For investors
Buy the numbers, not the story you were told at the open home.
An investment property is a 30-year cash-flow instrument that happens to have a kitchen. Model a real property on real numbers below — then analyse the actual address to see verified comparable sales, yield, vacancy and risk evidence for it.
Suburb watchlist
Start from the suburbs, then test the property
Find Where to Buy scores the suburbs you nominate on the metrics that drive an investment case — median, twelve-month movement, indicative yield and government hazard exposure — each shown with the source that supplied it and the date it was retrieved. Anything not returned is reported as data unavailable, never estimated.
Save the areas you are working on, then run a full Property DNA on the specific listings that come out of them. Your Buyer Brief sets the weighting, so growth-led and cashflow-led strategies rank differently.
Projection model
Model a property on your own numbers
Every figure below comes from the inputs you set — nothing is pre-filled with market data. Use the asking price and advertised rent of a property you're considering, or the verified figures from a BuyDNA report.
Your assumptions
Gross yield on these numbers: 4.5%.
Anything above 8% sustained for 30 years is historically unusual.
Deposit $150,000 · loan $600,000
Year one cash position
−$13,585
Pre-tax, per year. Rent $33,800 less interest $36,600 and holding costs $10,785 (council rates, insurance, management, maintenance allowance). Excludes depreciation and negative gearing benefits.
Scenario output · property value and cumulative net rent · 30 years at 5.0% growth
Calculated from the assumptions you set. Not a BuyDNA forecast, and not a projection of what this or any property will do.
| Horizon | Projected value | Equity gain | Net rent received | Total potential profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | $868,219 | $118,219 | $75,220 | $193,439 |
| 5 years | $957,211 | $207,211 | $129,203 | $336,414 |
| 10 years | $1,221,671 | $471,671 | $278,985 | $750,656 |
| 20 years | $1,989,973 | $1,239,973 | $653,917 | $1,893,891 |
| 30 years | $3,241,457 | $2,491,457 | $1,157,795 | $3,649,252 |
Assumes purchase at $750,000, rent growing 3% a year from $650/week, and 28% of gross rent absorbed by holding costs. Excludes stamp duty, selling costs, capital gains tax, land tax and depreciation. This is a scenario model built from your inputs, not a forecast and not market data.
What actually goes wrong
The four ways investors lose money in a rising market
Growth in the index does not mean growth in your property. These are the failure modes we test for on every property we analyse.
Buying the last 20% of a cycle
Strong twelve-month returns are already in the price. In a report we compare the property's own market against its longer-run trend and say plainly when entry looks late in the cycle.
Ignoring the supply pipeline
A large pipeline of new supply can place downward pressure on capital growth and rental performance. We read building approvals for the property's area against household formation before drawing conclusions.
Modelling gross yield, living on net
A 4.9% gross yield becomes roughly 3.5% net after rates, insurance, management and a maintenance allowance — then interest. The model above starts from rent and deducts costs explicitly.
Concentration you didn't notice
Three properties in the same council area with the same tenant demographic is one bet, not three. Investor Pro tracks concentration across geography, price band and tenant type.