I’m eight years old and already own a four-bedroom home in Melbourne. This is how I became Australia’s youngest property investor

Ruby McLellan isn’t like most eight-year-olds. Instead of spending her pocket money on toys and sweets she chose to enter the property market and earn the title of ‘Australia’s youngest home owner’. 

Ruby and her siblings Angus, 14, and Lucy, 13, purchased their first four bedroom home in Clyde, Victoria, two years ago for $671,000. It’s now worth $960,000.  

The siblings pulled together $6,000 of their hard-earned pocket money for a deposit by helping out their parents with chores and packing their father’s how-to guide to investing.

Their parents covered the rest and the kids are on track to purchase their next investment property using the equity in the mortgage of the current house. All of their names are on the title.

Ruby told FEMAIL it’s ‘pretty cool’ being a landlord and admitted she hasn’t told any of her school friends yet. 

The property, spanning over 200sqm, is positively geared – meaning the rent is higher than the mortgage repayments. This means it doesn’t cost the family ‘anything’ to hold it.

Their dad Cam, 50, the CEO of property investment company OpenCorp, taught his children the basics of investing and why debt can be a ‘good thing’. 

The rationale behind the idea is to get their kids into property is to give them a head start.  

‘In ten years time when our kids might start looking to buy their own homes, the deposits are going to be $200,000. There’s no way kids of today are going to be able to afford a home without help from mum and dad,’ Cam said. 

‘We have four kids and might need to fork out $800,000, so the obvious thing to do is to use one small deposit now, buy a property, let it double in value and then sell it.’

The family will keep the property until Lucy and Angus are in their early 20s, which will mean they’ve waited one ‘full growth property cycle’ and hope it will reach $1million. 

Once sold,  the children will receive an equal portion of the profit after tax. 

‘Historically every seven to ten years property doubles in value,’ Cam said. 

‘I’ve been investing for 30 years and now is a great time to invest based on inflation decreasing and the prediction of interest rate drops.’

Before buying the property Cam said he guided the kids through the process using ‘lots of illustrations’ to help them understand, but with Ruby being just six at the time he admitted she didn’t grasp how it all works. 

He had to keep telling her that she can’t go to live at the property or take her friends there.  

‘We do have a holiday house so I had to try explain the difference between a holiday renter and a full-time renter scenario,’ Cam said. 

‘Now that they’ve seen some growth in the property value we figured it would be worthwhile buying another one to spark their interest even more.’ 

Cam and his wife Felicity purchased their first property together in their early 20s with the goal of becoming ‘financially free’. 

As a result the couple haven’t had to work as much over the last 15 years. For Cam, a regular week involves working ‘four hours every couple days’. 

Every year he takes three months off including all the school holidays to maximise the time spent with his four children. 

He also explained why he opts for newly built properties over existing when looking to invest. 

‘In the first few years Felicity and I bought existing builds, but with new builds you can get the perfect property in any area plus hone in on the right design and depreciation is the greatest at the start,’ Cam explained. 

‘And tenants prefer new builds over existing ones – there’s so many advantages.’

When it comes to choosing property Cam utilises a three-step guide – finding the right market, area and property.

‘Successful investing is a formula – that’s all it comes down to,’ Cam said. 

‘When I first started it felt like driving a car blindfolded – there was no internet, no information and no-one to talk to.’

After buying his first property he put everything he learnt into the book ‘My Four Year Old, the Property Investor’ which became a best-seller.

Cam’s advice for other young Aussies is to get into the market as soon as possible, even if you’re renting. He also recommends finding a mentor who has been successful in property.