Don't sweat it
Reply: 4
From: Sim' Hampel
The general public buying IPs is cyclical, like most types of investments. Interest rates are very low at the moment, so IPs become much more affordable.
Negative gearing is as popular as ever, and there are a huge number of seminars around right now encouraging people to part with their hard earned cash.
The media is full of property boom hype, and the government grant is causing people to pay much more attention to investing in property (both owner occupied and rental)
I think when the interest rate cycle starts climbing again, and the booms start to turn, property will once again become the investment NOT to have.
Many people will realise that they cannot actually afford their loss making property, and those who locked into 5 year fixed rates will be forced to sell up after that 5 year period is over and they discover that they have to accept a much higher rate.
Right now, you will not have too many problems finding people who are "experts" in property investment, and everyone has some advice about what you should be investing in and where.
As mentioned by others, there will be those vehemently opposed to property due to themselves, or someone they know being badly burned (most likely by their own mistakes or foolishness). But while the booms last, there will be many, many more preaching the virtues of property as an investment vehicle.
When the booms ease or reverse, and when interest rates start hiking up, there will be more and more people talking of doom and gloom about property as an investment, and stongly advising you against it.
Of course, those who have been in property for long enough (not me yet), have seen these cycles come and go, and apparently it never changes. The smart ones (they keep telling us how it works right here in the forum), learned a long time ago to use this cyclical public sentiment as a means of working the system and making the most of other people's whimsy and ignorance.
The one thing our more experienced colleagues here keep telling us is that provided you are prepared for the changes and understand what is happening, there is good money to be made during all periods of the economic cycle. You just need to vary your strategy to suit the times.