Keep your PI hat on and keep it Kiwi

Friday, July 4th 2008, 3:09PM

We Kiwis sitting here in New Zealand often look at Australia as the land of opportunity and a place where things seem better than our lot.

Property investing is one of those things where they look better than us. With the New Zealand residential housing market being in a bit of a funk at the moment there is much talk and attention on the Australian place being a better home for our investment dollars.

Well I am not 100% convinced that this is the case. Some research out from Crockers this week shows that on the face of it Australia looks attractive. However, when you factor in house price movements and yields, New Zealand still looks a good place to invest. It's made even better as we don't have stamp duty and some other taxes that dilute returns.

There are things we can learn, though, from across the ditch. Next week one of Australia's high profile investors and teachers, Michael Yardney is in New Zealand doing a series of seminars. His events, run by the NZ Property Investors Federation are scheduled for a number of the main centres. (Details on landlords.co.nz).

Yardney is planning to explain the difference between the way successful property investors think and behave, compared to the way average investors think.

He has this view, which I agree with, that savvy investors make money in good times and make even more money in difficult times. (The less savvy lose money in good times and lose even more money in bad times.)

Right now, although we keep getting bombarded with negative information on house prices, is a time for successful investors to be active.

The message is simple, if you want to make money from property. Get out there and start looking for deals and arm yourself with good information.

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