A new breakdown of 6,600 investor portfolios has uncovered that Australia’s genuine top one per cent are those with portfolios worth nearly $12 million, challenging the long-held belief that owning six properties defines investor success.
For more than a decade, one statistic has dominated Australia’s property conversation, which is that fewer than one per cent of investors own six or more properties, according to ATO data. But new analysis from Gameplans shows this long-standing metric is not only outdated, it also fundamentally misrepresents who Australia’s real top one per cent of property investors actually are.
According to Jordan de Jong, Founder of Gameplans, the industry’s fixation on property count has created a distorted picture of investor success.
“Almost every property commentator has made a piece of content on the data that fewer than one per cent of property investors own six or more properties,” he says.
“My biggest gripe with this statement is that you could either have six properties worth $300,000 each or one property worth $1.8 million and have the same overall portfolio value. Why do we use this metric as a measure of success?”
While ATO data confirms that most Australians never progress beyond a single investment property, Gameplans’ new research – drawn from 6,600 real investor portfolios – reveals a far more meaningful definition of the top one per cent, which has nothing to do with how many titles someone holds.
According to Gameplan’s research and analysis:
• The top 1% hold portfolios worth an average of $11.7 million
• The top 5% sit at $5.89 million
• The top 10% at $4.35 million
•Half of all users hold portfolios valued at $1.54 million or less
When broken into value bands, 30.5% of investors hold portfolios under $1 million and 62% below $2 million, while only 7.21% exceed $5 million – a far more telling indicator of true investor success.
PIPA Chair Cate Bakos says the industry has long needed a shift away from simplistic property-count metrics. “Too often we see investors chasing a number rather than a strategy,” Ms Bakos says.
“The value, performance and suitability of each asset matter far more than how many properties someone can accumulate.
“Investors who work with qualified property investment professionals build portfolios based on quality, not quantity – and that’s what leads to long-term success.”
Mr de Jong says the current benchmark of property count rewards the wrong investor behaviour. “The traditional ‘six-properties’ metric doesn’t clarify the value of each asset, the quality of the portfolio, or whether those properties are actually performing,” he says.
“And many investors, with what I would consider ‘lemon properties’, pride themselves on being in the top one per cent when in reality they are not.
“By shifting the focus from volume to value, our data reveals who Australia’s top one per cent of property investors really are, and why it’s time to retire the six-property myth for good.”
For an interview with Gameplans Founder Jordan de Jong or PIPA Chair Cate Bakos please contact: the PIPA media team | [email protected] | 02 7205 0700
