The touch factor

Others have had bad experiences with shares (think the 1987 sharemarket crash, investors who got burnt haven't forgotten) and other savings schemes and are looking for alternative forms of investment.

On the financial side, residential property investment has the potential to provide good returns, there are tax advantages in the form of a lack of capital gains tax, plus investors can use debt to gear up their equity and boost their returns (the opposite can also happen in this situation, too).

One of the facets that makes property attractive to investors is that it can be hands on, they can do their own research and develop their own strategies. And there are all sorts of strategies they can develop, such as buying properties solely for capital gains, or have positive cashflow properties (ones that generate good income streams) or a portfolio of properties in different sectors and regions. You can invest in new or old homes, apartments, flats, student accommodation, million-dollar properties or holiday houses, or you could become a slum landlord.

What is clear when you talk to different property investors, or read books such as Graeme Fowler's Real Estate Investors Secrets, which profiles 10 people who became millionaires from residential property, is that not only do they have their own strategies, but they stick to them. Plus, rather than having an emotional view of their investments, they focus on the numbers and practicalities of how the investment stacks up.

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