[Australia Sucks]

I live in an expensive part of Sydney (Australia) and just saw an apartment advertised for sale (for auction actually) next door to where I live. I worked out if you bought the property outright without a loan and ran it as a completely passive investment (using a property manager, outsourcing repairs and maintenance, etc) even on a low tax rate your net yield (after tax) would be less than 1%! There are still some cities in Australia where you can get decent yields on properties but not in Sydney or Melbourne! You would have to be absolutely nuts to buy a property (in today's market) in Sydney as investment (its different if you just want a house to live in). Actually with the level of interest rates in Australia you could get at least 2% (pre-tax) by parking your money in a savings account. So blue chip Sydney property gives you less yield than an Australian savings account with a local bank.