$65k a year earner reveals smart move that got him $1.85m in property

An Aussie man has revealed the unlikely way he snapped up three houses that get $72,000 a year in rent while earning a salary of about $65,000 a year.

Sydney-based investor Nafiz Chowdhury outside one of his properties.

A 30-year-old resident of southwest Sydney has revealed the unusual way he built a $1.85m property portfolio in four years while earning about $65,000 a year.

Nafiz Chowdhury’s properties include homes in Brisbane, Adelaide and Townsville and together they generate about $72,000 a year in rents.

That has meant he only needs to spend a minimal amount each month repaying his loans because the rents are close to the required repayments.

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And thanks to impressive value growth on the properties in recent years, he said a valuation of the portfolio this month showed he had nearly $500,000 in equity.

It’s an unlikely situation for someone who started investing in 2019 with barely enough savings for a deposit and stamp duty.

His borrowing capacity was also low. Working in a junior role at a bank, he was paid a total package of $70,000 a year, including super.

He said what he did have was determination and a strong drive to invest, which his parents had distilled in him from a young age.

“Coming from the Bangladeshi community (in Sydney), there’s always been a strong emphasis on investing in safer assets,” he said.

“Observing other people who had set themselves up well financially, I noticed they had all started their own businesses or invested in property. I couldn’t start a business, but I knew I could buy property.”

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Mr Chowdhury said his initial plan was to buy a two-bedroom unit within 20km of the Sydney CBD, live in one room and rent the other out, but he soon realised this was unrealistic on his $500,000 budget.

Mr Chowdhury first property was on a large block.

He decided a better approach would be to buy a house on a larger parcel of land in a growing market.

This led him to north Brisbane, where he purchased a three-bedroom house for $418,500 in 2019.

“There was a lot of government investment in the area and incomes there were good. It ticked a lot of boxes,” Mr Chowdhury said. “The house needed a few fixes here and there but it was otherwise ready to move into.”

He used a 12 per cent deposit (roughly $50,000), which he drew from savings he had acquired from numerous university jobs such as a maths tutor and clerk at a gym.

He borrowed $15,000 from his father to pay the stamp duty and other purchasing costs, including the services of buyer’s agency InvestorKit.

Getting a loan from the bank was relatively straightforward because the $390 per week rents covered his mortgage costs, he said. “The property was positively geared.”

He said he saved faster by limiting overseas travel and spending less on entertainment.

Looking back, Mr Chowdhury said he bought the property just in time to benefit from the Brisbane’s property boom in 2020 and 2021.

The property is now worth $720,000, just over $300,000 more than he paid. It rents out for $410.

The rapid increase encouraged him to buy a second investment property in 2021, this time a $492,000 house in Adelaide. He again used savings for the deposit.

“I saved very aggressively,” he said. “Another big part of being able to get the loan was that I was still living with my parents and my income had changed,” Mr Chowdhury said, noting his salary had increased to about $85,000 at the time.

“I had seen a lot of data showing it was a good time to invest in Adelaide,” he said, revealing that a recent valuation showed the property was now worth $662,000, a rise of $170,000.

The $465 per week rent covered most of his mortgage costs, he added.

His most recent purchase was in Townsville.

His third purchase was a Townsville house bought in June 2022 for $454,000 using equity from his first property to fund some of the purchasing costs. The property is now worth $460,000 and rents for $510 per week.

“Up until recently it was all positively geared because I was on low fixed rates, but they’ve expired and there’s been a significant jump. It’s hard but at the same time, the rents have increased.

“I am not hugely negatively geared … the numbers are still good.”

Mr Chowdhury said he hopes to follow up the purchases with more properties and has been encouraged by a recent career change. He now works as a corporate lawyer and has a higher income.

A key part of his early success on a lower income was from choosing houses with large land components, rather than units. “It’s a much safer investment,” he said, adding that the land is what appreciates fastest.

His second purchase was in the Adelaide suburb of Sheidow Park.

Mr Chowdhury said he also spent considerable time teaching himself about investing but was selective with who he listened to.

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“The worst advice I’d ever got was to wait,” he said. “I consulted a professional who told me, based on my income and savings, I should wait another three to five years to invest

“If I had listened to him and held out I wouldn’t have bought in 2019, which would have been my best investment.

“I realised it’s better to just get stuck in. It’s easy to get analysis paralysis with all the information out there, but if the numbers make sense, you’ve got to start acting.

“I think you’ve also got to be careful who you take guidance and advice from. There are a lot of people who display themselves as experts, but not all are successful people.”

PropTrack figures showed new buyers’ borrowing capacity has shrunk nearly 30 per cent since the first interest rate hike last year, but national rents have increased by 26 per cent over the same period.

Originally published as $65k a year earner reveals smart move that got him $1.85m in property