’re factoring in. Now I’m going to say contra to this, that I think if we hit a recession, then guess what’s going to happen? Christina Markoski They’re going to have to start cutting. George Markoski They’re going to be cutting rates. Exactly. Christina Markoski They’ll have no choice. George Markoski Now look at this. Building a house just got $35,000 to $50,000 more expensive. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Right. That’s what they’re predicting. That’s because of the Middle East conflict, the tariffs and everything else. Christina Markoski So the supply chain for everything. George Markoski Well, yes, that’s what they’re saying. That’s pretty huge. Right. So what does that mean? Well, if this crystallises, and this is what economists are factoring in — and the fact of it is, oil prices have dropped already since they announced the ceasefire. So this all may not happen. This is worst case scenario if they don’t open the Strait. Right. But at the moment they’ve got a ceasefire. They’ve limited the opening. They’ve got two weeks of a ceasefire. So if this holds and they do a deal, then this is not going to happen. But if they don’t do a deal, this could well happen. And I spoke about this a couple of weeks ago where Reece Group building material prices are up 30%, just with Reece. Right. They’re the plumbing and building supply company in Australia. Right now, I think they were very quick to do this. George Markoski Like the Strait of Hormuz was closed for a week and then suddenly they had any excuse to put their prices up. Right. Christina Markoski I just feel they did a little bit too fast. George Markoski Now, Albanese’s 1.2 million homes target. Right. We need 240,000 homes per year. We’re well behind it. And keep the comments going and the questions. I’m going to go through them after the presentation. Right, so this is what’s happening to property at the moment. Dwelling approvals are still flat on the floor. Now what needs to happen is approvals lead construction by 12 to 18 months. Right. So what you’re looking at here, these are the dwelling approvals of Australia and as you can see, they’re quite low. But not only that, you know how they lead to construction in 12 to 18 months? Well, we’ve been through this before. It’s taking longer than that to build now. So it’s actually taking even longer than that for the approvals to come through and then actually build, and literally they’re stuck. Right. So this is the thing. George Markoski You can see builders are not starting to build. Right. You know why? I don’t believe they can make money. Marginal costs are up, so they’re not going to start. So this pipeline is a — I call it a pipe dream. Right, so what’s happening? We’ve got all these approvals and people are saying they’re going to start building them, but they’re not starting. This is a big issue. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Yeah. So we’re 28% short of completions in a single year. Right. So these 28% are not even getting built. Christina Markoski They’re non-existent. George Markoski Yep. So the red line is what we need and the blue line is what we’re building. Christina Markoski And look at the gap as of where it goes off to 2025. It’s like it’s getting bigger. George Markoski Yep, exactly. Now see that gap between the blue and the red? At the end, because the blue line is approvals, and the red is completions, as you can see now approvals have gone up, but completions have actually gone down. Right. So that gap is money. Remember how we always talked — when there’s a gap in the market, there’s money. That gap pushes pressure on really strongly. So the house pipeline is bulging, but it’s not shipping. Right. Because you look at the dwelling pipeline and you’re like, wow, there’s a lot in the pipeline. There’s a huge pipeline of approval projects, but they’re stuck. Christina Markoski But what percentage is actually making it through to completion? George Markoski Not enough. Right. And this is the problem. They’ve got labour shortages, finance shortages. Because you need to finance the project. So approved is not the same as built. Right. Obviously it used to be. But now it’s very different and with all the builders going broke, people don’t want to start because they’re not going to start unless they know they can make a profit. And I don’t blame them. Christina Markoski It’s becoming too high risk almost. George Markoski You don’t want them to start unless they’re making a profit. Otherwise imagine starting a build and then they go broke. No one wins out of that. So in the last 18 months, nearly 100,000 fewer homes were built than needed. That’s the shortage. Right. So what’s happening is the actual gap — the Albanese government said we are going to fix that gap and we’re going to build more. It’s actually getting worse every year, not getting better. Isn’t that crazy? So remember I was talking about the housing shortage 10 years ago. Christina Markoski Yes. George Markoski And I was talking about housing shortage 10 years ago, I was saying there’s a housing shortage, you’re going to make money out of property. Well, there’s still a shortage, but it’s even bigger than what it was 10 years ago. So this is not my forecast. This is using the government’s own numbers. So look at this. New South Wales 32,000 shortfall. Victoria 5,000. Queensland 15,000. WA 3,000. SA 4,000. Tasmania 3,000. The ACT has done well, only 327 shortfall. But look at New South Wales, 56% of target completed. Nearly half. Advertised rents have come back again. Right. So what happened was we had a bit of a dip and now they’re going up again and rent growth is re-accelerating. So it hit 5% in March. So it’s back. We had a little dip. It dipped down. Because what happens is it overcorrects. It went high, then rent came down a little bit, had a little dip when a lot of people were scared and then now it’s pumped back up again and that’s what happens. Christina Markoski It always bounces back. George Markoski Vacancy rates are back at historic lows. So they went up, they went back down again. Right. Because it’s never just a one line, it’s moving up and down as it goes. Christina Markoski Oh well, you see on the news about people living in their cars because they can’t get a rental property. It’s crazy. George Markoski Well, there’s generally nowhere for people to live. And this government is not doing anything about it at all. What they’re doing is just getting more people. And I’m going to show you about what’s happening with immigration at the moment. Crazy. Rental listings have collapsed as well. Fewer listings, more applications, rising rents. Christina Markoski The perfect storm. George Markoski So this is not just a one-off though, this is a structural problem with Australia. We’ve got serious issues and if the government doesn’t fix them, we’re going to have massive issues. And now what’s happening is the government is actually looking at capping capital gains tax concessions to 33%, but also they’re thinking of allowing you to negatively gear two properties and then cutting it off at that. Christina Markoski Wow. So talking about that for ages though. George Markoski Yes, but in five weeks time there’s going to be the budget. Now, if the government does this, which I think is — I’m looking for the right word here — really retrograde. It’s really silly. Christina Markoski Bad government. George Markoski Bad. Yep. So you look at this. Adelaide and Perth, the tightest markets in Australia at the moment for rental listings. Just really tight. But you can see this, every single place is down. Now look at this, net migration is pumping back up. So the upcoming federal budget is probably going to forecast net overseas migration above 300,000, up from 260,000 in the previous estimate. Every single one of these people needs a bed. More demand, less supply. The maths aren’t complicated, is it? So you look at this. Net overseas migration and net permanent and long-term arrivals is huge. Look at that red line. Half a million people off the chart. Half a million people in one year. Christina Markoski It’s literally off the grid. George Markoski That’s like half an Adelaide. Half an Adelaide in one year. Christina Markoski That’s insane. George Markoski Well, Adelaide’s 100 years old. It took us 100 years to get to 1.2 million people. Now it takes us two years, right? Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Now there’s the number that politicians won’t put in the headline. 494,000 arrivals in the year to January 2026, the highest recorded figure on record. Every one of them is a rental applicant first, a buyer second. So what’s going to happen is these people are going to come, they’re going to rent, then they’re going to work, get a deposit and they’re going to start buying property. So it’s going to be a long time before they buy property, unless for the rich ones. But that’s going to affect the market even more. So it’s got a double hit. So population growth versus the official forecast. Population growth is running materially above the official forecast used to underpin housing supply planning. In other words, the government is planning for a country that’s already smaller than reality. The shortfall in supply is being calculated against the wrong denominator. So basically the baseline population is actually running 15% higher than what we expected. George Markoski So cumulative net new supply minus new demand and the population growth scenarios over the housing accord period — what does this mean? A massive shortfall in supply, but not just in housing. This is a shortfall when it comes to housing, roads, infrastructure, water, power, everything. Right. Because people need all those things as well. You can’t just build a house and just move someone in. You need electricity, you need sewers, you need water, hospitals, roads, lights, everything. Australia’s land values just hit $8.3 trillion. Land has grown 832% in 25 years. So you look at shares, super, other non-financial shares of what they’re worth, deposits, dwellings, super — look how big super is. Super is pretty big when you think about it. Right? Christina Markoski Massive. George Markoski I mean, because land’s worth $8.5 trillion and super is worth $3.9 trillion, nearly $4 trillion. And what do you think’s happening with that $4 trillion? Tell me. Christina Markoski A lot of people are investing it in property. George Markoski So see that second biggest graph, that blue graph. And then you’ve got deposits, $1.74 trillion worth of deposits. Christina Markoski Where’s that going? Into property? George Markoski Well, property, shares, crypto, all sorts of different things. But yeah, this is growth of household assets. So people own their own land, own super, their own dwellings, they own deposits, their own shares, non-financial and other financial stuff. Let’s keep going. What it means for investors. Well, Sydney and Melbourne clearance rates are losing steam. Right. So what’s happening there at the moment? People that want to get involved, buy in Sydney and Melbourne. Now is the dip in Sydney and Melbourne. Right. Because that’s the window. What’s happening is it’s turning into a buyer’s market. Christina Markoski Mm. George Markoski Because let’s face it, Sydney and Melbourne are the two biggest markets in Australia. Right. And when do you get involved in Sydney and Melbourne? When they’re at 7 o’clock. Are they at 7? Some areas in Melbourne are at the moment. But I’m predicting that Sydney and Melbourne are going to be good buying over the next few years. Christina Markoski Okay. In certain suburbs, obviously. George Markoski Look, I’ve been talking against Sydney and Melbourne for a long time, haven’t I? Yeah, because they’re overpriced. Things are changing now. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski So listings are surging in Sydney and Melbourne. So basically this could be a bit of a recalibration in some of the suburbs. Christina Markoski Interesting. George Markoski And the fact of it is, me personally, I wouldn’t mind buying one in Melbourne and one in Sydney over the next year or two. Great way to get back into the market because long term it’s always going to be a good market. And this is the two-speed market we’re talking about. Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth have just been flying through. Sydney has got hardly any growth. Melbourne’s at negative growth. Christina Markoski Right, yeah. Okay, I can see why you’re saying Sydney and Melbourne, they’ve got opportunity. George Markoski Yes. Because remember this graph? 20 years ago it was Sydney and Melbourne that were massive. Christina Markoski And Adelaide and Perth were like the opposite. George Markoski And what I do is I like to look at the gap between historically without — because this is showing the growth. So this is not good enough. You’ve got to look at the historical. What you’ve got to look at is prices for each suburb and compare it to other places and look at the long-term effect. So they forecast Perth has got about 13% and Sydney’s going to be minus 6%. There you go. Christina Markoski Interesting. George Markoski Yields are getting smaller. That’s why you’ve got to be really careful where you buy. Now the fact of it is it’s going to cost more and more to own an investment property in the short term. What does it mean for us? Well, let’s keep going. The economy is contracting, consumer confidence has collapsed. GDP growth is collapsing. Inflation is crushing real wages. And I’m going to explain all this, what it really means because it’s important, very important. This one here — inflation is crushing real wages. What does that mean? This is an insidious one. This is one you’ve got to be really careful about. This is so important. This is what makes people poor. Look at that graph. This is what makes people poor. George Markoski So you look at Australian real wages, how they kept going up and then in 2020 they peaked and now they’ve just dropped off a cliff. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski I’ll explain what this means. Inflation is a very insidious thing because it’s like boiling a frog. What happens is you get a frog, you know what they say, you get a frog, you put it in cold water, put it on the stove and slowly boil it and it doesn’t realise and dies. That’s what inflation does to you. What happens is prices slowly go up and your real wage is shrinking, your cash is shrinking, your savings are shrinking and you don’t really notice it day to day, but long term, everything shrinks. And that’s the bad part. Right. Christina Markoski Your wage has got shrinkage. George Markoski Yes. And I’ll tell you the way to stop this anyway — if you want to stop shrinkage, talk to George. I’ll show you how to do it. Christina Markoski That’s because everything else is becoming more and more expensive, right? George Markoski Yes. Now, our hidden vulnerability is our fuel stockpiles. We don’t have enough fuel. And we’ve got this. Christina Markoski Discovered that recently. Not so hidden anymore. George Markoski What does this mean? Well, Australia is heading into recession. All the numbers are there and it’s going to be hard to not get into that recession. Next 90 days, right? Christina Markoski Is it going to take the full 90 days or could it happen quicker? George Markoski Look, it lags. It’s probably going to take 90 days. But what could happen? Iran, Israel and America could create a peace, could create a ceasefire. What’s happened recently? So Donald Trump has been going crazy about Iran on Truth Social and basically they’ve got a ceasefire and Iran have given a 10-point plan and he said it’s workable. So if they agree on this 10-point plan and they create this ceasefire and open up the Strait of Hormuz, that could avoid all the inflation and the recession and everything else that we were heading for. Right? And basically, if they create peace now, it could be back to business as normal, literally. However, I doubt that’s going to happen. Christina Markoski Everyone would love that, but it doesn’t seem realistic somehow. George Markoski I doubt it’s going to happen. What happens is it’s very hard to end wars. They’ve got a life of their own and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy for them to settle their differences. And unfortunately, it might drag on. You look at Iraq, that lasted 20 years. Afghanistan lasted 20 years. They take a long time, they take a lot of money. They’re burning a billion dollars a day in this war. It’s crazy. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski The only people that win out of this war are the weapons manufacturers, because now they’ve spent all their weapons and they need to make more, funny enough, isn’t it? Christina Markoski There’s always a winner somewhere, unfortunately. The house always wins. George Markoski Yeah. So I doubt it’s going to last. I doubt they can get to it. I hope they do. I really would love to see peace and less people dying and I would love to see everything go back to normal, but that probably won’t happen. So what’s going to happen instead? Well, this is the deal. This is going to be a re-enactment of what happened with COVID. Because COVID stopped supply and ramped up prices and created inflation. Right. And what happens when this happens is the governments print money and actually cut rates. So what I predict is going to happen is we’re going to have a slight dip in property prices like we did in COVID. And if you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss it completely. You don’t have to pay attention. And then we’re going to have a ramp up again. It’s going to go up. Christina Markoski That’s what’s going to happen, back like a pendulum. George Markoski And it’s going to come back. And the fact of it is there’s going to be some people sitting on the sidelines watching and watching the news and it’s doom and gloom everywhere. It’s terrible, it’s scary. And then there’s going to be the people that continue on and keep building their dream and keep working on replacing their income through property, one property at a time. And they’re going to be the winners out of this. The losers are going to be people that are too scared to invest or people that are going to try to time the market. Those people will never buy anyway. Christina Markoski True. George Markoski And that’s what’s going to happen. So that’s it. So let’s have a look at our case study. Let’s go through that. And then we’re going to do Q&A. Christina Markoski Cool. George Markoski Okay. Daryl De Haas from WA. So this is Daryl, and he’s a green belt now. He’s got four properties and basically he’s had $646,000 worth of growth in three years. And these are the three deals that he did. He got one in Kuraby, Queensland, settled in 2023, purchased for $485,000, $48,000 deposit, current value $792,000, capital growth $306,000 in three years. So this property made him roughly $100,000 per year. Right. Wow. Pretty cool. You look at that Kuraby property, right? Christina Markoski That should be $215,500 per year, which is fantastic. George Markoski So think about this. Most people don’t even make $100,000 a year. And this guy Daryl, what a legend. He joined the program, followed the system, had faith, and now he’s making more in one year per year than most people work full time for. Because then you’ve got Byford in WA, that settled in 2024. Purchased for $481,000, deposit $48,000, current value $685,000. That’s $200,000 in two years. That’s another $100,000 per year. Then we’ve got Caboolture, settled in 2025, $564,000, $56,000 deposit, current value $701,000. So this guy’s a legend. He’s done very well. And this is what investing is all about. It’s about buying the right property in the top 100, buying a property and just taking the time to do it. So he’s done very well. So that’s really good to see. George Markoski If Daryl’s on at the moment, I’d love to talk to you. If you’re on tonight, shout out and let’s go. There he is. Christina Markoski Hey, Daryl in the house. Hello. Your microphone. Daryl De Haas Is that better? George Markoski That’s better, Daryl. Christina Markoski Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear, Daryl. George Markoski We’re matching. Look at us. Daryl De Haas Hey, how good is that. George Markoski And look, just letting everyone know, we did not call each other and ask each other what we’re wearing tonight, did we? Daryl De Haas No, we didn’t. George Markoski Good. Just in case. Christina Markoski Anyway, congratulations, Daryl. Daryl De Haas Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. George Markoski I’d love to hear about your journey and about your story. How did you end up joining Positive Property? How did you find us? Daryl De Haas So going back a few years now, I reached my 50s and I had no super. I’ve worked for myself my whole life, never put anything away for super. And I was actually getting a little bit worried and concerned about what I was going to do in my retirement years. And I started looking at property. I bought a unit over here in Warnbro before I joined you guys. And it’s actually worked out quite good for me. That one’s grown from — I paid $180,000 for that and it’s now worth over $500,000. So that’s good growth on that as well. But I was just looking into property investments, listening to podcasts, and I heard about you guys. I thought I’d give you a go. And I think I spoke to Charmaine at first and yeah, haven’t looked back. Daryl De Haas I’m currently doing another one in Melbourne at the moment in Cranbourne. So I’ll have four or five under my belt by the time that one’s done. George Markoski Wow, that’s awesome. You’ve done well. And look, the thing is, a lot of people in their 50s are like, is it too late for me? Daryl De Haas Well, that’s what I thought. I kept thinking, oh, I’ve left my run too late. And talking to Charmaine and she’s going, no, you’ll be fine. And yeah, I just went for it. Best thing I ever did. George Markoski What was the hardest part? Daryl De Haas Just having the confidence to be able to do it. George Markoski Okay. So the confidence is the hard part, and the rest was easier. Great. Excellent. Daryl De Haas Oh yeah, look, you guys, the whole team — David from the finance, Charmaine, everyone — just great. They’ve been there every step of the way to help me through it, and yeah, it’s been easy. George Markoski Fantastic. Fantastic. What would you say to people that are thinking about investing in property and they’re probably uncertain, especially at the moment, with the world the way it’s going? Daryl De Haas Just do it. Just do it. The longer you wait, the further behind you fall. George Markoski Exactly, exactly. And that’s the whole point, because the quicker you start and the more you start building that portfolio of yours. Daryl De Haas Yeah, exactly. George Markoski And now you’re getting a fifth property, so that’s pretty good. So five properties you’ve done in how many years? Daryl De Haas It’s actually one a year. George Markoski Five properties in five years. Daryl De Haas Yeah. George Markoski That’s pretty damn good. Excellent, I reckon too. What’s your goal? How many do you want to get? Daryl De Haas My original goal was 10, but as I said, I’m in my late 50s now, just turned 59 actually, so I think I’m going to have to call it quits here at five properties. I don’t think I’ll get any more as far as serviceability goes as well. George Markoski But five probably sets you up pretty well. Daryl De Haas Definitely. George Markoski Because you’ve got so much equity in them now, as the equity grows, you’re going to get more rent and it becomes more positive, and that’s going to be quite a good little nest egg for you. Daryl De Haas Exactly. George Markoski Excellent. Daryl, thank you for sharing. Daryl De Haas Yeah, thanks, guys. George Markoski I appreciate you. Thank you. Christina Markoski All right. Let’s have a look at some questions. From Lisa — Blue Steel, look. George Markoski Yep, that’s right. It is. Christina Markoski What about CGT? That might come in. Okay, as long as you don’t sell. George Markoski Yeah, look, they’re looking at doing a 33% discount on capital gains tax. What does that mean for you? Well, we don’t normally sell anyway because we do the Elon Musk version of investing, where Elon Musk never pays tax because he keeps taking the money out. Right. Christina Markoski This is a great question from Kim. Should we pull out our equity now or wait for three months? George Markoski All right, look, I always say do it when you can, right? But your acquisition is not going to change much in three months. That’s the fact of it. Right. So what happens is, when property prices dip, it doesn’t affect all properties anyway. And a lot of the properties we’ve got in the top 100, a lot of them won’t get affected. Some will, some won’t, and it will be a blip. Because how long did it last in COVID? Most wouldn’t even know. Most people during COVID did not even realise that the property market dipped. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski I’m curious who realised. Type in the chat. I’m very curious to know who realised that the property market dipped during COVID. Okay, so far, no one. A few people. There you go. So a lot of our people knew. I’m very impressed. Christina Markoski Educated investors, of course. Got any high-density unit success stories? George Markoski We don’t really do high-density units, so I don’t have any of those. But we’ve got unit success stories, yes. Christina Markoski Okay, just scrolling down. Someone said, only because you told us. George Markoski There you go. Claudia said no. Look, high-density units — we don’t do high-density. Christina Markoski Oh, does Daryl get a freedom sword? Absolutely. We should organise that at the next members event. George Markoski Well, he does, when he officially retires. Christina Markoski Yes. George Markoski So when he officially retires from work, from doing his 9-to-5 or whatever he’s doing, then he gets the freedom sword. Absolutely. So yeah, great. Daryl, if you retire by October, you will get a freedom sword. Christina Markoski Go, Daryl. Congratulations, Daryl. A lot of love for Daryl, which is good to see. George Markoski That’s beautiful. Except we’re not allowed to do freedom swords in Australia anymore. Christina Markoski We might have to replace it with a freedom trophy or something like that. Can’t wait to retire. Yes. If not 2026, 2027. That’s all the questions. Everything else was just comments. George Markoski Okay. Yeah. So look, the replica sword though — it’s a replica sword, though. Yeah, I know it’s a replica, but replicas are illegal as well. That’s the fact of it. Replica guns are illegal in Australia. And so replica swords — a freedom Porsche, yeah. Christina Markoski Keep dreaming, Matt. George Markoski You know what we could do? You know those WWE freedom belts, the UFC, those big gold belts. Some people might not like that. We’ll see. Anyway, so look, that’s the state of the nation. That’s what’s happening. We’re going to keep everyone informed every week. What’s happening next week — we’ve got a really good session and we’re going to be talking about interest rates. We’re going to be talking about finance. Christina Markoski Okay. George Markoski And we’re going to be talking about a really clever way. This is the one thing everyone should be doing, right? Everyone should be trying to reduce your interest rate at the moment. Who wants to reduce their interest rate? Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Type in the chat and say yay if you want to reduce the interest rate. Christina Markoski Yes. Me. Yes. Daryl De Haas Yes. George Markoski Okay. Type in the chat — who hates having to fill out miles and miles of paperwork to reduce your interest rate? Christina Markoski Me. George Markoski Okay, this is the next question. Imagine if you could reduce your interest rate without having to fill out too much paperwork at all. Christina Markoski Oh, yes please. George Markoski And you didn’t have to go through all that. That’s what I’m currently doing myself to reduce my interest rates, because I can’t be bothered. And what I’m doing is I’m having a meeting with Carmine next Thursday, who’s running Well Street at the moment. And we’re going to share with you how you can also do the same. So you have to come next week. Next Thursday is going to be massive. It’s going to be very exciting. It’s going to be huge. The banks are going to hate us. Right? They hate it when we do this. Because every now and again I find a new way of cutting down rates and I’ll bring it out to you because I remember when the rates went down. George Markoski Remember we did those letters, emailing all the banks and writing to them and calling them? That worked well, a lot of people reduced their rates and saved money. Now we’ve got a new way of doing it. There’s a new product in the market that we’re going to use and it’s going to be very simple. I’m going through the process right now and it’s going to save me lots of money. And I like saving money because saving money is like making money. If I don’t give it to the bank, I get to keep it. Christina Markoski They help you keep it in your own pocket. George Markoski Fixed rates? No, I don’t like fixing rates. I tell you what, if you model fixing rates to variable rates, 80% of the time, you win by having variable. So I don’t fix, because the fixed rates, they’ve already calculated what they’re doing in the future in those rates. That’s the thing. So, look, that’s it for tonight. I want to thank everyone for coming along. It was one of those sessions we had to have. And this might be a recession that we have to have, but hopefully we avoid it. I’ll keep you updated. And let’s see, in 90 days, are we going to have this recession or not? Either way, what you need to do is you need to follow your plan and buy the properties that you need to buy in order to build your portfolio. That’s what it comes down to. George Markoski You’ve got to stick to the plan. You’ve got to have discipline because it’s the boring, basic work that you do as an investor. Christina Markoski Almost like sticking to a diet to get results. Stick to the plan. George Markoski Yeah. Look, if you’re a bodybuilder, what do you have to do? You just got to go to the gym every day and eat right. Funny enough, the number one thing in bodybuilding is eating. Christina Markoski As somebody who works at one of the big banks, I can tell you the banks always win when you’re fixed. George Markoski Absolutely. Christina Markoski Every time, it’s rigged. George Markoski Yeah, that’s right. That’s why I don’t fix. And I know some really, really successful investors that have fixed in the past and they lost money because of it and now they never fix. Yeah. So I just want to say, everyone, thank you. Lots of love from me and Christina and I’ll see you next Thursday night. Christina Markoski Thanks, guys. Have a great night. Bye.