Pod Insights The Property Academy Podcast From 1 Property To 5 – Here's How She Did It [Case Study] Quotes “We bought this property in 2006. It was our first investment property and we didn't buy it with the intention of developing it.” Unnamed speaker · 1:18 · Share this quote “We were confident that the numbers would still work.” Unnamed speaker · 3:59 · Share this quote “I do regret not buying more properties sooner because it has become harder to become a landlord with the increased regulations.” Unnamed speaker · 22:06 · Share this quote “The property was first purchased for $320,000 and we had sort of rented it until 2022, which at that point was $765 per week.” Unnamed speaker · 1:51 · Share this quote “We actually later sold that Papa Toitoi property to the tenants. And that was in December of two thousand and twenty-one. And we sold that to them for one point two million.” Unnamed speaker · 12:29 · Share this quote About this episode Sarah bought a home-and-income in South Auckland back in 2006, and years later turned it into a five-townhouse development. So, how did she become a property developer, and what did it really take?
In this Case Study Sunday, Sarah shares how she built a seven-property portfolio, even while living overseas.
You'll learn:
How this investor turned one property into fiveThe challenges she faced when she turned herself into a property developerHer biggest regret from investing in propertyThe lesson? Fortune favours the bold... and the patient. Sarah's story is a reminder that the real money in property is made over the long term.
Want to share your story on Case Study Sunday? Send us a message, email [email protected] mailto:[email protected]
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Transcript 0:08 Speaker 00 Hello and welcome along to the Property Academy Podcast by Opes Partners. I'm your host, Stephen Knight. And I'm Andrew Nicoll. And this is the show that helps Kiwis go from zero to five investment properties. So you could be financially free and stick around for the next 15 minutes because you're going to learn how this investor turned one property into five. The challenges she faced when she turned herself into a property developer and her biggest regret from investing in property. And to walk us through her story, we're joined all the way from Auckland by Sarah. Sarah, welcome along to the show.
0:38 Speaker 01 Thank you for having me.
0:39 Speaker 00 Look, I want to, I want to skip to the good stuff, Sarah. Let's talk about this development you did. How did you manage to turn one house into five?
0:49 Speaker 01 There was the opportunity to develop our first investment property after the Auckland Unitary Plan was introduced in 2013. So it was something that we had been considering for a while.
1:03 Speaker 00 And so how did you acquire this property, right? So did you buy it after the Unitary Plan was kind of announced and there were these additional opportunities floating around or like, what year did you buy it and what year did you develop it?
1:18 Speaker 01 So we bought this property in 2006. It was our first investment property and we didn't buy it with the intention of developing it. It was a house in Mungry East, which was a three bedroom 1950s house. And there was a 1980s minor dwelling on the back and large flat section of 810 square metres.
1:42 Speaker 00 Okay, so you've got this big piece of land. You figure out, okay, we can actually put five units on, on this. How do you go about pulling that all together?
1:51 Speaker 01 The property was first purchased for $320,000 and we had sort of rented it until 2022, which at that point was $765 per week. But we had always intended that maybe it was a good idea to develop it further. And so we decided to start the project in 2021. But then we actually did face higher building costs and reduced property prices. But at the time in 2021, we had a registered valuation, which came back at 4.75 million.
2:33 Speaker 01 But then that actually had dropped to 4.3 million by when we finished it in, in 2024. And unfortunately our costs reduced to from 68 to 31% return on costs. But we were looking at this with a buy and hold lens and, and we didn't intend to sell the properties and we were going to rent them out. So it, it did make sense to continue with this project, even though there were those changes.
3:07 Speaker 00 So can I just get, make sure I've got this right in my head? So you buy your first investment and you think, right, now that we're an investor, we're going to be a developer. So then you dive in with a five unit development and right at quite a, quite a challenging time in the market and your margins get squeezed, but you still managed to stay positive. How did you manage to do that?
3:30 Speaker 01 At that point, we had been investing for quite a while and we had, had a feasibility, which also we had looked at the costs carefully and we were confident that the numbers would work with the increased building costs and the issues at the time with the higher interest rates and also the, the lower rental amount. We were confident that the numbers would still work.
4:04 Speaker 00 And when I think about what it is that people are trying to achieve out of property, some people are going for capital growth, some people are going for income now, some people are going for a combination. What was it that you were setting out to achieve? And when you say the numbers still work, what did the end numbers do for you?
4:21 Speaker 01 We've always invested in terms of something that provides a good yield and we want good cash flow. So that is a priority over capital growth. We want to invest in areas where there is going to be capital growth, but we also want there to be a good yield as, as well. And even though over, you know, the, the few years in the early 2021 period and onwards, even though there were some increased building costs, we actually did have some good growth in terms of the, the rental costs, the rental amount as, as well.
5:03 Speaker 01 So we did rent them all out in 2024 and each was rented out for 750 each per week. So that's a total of 3,750 for all of them per week and 195,000 per year. So it was still a good return on our investment.
5:28 Speaker 00 Sure. And when you say return on our investment, so I'm thinking a little bit about how you funded all this, because we spoke about some pretty sizable numbers. How much cash did you have to put in your actual own physical cash to be able to make this work? And what does the actual cash flow look like after all the bills are paid, including mortgage?
5:46 Speaker 01 I do have, you know, all those, those numbers. And even with all the costs dropping, we still probably came out of this with a profit of, you know, 500,000. So it still did work for us, you know, even with all those, those difficulties.
6:06 Speaker 00 That's great. Now, one thing I'm really interested in as well, Sarah, is you keep saying our investments and, and we, our first property, who's, who's the we and who's the our?
6:17 Speaker 01 So the, the us is, it's mostly me who's interested in investment, but my, there's also my husband as well.
6:25 Speaker 00 Oh, you roped him into it, did you?
6:30 Speaker 01 Yes. Yeah. So he's, um, he was happy to go along once they showed in like the, the numbers and he has been along on the investment journey as well.
6:41 Speaker 00 Let me ask you about that, because one thing that so many people ask us is often in a, in a relationship, one is dead keen on property, the other needs to be dragged along a bit. We see that very, very often. Sometimes you get two people who are both mad about it, but often one's more keen than the other. So what's been your process? Cause if you've been convincing him for the last 20 years, since 2006, to go along with your property investing. Just trust me. You know, with your, yeah, with your, your property investing ideas. Talk to us about, about how you've managed to do that and how you've managed to convince them.
7:14 Speaker 01 Well, he is an any engineer and does like seeing the numbers. And so, you know, I have always, you know, provided, you know, a good case in terms of, you know, the, the figures that are involved and, you know, also looking at, you know, what's not only what we're hoping to achieve, but also, you know, what is the worst case scenario?
7:38 Speaker 00 I know, Andrew, you, you struggle with engineers sometimes because they're so detailed. Everyone does. Do you know, I'm dealing with an engineer at the moment and we got into a meeting the other day. He's like, now I have to talk to you. I listened to the podcast this morning and you said, we're difficult. I was like, yes, you are. No, he's, they're actually pretty relaxed, but you're right. You've got to be very, very considered with all the numbers and they're very fixated on how everything's going to come together and, and they don't have a lot of faith. You've got to actually be able to convince them that this is going to work. When you said, okay, this is the best case scenario, here's the worst case scenario. And then of course you had, you know, this increasing cost, decreasing rent, the numbers weren't quite as good.
8:21 Speaker 00 Was there ever a moment where he was like, oh, hang on a minute, you've sold me a bill of goods?
8:27 Speaker 01 Well, there were some, you know, difficulties with, with the project and it was stressful, you know, at some, some points, but it all worked out in, in the end. And I think he does. Have a lot of, of trust in my ability to, to sort out those things and probably just not thinking about it.
8:48 Speaker 00 That's probably the best thing. And, and I know you didn't start out as a property developer. You bought your first home at twenty-three, straight out of university. So can you take us right back to the very beginnings here? And tell us how you ended up here?
9:00 Speaker 01 Yes. So my husband and I were both twenty-three when we got married and bought our first home. And I had just finished university, doing a marketing degree. My husband was still actually at university, finishing his PhD. So we purchased a house in Glen Eden for a hundred and sixty-five thousand. And that was on a large section and it did need renovating. So we actually rented the spare rooms to some homestay students. And they helped us pay the mortgage. We did some of the renovation work ourselves, but the renovations did cost more than expected. As the house did need a new roof.
9:43 Speaker 01 But I know I grew up in a, a family of, of property investors. And I, you know, have also formed a keen interest in investing and, and developing myself. So, you know, I was, you know, keen for the, the challenge of it.
9:59 Speaker 00 Talk to us about what you saw when your family were investing. Like, what are some of your memories as being a bit younger? And watching, I don't know if it was your parents or your uncles and aunts, but you saw other people investing. What did you see?
10:13 Speaker 01 So my family have always had a very sort of positive attitude to, to property. And, and so I've also grown up with, with that as well. And I think, you know, potentially too, that was because of, you know, the share market crash in the nineteen eighties as well. And, and so they saw that probably as more risky than, than property. And so that has been, I guess, what has influenced me as well as, as seeing property as, as something that is safer and, and better to invest in.
10:51 Speaker 00 Isn't it funny, the cycles that we go through and the recency bias that we apply to our situation? Like, if you think about someone right now, starting out, you'd look at shares as less risky and property is way more risky because they've had this massive drop. Whereas you go back then, it was the other way around. And, you know, if we have another correction in the share market, it could be that in a few years' time, we've flipped again.
11:12 Speaker 01 Yes, definitely.
11:13 Speaker 00 So we talked about the first investment property you bought, which you eventually developed. But interestingly enough, after you bought that first investment property in two thousand and six, you basically bought again almost immediately. How did, how did that story go?
11:29 Speaker 01 Yes. So we saw another property, um, which was in, in Papa Toitoi, which we also thought was, was a good, a good buy. We, the first property we had bought in Mangri East had a yield which was over eight percent at the time with the two income streams. And then a couple of months later, there was a Papa Toitoi property that came on the market. So we also decided to buy that one too. It was a two storied home in an, an attractive street. And we bought that from an investor for three hundred and eighteen thousand.
12:08 Speaker 01 We had bought our first property investment that had tenants already in place. But the property at, at Papa Toitoi, we needed to find tenants for. But there was then a combined yield across both the Mangri East and the Papa Toitoi property of seven point nine percent. And we actually later sold that Papa Toitoi property to the tenants. And that was in December of two thousand and twenty-one. And we sold that to them for one point two million.
12:40 Speaker 00 Wow. Jesus Christ. So wait, you bought, you bought it for three hundred and eighteen grand?
12:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
12:46 Speaker 00 You sold for one point two?
12:49 Speaker 01 One point two.
12:50 Speaker 00 You made nine hundred or so, well, not, not quite nine, about eight hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars.
12:55 Speaker 01 Yes.
12:56 Speaker 00 Plus the cash flow along the way. You, yes, I mean, you sold at a great, at, at like the perfect time you could have sold, right? Like, that was, you got that timing bang on. And if you sold it directly to the tenants, there would have been no real estate agent fee as well. So you save yourself fifty grand or so on that.
13:12 Speaker 01 Yes.
13:13 Speaker 00 Now, I've actually had a lot of investors ask me about how hard or easy it is to sell a property to a tenant. Tell us about that experience.
13:20 Speaker 01 Well, they had been sort of thinking about it for a while. And because it was their first property to buy, they were a little bit nervous about it and didn't really know, you know, how to go about that. But I was able to actually put them in touch with a mortgage broker who was able to help them identify how much that they were able to spend in terms of their deposit. And also helping them with their KiwiSaver as well, because there was an extended family that were buying it together as well. And it did all work out better for them than what they actually thought at the time.
14:01 Speaker 01 They weren't sure whether they had enough, but they actually had, you know, more than enough to actually do that. And they also, because it was an extended family, there, there weren't a lot of properties that would have suited them as well. So they didn't want to sort of risk losing it because it, there wasn't a lot else on the market that they could move to.
14:24 Speaker 00 And so you, when you sold that property, you would have got quite a large windfall, yeah? We're talking about a substantial amount of money. What did you use the money to do?
14:33 Speaker 01 Now, that money was used in terms of, of the development and, and a while. Yeah.
14:41 Speaker 00 And did you have to apply for any finance from the bank for that development as well?
14:45 Speaker 01 We did have finance. Yes, we initially went to a mainstream bank for that. But we did use a second tier lender as well when it came to the actual development part of it too. We did initially approach the mainstream bank, you know, in terms of that. But they actually, the requirement with our mainstream bank is that they wanted us to have pre-purchased sales. And we didn't want to do that because we wanted to, you know, hold them all as rentals at the end, which we did. And in two thousand and twenty-four, we did rent them all out.
15:25 Speaker 01 And so we didn't want to sell them. So it made sense to go with, you know, a, a non-bank lender.
15:31 Speaker 00 Okay. So, so sometimes banks will say, right, you can only afford to keep three out of the five of these. So you're going to sell two of those and we want to see sale and purchase agreements to confirm that you've sold them. You said, no, we want to keep all of them. So you had to use a non-bank lender. Does that mean you had to stay with the non-bank lender after you'd finished the project? Or were you in a position where the equity had gone up, the rental income was good? And you could show that actually this had worked and then a bank would take you back over?
15:58 Speaker 01 So it was just a temporary situation that we were using them until the end of the development. Then we refinanced it back to the mainstream bank at that point. And then they were happy, you know, once it was complete and we had it all finalized and they were ready to rent. They were then happy to, to finance.
16:19 Speaker 00 And did you do that all yourself or did you use a broker?
16:23 Speaker 01 So we've, we've always used a, a mortgage broker.
16:26 Speaker 00 Now, one thing I'm really interested in is about in two thousand and fifteen, you moved over to the Philippines, but kept on investing in New Zealand property. So how did you manage to keep on buying here while you're over in a different time zone?
16:44 Speaker 01 Yes. So in two thousand and fifteen, from the, the Philippines, we bought a five bedroom home in, in Mangri East. And that was using a property finder. So I had briefed the, the property finder on what I was looking for. And they were able to find a property that was a, a good fit. I had an investor friend view the property for me at the time. And then I was able to view the property myself and finalize the documentation when we were back in New Zealand for the Christmas holidays of that year.
17:20 Speaker 00 And so how did you manage to renovate it from overseas?
17:23 Speaker 01 First of all, we, we renovated the Papa Toitoi investment property. So our property manager was able to check on the work for that and send photos. And once that was complete, we were able to increase the rent by forty percent. And that was some cosmetic renovation work. On returning from the Philippines in two thousand and twenty-three, we renovated the Mangri East property that we had bought while we were in the Philippines. And we spent thirty thousand on the renovation. We were then able to increase the property rent from six fifty to eight hundred per week. So that was an extra seven thousand eight hundred per year.
18:05 Speaker 01 We also renovated a Manurua property at the time, spending thirty thousand to increase the rent from. Six sixty to eight hundred. So that was an extra seven thousand two hundred and eighty per year. So pretty chunky increases to rent. What did you do in those renovations to be able to increase the rent so much? It was just all cosmetic renovations. So paint, carpet, new kitchen bench tops. Is there a possibility that maybe you were slightly under rented because of just the the condition of the house beforehand? Because it does seem like a sizable increase. I don't think they were under rented because we do also use a property manager
18:50 Speaker 01 for managing them. And we do ensure that there is no regular, you know, yearly checks in terms of that we are keeping the the rent at the market level. You've you've had some great increases. And actually, just one of the common themes as you're talking here is that you've used a property finder, you've used a mortgage broker, you use a property manager. So you've got a lot of professionals in your corner. Has that always been part of your strategy? Yes, it has. I've always used sort of others as part of my teams because they offer expertise that I don't have. And I have always been keen on on networking as well with business and property networking groups. So I used to belong to Business Networks
19:34 Speaker 01 International, which is known as BNI. And I have been a member of the Auckland Property Investors Association since two thousand and eight. So through networking groups, I have met people like accountants, financial consultants, mortgage brokers, lawyers, real estate agents, property managers and builders. And just walk us through what your property portfolio looks like today. So we've got the five townhouses. Do we still have the Mangere East property? And and is there anything else going on? Yes. So today, like we have, you know, bought and sold a number of properties. But today we do have, you know, seven investment properties.
20:19 Speaker 01 And what I what I always want to know is, what's it all for? What is the ultimate goal that you're aiming to achieve through property, be it, you know, a number or or a lifestyle? Or what do you actually just want to do with your time? So the aim of this is to, you know, provide, you know, passive income and to also considering, you know, retirement, but also, you know, be having income so we don't need to rely on other other work. But I think I also just enjoy property. It's something that I enjoy the the challenge with. And so I do, you know, continue to
21:01 Speaker 01 keep buying and and selling and with my buy and hold strategy and looking at further properties where there is the potential to add value and to increase the rent and equity. And how far off your goal do you think you are at the moment? Like a number of years or one more property? How close are you? I think I probably have achieved what we initially set out to achieve. But then You've changed it. Yes, I think once you achieve what you were aiming to do, then there is a potential to, you know, look further than that. And and expand from that. And and I think a focus for me too now is having more diversification. Like, we have actually started investing
21:44 Speaker 01 in in shares as well. And and I think it's important that there is diversification in terms of property type and and area as well. Because I think if all the properties are in the same area, there is risk in that. Agree with that. And you've said that you've got one big regret in property investing. What was that? Yes, I do regret not buying more properties sooner because it it has become harder to become a landlord with the increased regulations. But I think at the same time, we can get caught up in the moment and miss opportunities. And I think media, like at the moment, they love to dramatise the issues and make things sound worse than it is. And
22:29 Speaker 01 I think it is better to be counter cyclical on investing. So there is a common saying that fortune favours the bold. And and I think there are always opportunities in property investment that we need to take advantage of. And we can't let our fear of the unknown get in the way of advancement. That's great advice.
22:49 Speaker 00 And Sarah, it's just so amazing what you've done. I mean, seven investment properties is awesome. You've built five of them yourself. You've bought and sold over the years and moved countries. And it's just such a wonderful story. And what I always say to people is, if you're listening to this, you've been inspired by Sarah's story. No matter what you've done in your own portfolio, there's going to be somebody out there listening who will be inspired by your story too. Whether you're at the start, whether you've been investing for 20 years. So I want you to send me an email, editopuspartners.co.nz and come on the show and share your story too. Because one of the things that your story reminds me of, Sarah, is that there is money to be made in property, but you
23:32 Speaker 00 really make it over the long term. I mean, the example you gave of buying the property for $318,000, later selling it for $1.2 million. I mean, your timing was absolutely impeccable, right? But the way you make $900,000 in property is by holding that property for about 15 years. I think you were holding that one for. And so it's just a really good reminder for all of us that, oh, wow, there there's money to be made if you're selling a boom and you keep on holding. Because the other thing that I just remember is, 2006 is when you bought that property. But Auckland went through a property downturn, only about two years later in the GFC. You chose to hold through that. And ultimately, when you sold at the at the top of the market, at the top of the next boom, you did really well for
24:16 Speaker 00 yourself. I just think good on you. And over the last 20 minutes, you've learned how this investor turned one property into five, the challenges she faced when she turned herself into a property developer, and her biggest regret from investing in property. Right, let's wrap it up there. But please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Really does help us get the message out to more people.
24:39 Speaker 00 Thanks for listening to the Property Academy Podcast. I'm your host, David Knight.
24:41 Speaker 01 And I'm Janico.
24:42 Speaker 00 We're going to be back here tomorrow with even more daily strategies, tips and insights to help you get the most out of the New Zealand property market. Until next time.
Topics Papa Toitoi Auckland Mungry East Glen Eden Manurua Business Networks International BNI Auckland Property Investors Association KiwiSaver Previous Never Say These 5 Sentences To A Real Estate Agent Next Every NZ Town Ranked By Rental Yield (Worst To Best) Page updated November 14, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
