Most of them are first home buyers by another name. They have set aside owning the home they live in, for now, and want the deposit they saved to buy something that pays its way.
Why the enquiry exists
The choice is common, so the enquiry is common. A Westpac survey of 2,000 Australians found 54% of first home buyers were considering rentvesting, in Westpac's media release. The share was 61 per cent in New South Wales and 52 per cent in Queensland.
The gap behind the choice shows in what investors borrow. The ABS puts the average new investor loan at $851,000 in New South Wales against $713,000 in Queensland and $642,000 in South Australia, on its lending indicators. A Sydney renter who cannot reach the first number can often reach the second, and that is the whole idea.
What a rentvestor states
The form is the same for every investor, and a rentvestor's answers have a shape of their own.
- Goal: a first property that is an investment, often put as getting in
- Budget range, well below a home where they rent
- Deposit position, as stated, often the deposit saved for a home
- Timeframe, usually firm, because a lease has an end date
- Location interest in two parts: where they rent and where they could buy, often another state
What they usually have wrong
They treat it as a purchase and it is a plan. They have picked a suburb from a list of places that grew last year. They assume the rent coming in covers the loan, and forget the rent they keep paying. Most of all, they have not decided what the first property is for: a home deposit later, an income, or the start of a portfolio.
None of that makes them a poor lead. They have already done the hard part: letting go of the idea that the first property must be the one they live in.
Why is the first call about the plan, not the suburb?
Because the suburb is the last decision and the investor is treating it as the first. What the property has to do decides where it should be, what it should cost and how it should be held. Get that order right and the suburb mostly picks itself.
The lead carries the stated budget, deposit, timeframe and both locations, so the call can open with sequence: what this purchase must do so the home becomes possible later. An adviser who opens with a suburb is competing with every listings site. One who opens with the plan is offering something the investor cannot get anywhere else.
What to ask before you pay for a rentvestor lead
Ask whether the investor said they rent, or whether the supplier guessed it from a postcode. Ask whether both locations are on the record; a rentvestor with one location is a first home buyer on the wrong form. Ask whether the deposit is the investor's own figure.
With us, all three are what the investor typed. The lead is exclusive, never shared or resold. A wrong number, duplicate, out of market or non investor enquiry is replaced or credited when flagged within five business days. No retainer, no lock in, no minimum term. Nothing is checked with a lender, and we say so.