A former factory assembly line worker has revealed how he built a net worth of nearly $25m with some inspired moves during the Covid pandemic and, a few years earlier, after getting sacked from his job.
Daniel Clark, 27, today helms a business and real estate empire of 11 properties across NSW and Victoria valued at close to $10m, along with investments in three companies valued at about $15m.
But it started when he was staring down an uncertain future after losing his main source of income.
He had been working at a factory in Victoria scratching a living installing back brackets onto water pumps, the only job he could get fresh out of school. He had been living on his own since age 16.
“It was doing the exact same thing over and over again, but I didn’t have much choice because it was the only job they’d give someone just out of high school,” he said.
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Entrepreneur and investor Daniel Clark, 27, with his partner, is a former assembly line worker who is now worth $25m.
Mr Clark eventually moved off the assembly line to a job in the factory office’s training division but he soon got the chop when the company had to let go of staff in a round of cost cutting measures.
That’s when Mr Clark said he hit a crossroads – he could go in search of another job or take moves to secure his financial future through entrepreneurship and investment.
He opted for the latter, establishing a company that initially did contracting work for his old employer. Mr Clark then spotted a clear opportunity to capitalise on energy regulations.
His company began to trade and create renewable energy certificates for tradies and builders and found a lucrative market.
His first company was soon making a tidy profit each year and that’s when Mr Clark turned his sights to the property market.
“My business was always a risky one because they could change one regulation and it would be all gone, so I needed to go into something safe. Property was appealing.”
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Mr Clark said he uses the roughly the same design for each home.
He made his first move into the property market in 2020 and said he benefited from buying during the early part of the Covid pandemic, when there was mass panic about a crash in prices.
This allowed him to score a range of properties on the cheap, which has formed the bedrock for his investment portfolio.
“I had a friend in a development company. The best advice he ever gave me was showing me stats on disasters and how, each time, the property market bounced back 30-40 times higher,” Mr Clark said.
“When Covid hit I was 25. It seemed, based on the advice and the research I did, like a good time to buy.
“I realised you could also make more money from buying land and building houses and I was fortunate that my friend’s development company had data on what features you should prioritise and what you shouldn’t spend too much on.”
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Mr Clark said buying during the early onset of Covid helped him score cheap real estate deals.
Mr Clark’s investment strategy is to target land developments in rapidly growing regional areas, with the Albury-Wodonga region one of his favourite locations.
He typically buys the land in cash for low prices and takes out loans to do the build – often for medium density housing such as townhouses.
All his investments are purchased through a trust and building new houses allows him to get generous tax concessions.
“You want to get extra equity and you get that by building. I basically build the same house every time. I don’t have to choose anything, there’s no wasting time picking tiles.
“If I bought three established houses and did renovations each would have to be different. With my approach, we just get the build done in a couple of months.”
The houses are now worth almost double the combined land and development costs, Mr Clark said. This is because of the high growth in the locations he chose.
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Mr Clark at a rented private jet.
“Albury is a good example. It’s a huge developing area. It’s a good place for cashed up retirees and it has good (rental) yields.”
His first purchase was two adjacent blocks of land in Thurgoona on the outskirts of Albury, which he bought for $150,000.
He then contracted a developer to build two houses at a cost of $256,000 each. Both are now rented out for $560 a week.
He followed this up with three similar projects in Victorian town Yarrawonga, another in the town of Benalla and a property in Oakley which he is subdividing into townhouses.
His more recent land purchases, like during Covid, were also snapped up for bargains because builders who could no longer finish their projects – many due to bankruptcies – were selling them off for discounts.
Mr Clark has more recently launched new companies, one in recruitment, and his businesses combined employ around 300 people.
He attributed his success as an entrepreneur to spotting good opportunities. “My journey taught me that succeeding in life is about noticing the things that others take for granted or overlook due to ignorance of lack of foresight.
“When it comes to investing and (property) developing, you have to set out a plan and stick to it. And you can’t get too emotionally invested in it. It’s important to have all your ducks in a row and if you do your research it will turn out the way you want.”
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