Two weeks ago I did my usual NZ Property Video Podcast where I interviewed Ashley Church from the Property Institute of New Zealand.

One of the topics we spoke about was his view on where he sees the current market and what will follow in the upcoming years. Like many others including myself, he sees that the property market is currently stabilising and will be for around the next four years. He believes that overall it will most likely stay relatively consistent and without significant rises or declines.

So if this is the case, what can we do as investors?

During the past year, I have written columns about ways of taking advantage of such a property market by mainly adding value to properties (for example: adding rooms, minor dwellings, subdividing, renovating and so on).

What I’d like to discuss this month is a strategy that many people weren’t taught or told about when I first got into property investing about 14 years ago.

Back then in the investor groups I was involved in, it was all about leveraging debt as high as you can. You could leverage close to or over 100% of a property’s value. We all thought it was great, as there was no money involved in the deal.

Unfortunately, when things changed for the worse and house prices declined, and interest rates went up, many of my friends as well as myself were in dire straits – I had two trades that hurt me for many years afterwards.

‘Another reason why it’s a good idea to repay the principal is if the market goes down by 10% (or more), you have less risk’

Over the past three years or so the Reserve Bank has made changes to avoid such situations within reason for investors. Even though over the last 18 months it has really annoyed many investors, in my opinion, it saved many inexperienced investors when the market flattened and even went down in some areas.

So what am I suggesting?

If you can, pay as much debt off your property as possible. Obviously I suggest looking at your own house first, at least while you can until the Government makes changes.

As I mentioned before, when I started paying principal off, it was a swear word.

However, I now think paying debt off on property brings so many benefits for investors, such as:

• Reducing debt from the principal quicker
• Reducing debt by saving on interest you would normally have to pay
• Having less debt and being ready to buy another property when the perfect opportunity comes along, that you need to react fast for
• Receiving more cash flow from rent payments (which you should also increase as the time goes on, creating even more cash flow)
• A possibility of paying the debt off much quicker resulting in a better cash flow.

These are some reasons which can amplify your investing in a safe way and help you move forward with reducing debt.

Another reason why it’s a good idea to repay the principal is if the market goes down by 10% (or more), you have less risk, as you paid money off the principal.

Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone, and some simply don’t have spare cash to do this. Some investors create 30% to 40% equity without doing this.

However, if Ashley Church and many other experts are correct about the market in the upcoming years, if you buy a property where you can’t add any value (which may still be a good investment) and you do have spare cash, using the above strategy can have you reducing debt and creating better equity and cash flow while having less risk.

Property Ventures is a licensed Real Estate Agency that specialises in Investment property throughout New Zealand. They also have the NZ Property podcast/YouTube series where Mark interviews the property experts from around the country helping hundreds of thousands of investors. He can be contacted at mark@propertyventures.co.nz or 0800 NZPROPERTY (697767) Or watch the Podcast/YouTube video at www.propertyventures.co.nz/podcasts