Tradie who once lived in rented granny flats but now enjoys a $6million waterfront home, Lamborghini and 50ft yacht reveals the biggest financial mistake young Aussies are making

A property investor who once lived in rented granny flats but now enjoys a $6million waterfront home has shared his top advice for young Australians trying to enter the tough housing market.   

Daniel Walsh, 33, bought his multi-million dollar house near Palm Beach on Sydney‘s northern beaches last year.

The married father-of-one also owns a Lamborghini Huracan and a 50-foot yacht on top of his $20million real estate portfolio, which includes $14million worth of 19 investment properties that are rented out in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

But instead of saving up for a mortgage deposit to buy the ultimate property, Mr Walsh started his investment journey by buying a four-bedroom house at Thirlmere, 95km south-west of Sydney for $324,000.

He was able to save up and buy more properties by using the rental income and borrowing against the value of the other houses to keep expanding his portfolio, as high population growth pushed up real-estate values. 

He and his wife, Sophie, also lived in rented granny flats until he was 28, when he switched to a house.

‘I was living in a granny flat, instead of living in a house and paying heaps more rent,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘My wife and I could then save more money to put towards houses – we did that right up until I was 28 years old.

‘I was always about delayed gratification.’ 

He also said the narrative of young people not being able to afford a house was damaging, even though the median house price in major cities is beyond the reach of most.

‘People need to change the perspective of saying it’s just too hard,’ Mr Walsh said.

‘If you see my journey, I bought two properties two hours out of Sydney and then I couldn’t afford Sydney in 2012, so I had to go to different states.’ 

The former apprentice auto electrician and freight train driver, who left school at 15, said too many young people made the mistake of saving up a 20 per cent mortgage deposit for a desirable home in a nice suburb.

‘They’re saving up money to buy their owner-occupied dream home and then when you find out – especially if you’re in more expensive capital cities like Sydney – they’re trying to acquire a $1.5million to $2million house,’ he said.

‘They are saving up money but by the time they save their money, property prices keep going up so they’re saving for a decade to try and get into their first property.’

Mr Walsh, the founder of the Your Property Your Wealth buyers agency, said when he couldn’t afford a house in Sydney, he bought homes in affordable outer suburbs of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth that were in commuting distance of the city centre. 

‘I was focused on smaller, investment properties – buying houses for $400,000,’ he said.

‘I do like to have commutable distance to a large CBD if I can.

‘Typically, I want to buy houses in the outskirts because as population grows, most people are generally chasing houses to settle down in with their families.

‘By buying the affordable stuff, then the properties keep going up in value as the population keeps moving into those areas.’ 

Mr Walsh didn’t buy his first house to live in as an owner-occupier until 2021 when he bought a home at Camden, in Sydney’s south-west, for $1.35million – selling it two years later for $1.85million.

‘Up until then I “rentvested” my whole journey,’ he said. 

Someone on an average, full-time salary of $98,218 could only buy a $639,000 with a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.

This is well below Sydney’s median house price of $1.396million, Melbourne’s mid-point of $942,779 and Brisbane’s $899,474, CoreLogic data showed.

But there are pockets of value 25km to 55km away from the city centre if you look beyond Sydney. 

Frankston North has an affordable median price of $596,656 and is 55km from Melbourne’s city centre.

‘To a degree, Melbourne is undervalued right now – prices are pretty affordable in the outer suburbs,’ he said. 

This suburb near Port Phillip Bay is also near much more expensive suburbs and has scope to gentrify despite having a higher unemployment rate.

On either side of Brisbane, there are suburbs in Logan including Slacks Creek, where the median house price is $653,257, despite being just 25km from the city.

‘When you look at Logan, for example, economically, population, everything’s very super strong around there – you’re halfway on the motorway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast,’ he said.  

In the Moreton Bay area Deception Bay, 46km north of Brisbane, has a mid-point house price of $634,325. 

When it comes to buying in outer suburbs, Mr Walsh advised against purchasing a property in areas such as Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north, pointing out tenants would be less reliable.

‘I’d be careful about going too rough – there is just too much housing commission,’ he said.

He also advised against buying in a location with an older population like Bribie Island north of Brisbane, arguing areas like that had weaker economic growth. 

‘I probably wouldn’t go Bribie Island: too many retirees, it’s not really an economic centre,’ he said. 

Instead, he advised prospective buyers to focus on buying an investment house – but not a unit – where there was likely to be population growth.

‘I’m always looking at where people are moving and I’m always cross referencing the number of building approvals versus the population that’s moving in,’ he said.

‘If I can see 100,000 people moving into an area but I can see only 20,000 building approvals in a state for example, I know that supply is going to be getting harder and harder.’ 

A record 518,000 migrants moved to Australia in the 2022-23 financial year.

This meant capital city house prices  rose by 11 per cent in the year to February, despite the Reserve Bank in November raising interest rates for the 13th time in 18 months, taking it to a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent.

Sydney’s median house price rose by 11.7 per cent but in Perth, a recipient of interstate migration, values surged by 18.6 per cent to a still relatively affordable $718,560.

In January, Mr Walsh’s new book Six Principles to Retire Younger and Richer was published by Major Street Publishing.