Nathan Birch, who has a $55m property portfolio financed just over 50% with debt, has decided to start selling off the portfolio citing;
“But recently, the finance environment has changed. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a buy-and-hold investor — but I need to optimise to [suit] the times we are in by letting go.”
Mr Birch told news.com.au he was looking to offload up to 20 properties. If all goes to plan, he estimates he will reduce his debt to about $18 million, with a $50 million portfolio and a “big chunk of cash”
He said he thought the property market had turned but wasn’t expecting a “collapse”. “I don’t want to sell them, but what I’ve realised is the finance market is really, really tight,” he said. “My clients, in the past I’d help them buy 20 properties in two years, now they’ll struggle to do eight in two years.
“I’m feeling it, the developers are feeling it, the people that haven’t felt it yet are all those properties that are yet to settle, the big Meriton units. I don’t think the property market’s going to collapse, what I see is a slowdown.”
Not expecting a collapse, of course maybe he says that to appease the hundreds of clients he's pushed into buying "20 properties in 2 years". What a joke.
