Mike Bentley
I am Australian born, but was raised and educated in Hong Kong at Peak School and King George Vth (KGV).
After KGV I returned to Australia to continue my education and after various business mishaps, I then joined the giant property agency, LJ Hooker in Sydney, where I got my first taste of the real estate world.
Returning to Hong Kong in the early 1980’s to open a real estate office for a land development company, I stayed 9 months, and realised that Asian investors wanted INCOME PRODUCING real estate, not vacant land that produced no rental.
I then joined innovative Sydney real estate agent Ben Boyd Real Estate in 1985 and returned to Hong Kong to establish their HK office selling blue-chip, prime income producing Sydney property to expatriates and Hong Kong investors.
I was the first person to provide Australian property services in Hong Kong, organised the first ever Australian property exhibition in Hong Kong and have been fortunate enough to have been an Award Winning International Estate agent, a regular seminar and webinar presenter, and been featured in many Australian and Asian newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes.
In addition to providing advisory services to Australian property developers, I have helped overseas investors to buy, sell and manage over AUD 1 billion in Australian residential properties, and have written 3 top selling investment books.
My personal real estate journey has involved building a portfolio of eleven properties, in Sydney, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Perth.
I still reside in Hong Kong and am a member of the Hong Kong Football Club, the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC), the Ladies Recreation Club (LRC), the Beas River Country Club as well as the Tanglin Club and the Cricket Club in Singapore, and the Royal Kings Park Tennis Club (Perth, WA).
This site shares my strategies for investing in real estate as safely as possible. I also share my ideas for building a real estate portfolio through my book, Buy 4 Properties from Just One Initial Deposit..and Retire!”
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Dear Readers
In 2020, the world started to fall to pieces, Covid-19, recession, unemployment, travel restrictions, lockdowns and social unrest.
2020 evolved into the biggest crisis the world had confronted since the second world war and the biggest economic disaster since the Depression of the 1930s.
The world came into this moment with divisions among the super powers and incredible incompetence at the highest levels of government of so many countries.
Many people’s net worth was dropping, and those with money or a secure job, were wondering where to invest. Australian property has been a popular investment class for decades, proving reliable capital growth and secure rental income.
The chaos over the virus meant many investors, both in Australia and overseas, were seeking to make some sense out of what was happening, what was likely to happen, and what they should do. Mainstream media was of little help, with sensationalist news stories offering little in ‘real-world’ information.
I thought it would be a good idea to start an Australian property blog to help myself and others make sense of chaos.
After all, I had spent over 30 years working in the Australian property market, had opened offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta, and had invested personally in real estate in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, both houses and apartments, and helped friends and clients purchase over AU$1 Billion in Australia residential properties.
I had built my reputation in the industry and my career on research and integrity to investors, letting them know the way things REALLY were.
Many of us still remember the collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2006 and the ensuing financial crisis that wreaked havoc on the U.S. and around the world. Financial crises are, unfortunately, quite common in history and often cause economic tsunamis in affected economies.
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In fact, the most commonly accepted list of the 6 most-devastating financial crises of modern times, of which I was in business - in the real estate game- during 3 of them- are:
The Credit Crisis of 1772
The Great Depression of 1929–39
The OPEC Oil Price Shock of 1973
The Stock Market Crash of 1987
The Asian Crisis of 1997
The Financial Crisis of 2007–08
My Australian Property Investors’ blog delves deep into investing in the Australian real estate market including buying real estate as part of retirement planning, building property portfolios and more, so we can all understand property investing better, and make more informed decisions to achieve sound property investments even in troubled times
Every article is written based off first- hand experience to provide the most helpful insights possible. You can only learn so much from the financial media, books, webinars and newspapers. While you can gain knowledge from the internet, you can’t gain experience.
I believe Australian property knowledge is too important to be left up to pontification from young journalists.
If you want to read property articles written by a 30+ year veteran, you’ve come to the right place.
Experience takes decades to acquire, and comes with a cost. It’s just too difficult for beginners and even more experienced investors to gain perspective on what’s happening in today’s rapidly changing markets. That takes time, experience, market knowledge and research.
I am hands on in the market, every single day.
Personal Philosophy
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” said Winston Churchill.
Any time you can combine providing real value with doing what you love, you’ve hit the jackpot! I set up this blog because I love the real estate business.
Asian food (surprise, surprise) is definitely one of my most preferred foods and I can watch football (soccer) all day long. I’m an avid footy player, who would still play if a serious injury didn’t stop me in early 2020.
I’ve made and lost tens of thousands of dollars in real estate and the stock market. However, so far, haven’t lost anything through real estate, but it has all been lost in the stock market! Which is why I don’t write on the stock market LOL!
My real estate experience relates to doing over AU$1 billion in client transactions, and owning 11 individual properties myself, in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, both houses and apartments- studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and 3 bedrooms.
As a result, I’ve learned the hard way that good real estate should never be sold, and you should only buy stocks with professional advice and help, in my opinion.
I have regretted NOT buying, BUT never regretted buying, real estate.
I have regretted SELLING real estate, BUT never regretted holding real estate.
If there is one take away from this blog, those two sentences above probably sum it up.
I failed to act and buy in Singapore when I moved there in 1992. That decision probably cost me $1 million dollars.
I panicked and SOLD in Hong Kong when Margaret Thatcher announced Britain was handing Hong Kong back to China in 1997. That decision cost me another $2 million or more.
If honestly if I could earn US$100k a year, I’d be very content; I really don’t need a whole lot more to be happy. Without debt it doesn’t take much to live a comfortable life.
While all this may be true, however, I still think that Au$250,000 – $350,000 a year per household is the ideal income for maximum happiness. Studies show that the poor and rich are equally happy, so why not strive to be rich?
Expertise, experience and education is absolutely the key to success with Australian property investments.
I arrived in Hong Kong in March 1985, to sell Sydney property with Ben Boyd real estate.
Two years later we had the biggest stock market meltdown since the great recession.
I had recently purchased my second flat in Sydney, and had money in funds. Luckily the money in funds I had placed through a friend of mine.
So on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, my friend managed to liquidate my funds, and I survived intact the stock market crash of 1987.
Under those frightening circumstances I changed my mind about investing in shares and stock. My new flat had a great tenant, and the value barely seemed to drop, but I nearly lost over 50% of my cash in the funds.
In later years I again invested in the stock market, this time not in funds but directly in shares.
Both these two times I lost 100% of my capital.
As a result, I’ve learned the hard way that good real estate should never be sold, and you should only buy stocks with money you can afford to lose completely, in my opinion.
Latest Investment Focus: Build to Rent (BTR)
For 2021 and beyond, I’m deploying my own capital more conservatively in low tax, low fees higher yielding real estate in development projects in the rapidly growing real estate phenomena Build to Rent (‘BTR”).
The global pandemic and lockdowns have accelerated the work from home and remote work trend, plus changed tenants habits, probably forever, and created a demand for community.
Build to Rent only began in Australia around 2018, and my private real estate company, Aurient Investment Partners will I hope be the pioneer of a certain segment of BTR in Melbourne.
BTR has the potential for great growth due to positive demographic trends and lower valuations. With work from home booming due to the coronavirus, a massive demographic trend is in the works which will last for decades to come.
The great thing about BTR is that you can invest in projects with potentially 12 – 15% + annual returns with low entry and exit costs and few fees or taxes.
Of course, you do need substantial capital of around AU$500- AU$1 million to get involved in these private equity deals.
I am investing in Build to Rent and am looking forward to earning money passively compared to actively managing a rental portfolio and dealing with maintenance issues and tenants. Of course, there are no guarantees with any investment, so only invest in what you are comfortable with.
Contact Us
E-mail: mike at citylifeproperty.com
Mailing address: 24 Floor, LKF 29, 29 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong