It would be ideal if the opportune time to invest in property aligned with market price reductions, but many investors have learned the hard way that the property market doesn’t typically operate in that manner.

The right time to buy is more about a specific situation and mindset than a fixed timeframe. It occurs when your budget, the market conditions, and property availability in your desired location come together to create a unique investment opportunity—tailored to you and you alone.

Hence, seasoned investors understand that the best time to buy is when YOU are ready. Keep your eyes and ears open, and be prepared to seize the opportunity. We explain why below.

The problem with waiting for a market correction

There’s a fundamental issue with waiting for a market correction that all prospective property buyers should be aware of—and it’s perfectly illustrated in the chart below.

From The Sydney Morning Herald. Click to view the interactive graph on their website.

The substantial gap between completed homes and population growth signifies a current shortage in property supply to meet demand.

With escalating construction costs, persistent challenges in the construction sector, an extremely low rental vacancy rate of only 1%, increasing renters transitioning to buyers, and rising interest rates posing challenges in pre-funding new developments, the gap between completed homes and population growth is unlikely to narrow in the foreseeable future.

The implications are significant for Australian property prices. Regardless of higher interest rates, it’s challenging to envision a significant decline in residential property prices in the foreseeable future. Given the pronounced undersupply of property, unlikely to be addressed in the short term, property prices are more likely to continue their upward trajectory in 2024.

Against this backdrop, waiting for a market correction to enter the market is unlikely to prove fruitful.

Buy investment property when your ducks are aligned

With a persistent undersupply of Australian residential property, now is not the time to adopt a defensive and cautious approach. Prospective buyers are more likely to succeed by purchasing investment property when their circumstances align for doing so.

In other words, the best time to act is when you have the necessary funding and budget to buy an investment property that aligns with your financial plan. The outlook for Australian residential property in 2024 appears promising at this point.

Explore Landen’s calculators to help you better understand your financial position and possible opportunities.

Funds management, or asset management, can be explained simply as the task of managing a pool of money on behalf of others with the end goal of maximising any returns. These could be tangible assets (such as equipment and real estate) or intangible assets (like intellectual property).

Because the pooled capital is usually spread across different investments, that can help reduce the impact of certain assets performing poorly. The other benefit of this strategy is that by sharing the investments with other unit holders your entry costs tend to be lower than if you were to buy shares directly yourself.

What Landen Funds offers

Landen Funds gives investors access to a selection of low cost of entry, low volatility funds with fewer charges, and asset backed security. Typically, our funds run for 12 to 24 months, and the minimum investment amount is usually $100,000.

Our focus is on contribution mortgage schemes, as defined by ASIC. The funds raised are invested together into a mortgage or loan, which is then lent to a borrower (in our case, it’s lent to the Landen developer of Landen Properties). The collateral/security of the loan is the land.

The benefits of investing with Landen Funds

Exclusive and competitive opportunities – Investors are given the opportunity to access a carefully selected collective of low cost of entry, low volatility funds with fewer charges, and asset backed security. Landen Funds has access to Specific Investment Funds created for Landen Property projects, which offer our investors competitive conditions and returns.

Professional management – Fund managers are experienced and qualified professionals who specialise in the selection and maintenance of investments. Our team has the expert knowledge that comes with years of studying financial market movements, so you don’t have to.

Security – People invest to make money and want to know that their funds have been professionally managed. They want to know the future income derived is governed by a high level of compliance and regulation. As Landen is a Retail fund, it is subject to a higher level of regulation and scrutiny than a Wholesale Fund.

Income – Landen has developed a range of Specific Investment funds to provide earnings in either a regular sum or as a lump sum at the end of the investment period. When you reinvest these earnings, you can look forward to the compounding effect on your wealth in the future.

When is the best time to invest in funds?

It pays to invest at all stages of your life, but how you invest and what you invest in might change over time. Younger investors may be more resilient to market ups and downs so might choose to invest in higher return funds which come with more elevated risks. As people mature and their financial needs change they might pivot to more stable and lower risk investment opportunities.

What to look out for when investing

Investment risk is weighing up the likelihood of losing money if your investment falls in value or simply doesn’t perform as well as expected. While all assets carry risks, some are riskier than others, so be sure to work out your own risk tolerance – the degree of uncertainty you’re prepared to accept in relation to investment returns.

When you are deciding where to park your money, do your homework to determine the risks, ensure you know when and how you’ll be paid any profits and read the fine print.

What makes a great fund advisor?

It’s important you find a fund advisor you can trust, who is professional, has integrity, and a proven track record. A great advisor works with you to understand your needs, set your financial goals, and create a plan to help you achieve them.

Be aware that anyone who is giving out personal financial advice must have an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license issued by ASIC. By only dealing with licensed businesses, you’re better protected if things were to go wrong, and you’ll have access to free dispute resolution services.

Landen Funds has appointed One Investment Group as the fund’s independent responsible entity and custodian. One Investment Group monitors the operation of the fund and offers us advice about complying with the relevant rules and regulations.

As the investment manager, we’re responsible for providing quarterly performance reports to our investors about the projects we invest in. All the team members in the fund management team are RG146 compliant and are trained to provide general advice to our investors. We have set standard operating procedures that we require our employees to follow and provide regular training courses.

If you are interested in taking your first step towards financial freedom through funds management, speak to our trusted team at Landen Funds today.

Find out more about Landen Funds, here.

While most investors gain exposure to residential property through direct ownership of one or more investment properties, an emerging asset class is worth being aware of – residential real estate funds.

In recent years, a number of managers of unlisted residential real estate funds have popped up across the market. These funds are replicating the equitisation process which has long happened in the commercial property sector.

What is equitisation?

Equitisation is when a fund invests in a portfolio of properties and the non-debt ownership is split between the fund’s equity investors. It’s a way of making a property portfolio investible for many unrelated investors and has enabled the significant listed and unlisted fund inflows the commercial property sector has attracted in recent decades. So it’s a potential game-changer for the residential real estate investment world.

These residential property funds such as Resifund, DomaCom, and BrickX have good reason to be optimistic about their futures. For an asset class that has historically required a significant amount of management effort per dollar invested in dealing with setting up loans and managing tenants, the concept of large-scale passive residential real estate vehicles could open up the asset class to a much wider group of investors.

Are residential real estate funds worth considering?

Landen’s Head of Funds Management, Jeff Li shares his perspective: “We’re seeing more residential property funds emerging across the market, and we expect more to come as the asset class becomes more mainstream. We view this as good news for investors interested in gaining exposure to residential real estate without doing all the leg work themselves. With this in mind, we are looking forward to the opportunities Landen’s new funds will bring for investors.”

Landen’s Grantham Farm Fund is now open, offering investors the opportunity to invest in property related investment funds. Click here to learn more about this opportunity.

If you would like to be informed of Landen’s upcoming investment opportunities through residential property funds, please call 1300 526 336 or email funds@landen.com.au to join the mailing list.

Landen is proud to announce that it has recently been certified carbon neutral by Climate Active.

Carbon neutrality is all about having a net-zero carbon footprint—meaning you have balanced out the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the environment by offsetting it with renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar. It can also involve reducing your emissions through efficiency measures.

“We exist to help people build, invest and grow and the ultimate aim is to positively transform tomorrow for our customers, our families and the wider community. Through the accreditation process we are better able to understand our overall environmental impact and are taking steps to reduce it over time to make a positive impact today and tomorrow,” says Landen Director, Jim Dionysatos.

Change happens when we all play our part.

Becoming accredited is a huge undertaking, with many challenges along the way. One of the biggest challenges we faced was properly identifying and estimating all the areas that produce waste and have an impact on our environmental footprint. In order to achieve our carbon neutrality goals, we have taken several various steps.

The team at Landen have been very excited to participate in the accreditation process. As a team, we are all actively looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, whilst growing the business.

“By actively taking steps towards achieving a carbon neutral status, Landen is demonstrating our commitment to creating positive change for all our customers while helping them look toward their future with confidence and optimism. Through energy efficiency measures, renewable energy certificates and certification of activities, Landen is leading the way towards sustainable business practices that benefit both people and the planet alike,” says Landen Director, Rashed Panabig.

Find out more about becoming carbon neutral at https://www.climateactive.org.au

One of the investment decisions most Australian investors face is whether to invest in a retail investment fund. With this in mind, we discuss below what retail funds are and the benefits of investing in one.

What are retail funds?

A retail fund is an investment fund for individual investors who are classified as retail investors. So the next question is, what’s a retail investor?\

Essentially, all investors are classified as retail investors apart from those investors who are classified as being wholesale.

The key requirements for being classified as a wholesale investor are:

Retail funds are designed to protect individual investors, so they must adhere to a higher level of compliance than wholesale funds which are designed for larger, experienced investors.

Two main benefits of investing in a retail fund.

Firstly, investing in a retail fund means investors receive all the protections set out in The Future of Financial Advice reforms. The long list of the required information is generally disclosed to retail investors via a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) which includes information on a product’s key features, fees, commissions, benefits, risks and complaints handling procedures. Having access to this excellent level of data is a significant advantage over the less detailed information memorandums wholesale investors tend to rely upon.

And secondly, retail funds tend to have much lower minimum investment amounts than wholesale funds, making them more accessible for individual investors. For example, many retail funds have a minimum investment amount of $10,000, whereas the minimum investment amount on wholesale funds may be as high as $500,000. By offering a relatively low minimum investment amount, retail funds allow individual investors to gain access to investment opportunities that may otherwise be out of reach.

Our final thoughts

As Landen’s Head of Funds Management, Jeff Li explains: ‘Retail funds offer important benefits for our valued clients thanks to the higher compliance hurdles on these funds. As a result, we launched several outperforming funds for our retail clients who enjoy the disclosure and protections these funds offer. We’re viewing the recent market weakness as a great window of opportunity for our clients to top up their investments in our preferred retail funds.’

Visit our Funds page to learn more about Landen’s retail funds.

In times of economic uncertainty, many savvy investors turn to investment types that offer a sense of security. Fixed-income investments are a particularly attractive option for long-term, or ‘mum and dad’ investors looking to diversify and offset riskier assets. Depending on your financial goals and timeframe, fixed-income investments can offer many potential benefits and help you work towards wealth creation.

Diversification from risk and income generation

Fixed income is a way of investing that is broadly understood to carry a lower risk profile than shares on the stock market. This is because fixed-income assets are generally less sensitive to big picture macroeconomic risks, such as economic downturns and geopolitical events – of which we’ve seen plenty in recent years.

If you’re after a steady source of income, then fixed-income investments might just be right for you. Investors receive a fixed amount of income at regular intervals in the form of coupon payments on their bond holdings.

Why this type of investment can ride out periods of instability:

Head of Funds Management at Landen, Jeff Li, explains:

“This is attractive for those who have some savings and would like to be involved in the property market but don’t have a complete deposit right now.” “As interest rates climb, and property prices are tipped to remain unstable, this type of investing offers an alternative way to earn money from bricks and mortar,” he says.

“The increasing interest rate is making it hard for people to buy into property because the market is on the downside. Now is the ideal time to invest in fixed-income products (around 10% of our investors are repeat investors).

The benefit of investing in the Landen fund is that we’re a retail fund. This means we have a higher level of compliance, transparency and how we disclose information, which is required by ASIC.” Mr Li says.

“The funds raised are then provided as a loan to Landen, which is developing and sub-dividing the land. This generates regular income and the resulting stability is good because we can protect our client’s investments.”

Who can benefit from this?

According to Mr Li, it makes great financial sense for everyday investors to redirect a certain portion of their wealth to this type of fixed-income investment.

“This will be increasingly popular because the collaterals are assets that you can touch and feel, not like investing in different asset classes, like the share market or cryptocurrency. We also accept self-managed super fund holders, especially those who are already investing with us. It’s a great way of being a risk-adverse investor.”

When it comes to building wealth, there are always some associated risks with any strategy. With fixed-income investments, these potential risks can be well managed. As with any investment, it’s important to consider the risks involved carefully and understand your personal appetite for risk.

Interest rates and inflation effects

When interest rates rise, bond prices fall, meaning the bonds you hold lose value. Interest rate movements are the major cause of price volatility in bond markets.

Inflation is another risk for bond investors. Bonds provide a fixed amount of income at regular intervals, but if the rate of inflation outpaces this fixed amount of income, the investor loses purchasing power.

Losing liquidity

Liquidity risk is the chance an investor might want to sell a fixed-income asset, but they’re unable to find a buyer.

Currently, Landen is offering rates from 8% to 9.75% net return per annum, with investment terms covering 12 to 24 months. That translates to a $100,000 investment, earning the investor between $8,000 and $9,750 a year.

Visit our Funds page to learn more about Landen Funds benefits.