Opinion: How I went from owning zero to 43 properties

Saturday, 24 May 2025

As a young man working at a bank, Andrew Nicol saw people on modest incomes who had become wealthy through property.

Andrew Nicol is the managing director of property investment company Opes Partners.

I grew up in a working-class suburb in Christchurch. My family were poor. Today, I own 43 investment properties at the age of just 40.

I’ve done well in life, but that’s not to brag. It’s just to let you know where I’ve come from and why you might keep reading this story.

I don’t usually tell my whole property investing story in full, but people often ask: “How did it all happen? How do you go from a working-class upbringing to becoming a property investor and business owner?”

Looking back there were three distinct eras of my property journey: Getting started with flipping; buying for the long-term during the earthquakes; and setting myself up for the next 30 years.

How I got into property

I grew up in Waltham – a working-class suburb in Christchurch, and money was tight. I could always tell when my parents had just been paid. We’d have fish and chips for dinner, which was a special treat. And we felt rich.

But as the month went on, things got tougher.

By the 25th we’d be eating Tegel chicken off-cuts from the deep freeze. We didn’t have a lot, but that’s what drove me to do more.

I’ve always had this entrepreneurial instinct. One of my first (failed) business ventures was selling tadpoles.

Later, I got into magic tricks. At 14, I learned everything I needed to know from a Paul Daniels magic set and started performing at kids’ birthdays and even at restaurants.

Ed McKnight, left, and Andrew Nicol put out a daily podcast called The Property Academy.

I’d go table to a table, doing tricks for couples, and quickly figured out that if I spotted people out on a first date, I’d get a bigger tip.

At high school (Middleton Grange) my interest in finance took off. I entered a competition called the Monetary Policy Challenge, where students played the role of the Reserve Bank Governor and made their own OCR announcements.

As part of the challenge, my team spoke with local business owners and pored over Westpac’s economic reports. Eventually, someone at Westpac asked why I kept coming in. I answered, and they told me I should work at the bank.

I didn’t fancy working at Westpac … so, at 18, I applied to BNZ and started working as a teller.

It was daunting. I was surrounded by adults who knew so much more than I did. But I learned fast, and I was obsessed with learning about money. While other kids were reading novels, I was reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That book changed the way I thought about wealth.

Working at the bank, I soon learned you didn’t need to earn a huge income to get rich – you just had to use money the right way.

One customer, a Samoan man named James, earned $26k but owned three rental properties, and I thought: “This man is rich!”

He had a million dollars worth of property with virtually no debt, but he only earned a modest income. So I set out to learn how he (and people like him) did it.

By 19, I’d saved up $10,000. Remember, this was back in 2003 where that was almost enough for a house deposit. It’s not just that house prices were lower; the banks were way more lenient back then.

So it was time to give property a shot.

Getting my start: Flipping properties (2003 - 2007)

Like many first-time investors, I had to settle for a run-down property in a less-than-desirable area. My first purchase was a four-bedroom house for $200k.

The owners were going through a sticky divorce, which gave me an opportunity: I negotiated a delayed settlement with early access. That meant I didn’t have to pay for the property for three months, but could start renovating straight away.

I was 19, enthusiastic, and had a girlfriend willing to help with renovations. I’d finish work at 5.30pm, grab Thai takeout, and by 6.30 we’d be sitting on the floor of our latest project. After eating, we'd paint late into the night.

Flipping helped me build equity when I didn’t have much of a deposit.

At the start, my approach was slow. I would flip one property at a time. Every six months I’d buy a house, do it up, then sell it on.

I wasn’t doing anything sophisticated as far as renovations go; it was purely cosmetic. I’d paint a wall, replace the carpet. That was about it. As I became more experienced, I started intensive renovations.

Although this Kaiapoi house dropped $20,000 in value in the first year after purchase, it was eventually sold for $360k above its purchase price.

In those days, it was all about the yield. That was key. So I would rent it out room-by-room. This meant it could earn a good income, then I’d sell it to another investor.

By 2007, I’d flipped over 25 properties. I’d held on to seven of them, and that’s when I moved into my second era of investing.

Buying for the long-term, surviving the GFC and Christchurch earthquakes (2007-2018)

In this second era I still flipped a few properties, but I started to build my portfolio by buying for the long term.

By 2007 I was a mortgage broker. I’d been investing for four years and that year I convinced my parents to sign up for a property in Kaiapoi with me (a little town 15 minutes out of Christchurch).

Little did I know, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was just around the corner in 2008. Property prices had surged between 2003 and 2008 but now, for the first time, I had to navigate a declining market.

By the time we settled and paid for the property, it had dropped in value by $25k. I had convinced my parents to invest with me, and at this point it hadn’t worked out.

You probably know how bad I felt. We held it though, and eventually sold in 2023, for $360K above its purchase price.

In 2011, another blow: the Christchurch earthquakes.

It’s hard to overstate how devastating they were. Phones were down; ATMs didn’t work; banks froze lending. By this stage I owned around 10 properties – all in Christchurch.

I almost lost everything. If the insurance payouts had not come in when they did, I might not be writing this today.

But while the earthquakes were devastating, they also created opportunities. Many homeowners received insurance payouts, and Christchurch property values began to rise post-earthquake.

I saw a chance to buy earthquake-damaged properties, renovate them, and either sell for a profit or hold. I wasn’t just flipping - I was bringing homes back to building code standards.

A typical project would cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000, and on a good property I would double my money. Most of the budget went to structural repairs – fixing floors, piles and earthquake damage, but we’d also upgrade the kitchens and bathrooms.

You couldn’t replicate the strategy today, and you wouldn’t want to. You don’t want to see that kind of devastation in New Zealand again.

Nicol bought into this New Windsor property this year, valuing it for its quality, location and expected longterm growth.

I continued to repair earthquake-damaged houses until the LVR restrictions slowed me down. That’s why I started buying up new builds. And it worked for me: I’d sign up to buy a few properties, pay the deposit, and wait for it to be built.

After a few years, I started Opes Partners, a property investment company focusing on new builds, to help other Kiwis also build long-term wealth.

By 2018, I’d done over 100 property transactions (buying and selling). I owned around 32 properties before heading into my most recent era.

Setting up for the future: Building a sustainable, diversified portfolio (2018 - today)

Over the last five years I’ve purchased around 18 new builds, although the total number of properties I own fluctuates because I’ve been selling off my older stock.

Letting go of those earthquake-damaged homes wasn’t a hard choice. The maintenance costs were crippling, and when the interest deductibility rules changed, holding onto them made no financial sense. The tax was insane.

The change in the LVR restrictions also made the decision easy for me. It was much faster growing my portfolio with new builds (which only need a 20% deposit) compared to existing properties (that need a 30% deposit).

At 36, I became a first-home buyer. I had a long-term partner (now my fiancée) and we wanted to start a family, so it was finally time to buy a property to live in long-term.

Moving into my own home was eye-opening. You walk in, and suddenly it’s not just an asset – it’s your home.

This investment era is still going. I’ve sold off most of my old properties and grown the portfolio a little more. By my numbers I own 43 properties today, although that varies, so I just say 40-plus.

Little known law 'very effective' in collecting unpaid rates.

So what’s the takeaway?

If you want financial freedom, forget luck. Forget timing. Just start. Because time in the market is the one thing you can’t fake.

In 10 years you’ll wish you started today.

Andrew Nicol is the managing director of property investment company Opes Partners, which helps its clients invest in new-build properties. He also hosts The Property Academy Podcast.