Released last week, more than a quarter of this year’s list was individuals whose wealth was accumulated through property, including Meriton Group Owner Harry Triguboff who claimed the top spot with a personal wealth of $10.62b.
Frank Lowy (No.3/$8.62b), John Gandel (No.5/$5.4b) and Hui Wing Mai (No.6/$5.39b) also all featured in the list’s top-10 thanks to their property decisions, while Stan Perron featured at number 12 with a total of $2.88b.
In total, 54 people on the list generated their wealth through property, followed by the retail industry (24) and other forms of investors (23).
While not everybody will reach the financial heights of those who feature in the BRW list, Lindy Lear, general manager of Rocket Property Group, said there is no reason the everyday property investor shouldn’t sell themselves short in the goals they set.
“People set realistic goals on what they think they can do. They think this all I’ve got now, so I’ll set my goals on that, whereas what we teach them is to set the unrealistic goals,” Lear said.
“[Rocket Property Group founder] Ian [Hosking Richard’s] favourite saying is that it’s not about your resources, it’s all about your resourcefulness. If you’ve got a goal it changes your thinking, you think ‘what do I have to do to get that goal,” she said.
“Suddenly you become very resourceful and opportunities or ways of getting started will appear before you.”
Lear said setting an ultimate goal, no matter how unlikely achieving it may be, is one of the key steps all investors need to take.
“People very much underestimate themselves. They’re usually paralysed by fear of making a mistake so they never get started,” she said.
“People are so fearful that it’s too risky, they might not get a tenant or something like that, that they never get going. But I’d be more fearful of doing nothing and having nothing to show for it 10 or 15 years’ time.
“We’re not all going to be multi-millionaires or billionaires, but to me goals are everything and you need to have a picture of what you want. My goal is to leave a legacy for my children and that’s what drives me.
“Everybody is building a portfolio for a reason. Usually investors will talk about passive income or being able to retire in so many years. But there’s something else that will drive the successful people to reach higher and that’s what these 200 people on the [BRW list] have and they’ve used property as a vehicle to achieve that.”
While setting an ultimate goal for yourself is an important step, Lear said it’s also important that investors don’t allow naysayers to stifle their ambition.
“People will often get buyer’s remorse after speaking to friends and family and convince themselves they’ve made the wrong decision.
“Some of our most successful investors don’t want anyone else to know for that very reason. They want to keep it private, they don’t tell other people because they know they’ll got ‘oh what did you do that for?’ or ‘you’re stupid, you’re going to lose all your money.’”
“Friends and family will often do that from a place of concern, but they don’t realise the impact it can have on people. We’ve had people who have reversed their decisions based on fear given to them by people who know nothing and have no expertise around property.”
