Melbourne tradie forced to sell investment property after $1200 monthly losses

Rising property costs have forced a western Melbourne tradesman to abandon plans to hold his investment until retirement after losses reached up to $1200 a month. A west Melbourne tradesman who planned to hold his investment property until retirement is selling years earlier than expected after its monthly losses became too difficult to absorb. The investor, who asked not to be named, bought the property in 2021 for between $600,000 and $630,000 using savings and equity from his family home. At the time, it was returning between $390 and $420 a week in rent, while ultra-low interest rates made the holding costs manageable. RELATED: Foreign owned Aus builders reach record level Surprise Melb street beats the city’s best $4.5m Melb home turns garage to gallery Rent has since climbed to between $500 and $520 a week. But with between $470,000 and $500,000 still owing, the tradesman said interest, rates, insurance, maintenance and management costs were leaving his household between $800 and $1200 a month out of pocket. He and his wife had repeatedly dipped into household savings to cover the shortfall before deciding to put the property on the market. “I didn’t buy it to flip it,” he sa...