Natakka Alberts and Jake Tass bought an investment property in 2024 to secure their son’s future, but found skyrocketing property prices could have easily priced them out.
Mr Tass spent years working fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) jobs in regional towns to help him and Ms Alberts build a deposit.
This allowed them to buy an investment property to gain equity with while they rented in Northgate.
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Former rentvestors Jake Tass and Natakka Alberts said they got into the market just in time, having now left renting to buy a home for them and their son. Picture: Lachie Millard
“We bought our first property in Mackay in 2024,” Ms Alberts said.
“For us, getting into the market was a big milestone, which felt like a risk because prices were very high.
“But looking back, it was nothing compared to where it is now.”
38 Python Street, a home for sale in Dakabin. The couple were able to buy a home in the suburb with the help of equity from their Mackay property.
The moment they could afford to, they bought a new home in Dakabin, allowing them to get out of the rental market and raise their son in a house.
“Even the price of rent has gone through the roof,” Ms Alberts said. “We were able to use the equity for us to buy another property.”
“Really more than anything, we wanted to focus on our future and our son’s future.”
Research by FOUNDIT discovered Brisbane’s landlords are running out of suburbs to purchase homes in, competing over a quickly vanishing supply. Picture: Lachie Millard
New research by FOUNDIT has revealed Brisbane’s landlords are running out of suburbs to grab homes in, as homeowners with large portfolios compete with families investing their finances in a second property.
Across all of Brisbane, only 9 per cent of suburbs have a median house price below $1m – a staggeringly low number compared to Melbourne’s 51 per cent.
In areas such as the Rocklea-Acacia Ridge corridor, one in every six buyers is an investor with a median house price of $1.13m and a 3.3 per cent yield; putting investors there at risk of changes to the Capital Gains Tax in the next federal budget.
25 Erncroft Pl, a home recently sold in Rocklea. The Rocklea-Acacia Ridge corridor has one investor for every six homebuyers, putting them at risk of changes to the Capital Gains Tax.
Mr Tass said he would have to make many more sacrifices to try and get into the housing market as a homeowner in 2026, let alone as a rentvestor.
“I’d have to get back into the FIFO lifestyle,” he said.
“Everything’s changed. Cost of living’s gone up, everyone’s had to save money pretty quick, your bank account’s going down … [we’d get] a different outcome than what we were trying to pick in Brisbane.”
The couple said if they had tried to rentvest now, they’d struggle to find homes to fit their lifestyle – if they could afford to buy into the market at all. Picture: Lachie Millard
Buyers Agent Lauren Jones said first homebuyers were feeling the pain even more than investors.
“$1m is the new $700,000,” she said. “Since [the government] brought in the new First Homebuyers Scheme, it was just a race to $1m across the market.
“Now, first homebuyer repayments are through the roof because they’ve only put their 5 per cent deposit down.”
Buyers agent Lauren Jones said new investors would struggle to get a foothold in Brisbane’s housing market today, with first homebuyers feeling even more of the pain.
Ms Jones said many rentvestors were looking towards options outside of Brisbane as a result.
“If you’re a Brisbane rentvestor also trying to buy in Brisbane, your rents are very high, and the price of property is very high,” she said.
“[New investor purchases] tend to be a lot of people who are using equity.
“It’s a harder entry level investment market now than it was before.”