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Real Estate Investment Podcast with David Chehade
The Real Estate Investment Podcast with David Chehade — Australia's go to source for real property strategies that build real wealth.
Each episode delivers clear insights on market moves, portfolio growth, and unlocking financial freedom-whether you're just strating out or scaling your legacy.
Hosted by David Chehade, self-made millionaire, founder of REIF and trusted advisor to investors across the country.
Real Estate Investment Podcast with David Chehade
Episode 1 - Investment Property Trends in Australia 2025 with Reece McGill
In this must-listen mid-year market pulse check, David Chehade sits down with multi-award-winning broker and seasoned property investor Reece McGill to unpack the biggest trends shaping the Australian property landscape in 2025.
With interest rate speculation building, David quizzes Reece on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s anticipated cash rate decreases and what that means for property investors looking to leverage the next six months. They also spotlight high-performing suburbs, digging into which locations are showing strong yield potential and capital growth despite market volatility.
The conversation then turns to government housing policies, where Reece shares his candid take on the boosting housing supply. Finally, David and Reece explore the rising trend of eco-conscious home builds — from solar incentives to green materials — and whether sustainable homes are the future of investment.
Whether you’re an active investor or watching from the sidelines, this episode will leave you with actionable insights to finish 2025 strong.
Key Topics Covered
- 📉 Expected RBA cash rate cuts – timing, impact, and investor response
- 📍 Hot investment suburbs to watch
- 🏗️ Government policy on housing supply and affordability
- 🌱 The rise of green homes: smart investment or passing trend?
- 💼 Reece’s mid-year playbook for smart property moves
Featured Guest
Reece McGill – Multi-award-winning mortgage broker and property investor at REIF with a proven track record of building wealth through strategic residential property acquisition. Reece shares real-world tactics and data-backed perspectives.
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*This podcast is intended for education and entertainment purposes. Any advice is general advice only, and has not taken into account your specific personal financial circumstances, needs or objectives. Before acting on general advice, you should consider if it is relevant to your needs and if you are unsure, please speak to a financial professional. Visit the REIF website for more details.
You are listening to the Real Estate Investment Podcast, Australia's go-to source for real strategies that build real wealth. Hosted by David Chehade, self-made millionaire, founder of REIF and trusted advisor to investors as across the country. Each episode delivers clear insights on market moves, portfolio growth, and unlocking financial freedom. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your legacy... let's build Wealth one smart move at a time.
David Chehade :Hey everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Investment Podcast with David Chehade. Today I'm pleased to have Reece McGill, one of our brokers on the team with us today, who better than who is on the front line, leading our clients with their finance strategy. Welcome to the show, Reece.
David Chehade :Thanks, Dave. I'm very excited to be here. Been looking forward to it. Amazing, mate. We're gonna talk today, all things finance. We're gonna deep dive into the property market in 2025 and what's actually happening out there. We're gonna kick off with interest rates. It's been a hot topic this year. What's interest rates going be doing? There's been a drop in rates and there's talk about further drops going just keen to see what you think with declining interest rates, how that's gonna impact the investor property market.
David Chehade :Yeah it's, a great question. Look, already this year we've seen a bit of a decrease and they're forecasting another, most of the experts agree it's gonna be 0.5 to 0.75 further drops, which obviously we've, seen a strong investor sentiment regardless. So regardless of what rates have been doing, investors are still out there and they're still buying. So this drop in rates potentially could be a really strong surge in, in property prices again. Which is great for our clients who are already in the market. And look, anyone who's looking to get into it, it obviously eases the cash flow payment.
David Chehade :A little bit, but as they say, there's never a perfect time. I think the time, perfect time is as soon as possible. But looking at rates from a, from an investment property perspective, the main benefit we'll see is the cashflow side. Obviously lenders too, they'll adjust their servicing, which might mean a better borrowing capacity, which opens your options. But overall, very positive. I think it's amazing how strong the market's done in spite of rates. And as you've seen yourself, look me, you, everyone in the team, everyone we deal with. Sentiment and confidence has been high. So this is only gonna increase a burning market, in my opinion.
David Chehade :Amazing how good start a 1% interest rate drop if you've got a million dollars in lending is 10 grand a year. So you can imagine if you've already got a portfolio, we're starting to see rates drop.
David Chehade :What that means for your cash flow it's a massive difference and you're right, one percent's not unfeasible. People are predicting next rate cut might be 0.5 straight away, which is rare, but it's not impossible. You see a 0.5 drop in one go, it's gonna be a big difference to a lot of people's lives and your everyday family investor. It might just mean that cash flow pressure is a little bit less and we're just gonna see a flood of new investors into the market. Really exciting times. Amazing. So many people have been sitting on the sidelines.
David Chehade :They're waiting. Full race to drop to get that confidence. So the amount of people that are gonna get into the market now based on rates coming down, just with that extra confidence, is gonna mean more demand than what's already a tightly held market, which means prices are gonna keep on going up. Yeah it's a funny, it's a two edged sword, isn't it? 'cause at the same time, the bank will lend you more money hypothetically, but that same property might be more expensive. So as always, get in now. Let's do it. Rates dropping is awesome. It's an amazing thing. But as an investor, you should be ready to go whenever, if possible. Love that. Reese. Thank you mate. All right, now we are moving on to a next question for you, mate. Tell me a little bit about the housing shortage in Australia at the moment. The government's coming up with different ideas to be able to solve that issue. It's a problem we've had for quite a while. What's your take on that?
David Chehade :It seems to be the never ending tail, doesn't it, Dave? The housing supply shortage has been around for what feels like forever, probably not, but the reality is supply and demand. It's, they're not meeting the supply and, the demand is increasing. We spoke about interest rates before. It's only gonna make the shortage worse. So regardless of whoever's in power federally, something needs to be done on a local level. We'd love to see quicker turnarounds, more support for developers and releasing land for sale. That's been a big roadblock for everyone involved. And at the same time, look, we are, we're pretty neutral, so no matter who's in power, no matter what happens, we'll find ways to work in the market, but it would be really good to see some support for that land being released and for us to meet that supply issue. Supply and demands. It is a good problem to have if you're in the market.
David Chehade :But we want everyone to be, we want everyone to get involved, everyone who can. So we need that stock to move. And on the finance side, obviously this isn't as big of an impact for me, but with the property people I deal with, it's. They've spoken about it for a long time there. There needs to be something done and let's hope whoever's in charge makes the right call so we can keep doing what we want to do and clients can keep investing amazing. We see it's a massive opportunity right now, isn't it? Because yes, there is a housing shortage. We've got a booming population and there's not enough houses to be able to accommodate the population that Australia's seeing.
David Chehade :But what it means right now for investors is getting in the market. We're gonna see a good uplift when they buy in the right areas as well, because the fundamentals of economics, if demand exceeds supply, what happens, prices increase. So that's exactly right. And we're seeing that firsthand. We're seeing quarter on quarter growth club we've never seen before. And it's simple fact of there is just not enough supply to meet demand. And your point on the economic side is exactly right. It's not more complicated. That's as simple as it is. Yeah. So it's funny that they haven't managed to completely resolve this problem. It's, a complex issue like. It's not something we are gonna solve in five minutes.
David Chehade :But interestingly, I think both governments, you could see a lot of their a lot of what they were proposing to the voter base was a housing crisis, and how are we gonna fix this? And as a professional in the industry, you really have to be neutral and you just have to go with, whoever's in power are gonna work to the policies and the procedures they release and we'll make it work. But some support for land being released would be nice. Amazing. Love that. And it's also not every location's gonna perform really well.
David Chehade :Not every location's gonna have the most demand and it's the research that our team do behind the scenes and an investor needs to do to be able to go, what's gonna give me the best growth right now outta my property? Where is the demand? Where's the infrastructure? Where's the amenities? Not only currently, but what's in the pipeline? What's coming? Becasue that's gonna drive more population, more growth to the area and therefore we are going to continue to see those increases in, costs and prices as well. We're seeing that a lot in our property division, isn't it? It's less and less based on name or reputation. It's based on future planning. Yes. If we can look what's coming down the pipeline for infrastructure and government spend generally it's a safe option to invest. If the government's willing to put their money there, so should you Yes.
David Chehade :Look, we could agree that they probably don't do everything right, but infrastructure's infrastructure. Yeah. And it, drives up prices. You need infrastructure for a good real estate economy. Yeah. And it's going to be very interesting the next few years, what happens and what emerges from that. The importance of doing that research and knowing what's coming and being strategic as an investor on where you're buying and putting your money. Because the difference between a 5% capital growth rate and a 15%, which we've been seeing over the last 12, 24 months per annum makes hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference in terms of wealth, your retirement, your passive income goals.
David Chehade :Massive difference. You're talking about an asset worth hundreds of thousands. A 1% difference is a big difference. The importance of that research and being able to do that, which our team do in the back end day in, day out, to be able to identify those growth locations, and we're both lucky working with a team like we do. We see the work our property division puts in. Yes. And the amount of work they look at for a prospective buyer in an area is unbelievable.
David Chehade :Yes. The data you can access now is more than ever. But it's not just the data, it's can you interpret that data? And that's where a really good professional property expert can come in. You can just look at data and go, this looks okay, but what's the next level? What's the deeper dive? And a team of experts will help you do that because it goes to what? How should I buy in that area? Should I buy a terrace? Should I buy a townhouse? Should I buy a four bedroom home? What are the demographics in the area now? But not only now, what are the emerging demographic? What kind of people are moving to the area? And what do they, where do they want to live? Do they want the low maintenance, no backyard in that location?
David Chehade :And if so, there's gonna be more demand for that property type and therefore it's gonna see a bigger uplift. Hence why in some locations, houses might perform better than other property types due to being able to do that additional analysis, which, yeah, that's right. It, is the most important asset you're buying your life and, if you don't have the team doing the research or you're not doing significant research yourself, you're just setting yourself up for not a great time.
David Chehade :In my opinion. Amazing. Good insights there Reece you yourself, you've been, and I love what we do at REIF because we practice what we preach. We're out there, we're investing. Do you wanna share some of your story and what you've done, your investing journey to date? Look I'm a massive advocate for REIF and I'm a big fan of voting with my wallet and REIF gets my business and it's not just because I work here, which probably is easy to assume.
David Chehade :Yeah. I've done a few transactions, real estate wise with REIF and I've been very happy with everyone. Everyone's worked exactly how I thought it would. Nothing's perfect, but for me, the properties I've bought, I've only bought through REIF. I'm a probably a company man in that way, but it's also worked. If it wasn't working, I wouldn't do it. And the reality is every strategy that was put in front of me as far as a piece of real estate goes, I didn't just go into it blind. I did my own research. I looked at it and I agreed with the data's data.
David Chehade :It's hard to disagree with. It's not an opinion, right? It's hard data. Beautiful and some insight into where you bought what that looked like, grace, and how many have you accumulated? I've done the REIF special. Yes. Wherever they tell me I go. So I've got one in Burpengary in that Northern Corridor, which Brisbane and Sunshine Coast Corridor. It's gonna be strong. Yes. I think it's got a lot of potential. I've bought in that Ipswich area in Ripley, which performed amazingly. Also in Perth in a, suburb sort of outer CBD. Perth's an interesting one, but it's also performed well and that's on the back of people in REIF.
David Chehade :It advised me on such a purchase, I would never have done it on my own. It's a team effort. It's that diversification piece as well, and different growth corridors. I love that you've been able to get into the Brisbane market, leverage that up because of what's coming here. We know there's a massive shortage of houses in Brisbane.
David Chehade :Brisbane's got the Olympics coming in. Massive infrastructure. It's earmark for some great growth, especially now over the next five to seven years. And it's just started to take off. So you've being able to see that on the front line and take action on it as well has been amazing to see. And then Perth another great market that's already seen a massive uplift and so well done.
David Chehade :Congratulations on you making moves and building wealth as well. 'cause it's one thing helping clients and navigate their finances and seeing what they're doing. It's the other being able to build that freedom yourself as well, which is what we're all about. And next episode we'll have to go through yours, but that might be an hour episode. Yeah. Don't have the time. Happy to share. And I've leveraged the Brisbane market. Yeah. You know myself quite a lot this year as well and made some big moves there. So, without that leverage ability piece, which is an important piece Yes. That's enabled me to get in the market again and again. Yeah. Which is, it is compounded my growth.
David Chehade :Growth works on how much you're invested in the market and. If you're capped at one or two properties you're not gonna get as much. So that right area with that right. Growth really helps your portfolio in the long run. Massive. Yeah. We're talking hundreds of thousands over the long period of time. One thing you can tell anyone sitting on the sidelines thinking about investing right now, what would it be? Look, probably take action. Don't take action as in just go out and sign a contract and wing it. Yes. Take action. Seek out experts. It doesn't have to be us. We would love it to be us, of course. There's a lot of resources out there. There's more information than ever before. Our parents just didn't have access to this information take advantage of it. Have a team of experts who want to help you and get into the market.
David Chehade :Real estate's proven for. The last 400 years that it's just a good performer, amazing. Love that race. And in terms of from the finance side of things, a lot of people don't know if, and whether they can invest they're, not aware of it, they're not educated. Most people get told go to school, get a good job get a good degree, get a pay your mortgage off and buy a house. And a lot of people get to that point. They have kids, they live week to week and they're paying that mortgage off right up until they hit the age of 60, 65, and. They might have a home owned outright, a bit of super, and they're sitting at that point where that's what they've accumulated, following the system that they're told to do what their parents have told us, what the schooling system's told 'em.
David Chehade :Anyone out there that's bought a home that's sitting at that point from a finance side of things, most aren't aware what they can do. Tell us a bit of a scenario and show us like an example there. Maybe you have a client that you've been able to help in that situation, that has known that they could do something. How have you been able to guide 'em there? Yeah, it's a great question and obviously we're on the front line. So we are dealing with real clients every day. And just recently, the last maybe week or week before we, we had a lovely couple with family people stable income, but their existing bank just wasn't very supportive of their investment plans. And, the reality is the broker share of the market's increased.
David Chehade :Because of options. It is not necessarily anything else. It's just that we could go to those clients and go, look, your lender A said you could do this, which isn't enough to get into the market. Lender B said, you could do this, and now those clients are unconditional on investment properties. So it, it is just knowing your options and also understanding us as a company. Other people might do it differently, but we offer it, it's no cost. We'll look at your scenario and we'll tell you the truth. Yeah. Whether it's something we can do now a plan we can put in place for the future or. Whatever it looks like. You need to talk to someone. If you try to do this on your own, it's just gonna, it is probably gonna put you off. And that'd be a shame 'cause you'd miss out on a great opportunity. See so many people are loyal to their bank. They bank with that bank. Yeah. 'cause they had a savings account with them and then they've gone with them to get a loan and they only think that's what they can do. It's what their bank tells 'em. So massive value there.
David Chehade :Hey, in terms of being able to assess it 'cause the bank's just a vehicle. Yeah, absolutely. We want their money. As much money as they'll give us to have that work before us. Making us money. That's true. Leverage being able to use the bank's money to work for us and make us money. So it's who's gonna gimme the money? That's right. That's gonna help. Absolutely. You might be sitting on what you consider a large amount of equity, but if the lender's not supporting that to be funded by a loan, you're sitting on nothing. Yeah. Unless you sell the property, which probably isn't ideal for most people. So yeah. Big emphasis on reach out to an expert. It doesn't cost you anything but time. Yes. And, for an hour of your time, you might get a plan in place where you see real a, real light at the end of the tunnel as far as investing goes. Love that.
David Chehade :You mentioned the word equity. Tell me, how does that work? Because a lot of people don't even know how to utilise that. How do you leverage that? How does that actually work for your everyday person? That's bought the home. That's paying it off. Yeah. So if your everyday person look equity's, just in, in simple terms, the difference between what you owe and what your property's worth. Yes. And what your property's worth with banks is determined by valuation, which can be a big factor in who you go with as a lender as well. We're seeing big variances in vals. Valuations. What one person thinks your house might be worth, another person might be a completely different, their opinion might vary. We're talking five or 10% large figures. So it really is just the difference between a perceived value of an asset and what you owe against that asset.
David Chehade :And we can tap into that difference and use that to buy one investment property. It's that simple, but you need people to look into it for you. How goods that? And one of the biggest things a lot of people want do to use that is they'll go back to the bank A and the bank will say, great, we can lend you against your equity. Talk a bit about that. Going back to the bank versus having it structured right? Yeah. Look it. Most of people in the finance field are, have a banking background to a degree and, banks, they're neither good nor bad. They just have, they're a business, they operate on profit and, they operate on protecting their own interests, which is fair. Yes. But you go direct to your bank no fault of their own, no fault of yours. You may be put in a structure, which it's just not gonna support your future plans. We're, not so much set on this one transaction.
David Chehade :We want to try and build a platform. For you to hit whatever goal you have. Everyone's different. Yes. But if you want two or three investment properties and you get stuck with the wrong structure, 'cause you've dealt with maybe a lender who just isn't big in the investment space, it can put your plans back by years. Yes. Which is what we're seeing at the moment might be 10% of growth you've lost. Yes. It is a big deal. So structure's really important. And see your options just seek out the opinion of a professional. 'cause one lender with one representative will tell you. Everything they can about that one lender. But what does Australia have now? 30 or 40 different lenders. There's a lot out there. And they're all different. They all have different priorities and, they all have different products.
David Chehade :Yes. Massive trend right now is switching it up a little bit around the green products right now, sustainability. What opportunities do you see from an investor side of things there to embrace that? Yeah, the green trend has been very interesting to watch. 'cause obviously we've had a handful of lenders for a while now they've offered incentives if your property qualifies for a green product, which means it's built to a certain standard under NABERS. Yes. I believe it's seven stars. Is that right, Dave? Yes. Seven stars. And for a long time we would have to push builders for that product. But now interestingly, I'm seeing more build contracts just coming out of the out stock with seven stars. So obviously it's a bigger thing, and there is tangible value to it, right? If you have a seven star product home.
David Chehade :Certain banks will give you a hefty rate discount. Half a percent. Depends on what it is and where it is. Good seeing that banks onboard with that as well. Hey, I think it's some good press for the banks and it's good for everyone, right? A 1% difference in an interest rate to be able to go down the green product. Yeah. As an investor, a million bucks, that's 10 grand a year, that's $200 a week. It's massive. Everything helps when we're talking cash flow and things like that. But it's also long term positive. Obviously. We all want to do our part for the environment. Yes. Whatever that means to you. Yes. And at the same time, look, resale value would probably be a bit higher. Yes. Ability to rent the property out depending on what you've implemented to make it green might make it more attractive.
David Chehade :We're hearing from our property management team Yes. That anything you have that let's be honest, it's any rental's a good rental Yes. But anything you have that separates you from the crowd Yeah. Seems to help. It seems to get a better outcome. So it's been very interesting and I'm excited to see. If they expand on this Yes. What this looks like in the future and, already our builders, they're supporting it in a big way. Yes. And they're willing to do what it takes to get that green product. Yeah. Amazing. Love that. Switching up to where do we invest traditionally it's been like capital cities gotta buy Coastal Capital City. We're seeing a lot of emerging markets right now. More your regional locations. Do you wanna talk a little bit to regional versus. CBD investing as a strategy.
David Chehade :Yeah. I think for a long time the predominant opinion amongst investors was proximity to the CBD. Yes. Which is still a great strategy and you'll get a lot of value out of that. But what you are guided by is your capacity to lend. And a regional opportunity like we consider Toowoomba Regional, it's a big place, but Toowoomba alone, I think we were looking at it this morning, something like 10% growth in the last year. Yes. Still a lot of potential. Just because it has the 'tag' regional doesn't mean it's inferior. It's just a different product, right? It's a different entry point to the market, which for the mum and dad investors may be what they need to get their foot in the door.
David Chehade :And we're seeing the rise from work, from home. The CBD model came about 'cause you, you're gonna need. People wanna live near come, they want to live near where they work. Employment opportunities, things of that nature. Working from home, people are valuing lifestyle more. They're valuing the beach, the countryside, but whatever it means to them. But for the investor, it means that. You can build a, healthy portfolio in markets that maybe are a little bit of a affordable price point, but you're still getting a great return. You're not missing out. It's just a different product. Amazing. Because it comes back down to where's the infrastructure Exactly. Getting brought in. What amenities are there? What's coming, where do people want to live? Yeah. And I think traditionally the mentality of everyone wants to live in a, city or in a city suburb that's going out the window now where people and Covid really brought that on. It's more lifestyle. What, where do we wanna live that we're gonna be happy? Where do we wanna raise our kids? Do we wanna be out in the country? Do we wanna be close to the beach? And those regional areas we've seen a massive uplift in.
David Chehade :Exactly. It's about doing that research and identifying it, and there's still great opportunities in some locations that are still under market value, massive infrastructure coming into boost these areas. But you could buy at such affordable prices that we, you can expect to see those areas double over the next five, seven years. And that's the research. Yeah, absolutely. And we're seeing that with some clients already who got in maybe even two, three years ago, they're seeing some great results and. It comes down, to opportunity. If a regional market's providing the opportunity, then that's the opportunity to take. Yes. And I'm not saying throw a dart on a map of Australia and buy wherever it lands. There needs to be, like I said, the key is always research and that's what our team specialises in. They know not every regional market's the same. Just every metro market's the same.
David Chehade :Yes. And you need to buy in the right area for the right time. Yes. And, we can really help that. Yep. Beautiful. Love that. Look, slow rental growth shaping the market right now. What do you see there with the tight rental conditions for investors? Look, this is an interesting question 'cause I don't necessarily agree that rental growth is slowing. At least from our property management division, that they are seeing still low, vacancy rates. Yes. You're still seeing 13, 14 people lining up for a rental property, which. When I was renting many years ago just wasn't the case. You would apply for a rental and you'd generally get it. Yeah. It was not a stressful exercise. Now we're seeing a massive amount of stress and tension around getting a rental property.
David Chehade :But look, I think it comes back to supply and demand, just the same as it works with the purchase price. It works with the rental price. If, if you've got multiple people wanting to rent that property, your rent will be higher. Yes. So it's, an interesting point and I think. It comes down to the research factor. Again, I know you've said it about five times. Yes. But research is key and our team focuses on vacancy rates, things of that nature. And if you've got a low vacancy rate if you've got not many houses in the area vacant, you'll have generally a good performing rental market. Be brilliant. Yeah. Because that really does come down to that demand factor. Like people want to live there. Yeah. Therefore, the rental supply is limited 'cause so many people want to get into that area. And by doing that research right, and buying those locations strategically.
David Chehade :You're really set yourself up for maximum growth. I believe so, Dave and I agree with you. Exactly. I think that rings true to me and I'm sure Australia's a big country, right? I'm sure there are areas that don't perform as well as others and maybe they have other priorities that other area might be better at a different investor category. Yes. But for our properties in the areas we look at, the rent returns a big factor. Amazing. Love that. Thank you so much for your time today, Reece. You're helping hundreds of clients across the country.
David Chehade :You've been at the REIF team now for over seven years. Helping investors from the finance side of things set themselves up. You've changed thousands of lives while you've been with us, so thank you for everything you do appreciate your time, appreciate your expertise and insights. Oh, no worries. Happy to be here anytime and thank you for your time, Dave.
David Chehade :Beautiful. And I hope you've gotten a lot out of today's podcast. So guys, if you think that this is something that would benefit other people, share it like it, we'll be coming to you with more tips, strategies around finance, property so stay tuned. Thanks heaps guys.