Property Notes Podcast is for Australian property investors who want to think strategically about their portfolio rather than guess their way through.
Every property decision you'll make comes down to three questions. Where are you now? Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 25 years? And how do you bridge that gap with the assets, financing, and timing you have available?
Most property content skips the first two and rushes you to the third. Buy this, hold that, sell now. Property Notes works in the other direction. Strategy first. Tactics second. Specific moves only after the framework is clear.
Each week, I pick one question Australian property investors are wrestling with and work through it properly. The framework that determines whether a property is the right asset for your goal. The tax reform nobody is modelling correctly. The historical pattern that explains what's happening now. The case study where the numbers tell a different story than the conventional wisdom.
A typical episode runs 10 to 15 minutes. Inside that, you'll get:
The setup. What's happening, why it matters, and where the conventional framing gets it wrong.
The strategy. How a serious investor frames the decision. Hold horizons. Asset selection. Cashflow vs growth trade-offs. Diversification across property types and geographies. The strategic shift this question forces.
The history. Where this pattern has played out before. CGT didn't appear in 1985 by accident. The 50 percent discount didn't appear in 1999 by accident either. Property cycles, tax policy, interest rate regimes. The current situation always has a precedent worth understanding.
The math. A specific case study with real numbers. A 41-year-old with one property in Sydney's western corridor. A retiree weighing a 2027 disposal decision. A first-time buyer modelling three growth scenarios. Concrete, not abstract.
The application. How to apply this to your own portfolio. The audit question to ask yourself. The next move that makes sense given where you are.
I'm Alex Zarate. I write Property Notes, an Australian property newsletter, and built a 25-year portfolio modelling tool because I got tired of property decisions being made on vibes. This podcast is the analytical work I do, packaged in a way you can act on with your own accountant.
What this podcast isn't.
It isn't financial advice. Your circumstances are different from the case studies. Always speak to a qualified professional before acting on anything discussed.
It isn't a course funnel. There's no upsell. No "click the link to access the masterclass."
It isn't market hype. I won't tell you "now is the time to buy" or "now is the time to sell" because neither answer survives contact with your specific portfolio.
What it is.
A weekly habit of thinking strategically about Australian property. Sometimes the answer agrees with the conventional wisdom. Sometimes it doesn't. Either way, you leave the episode with a clearer view of where you are, where you want to go, and what the math says about how to bridge that gap.
Episodes drop weekly. Free. No subscription gates. The newsletter at pbco.com.au has the diagrams and working math behind each case study, so if you want to pressure-test the numbers against your own portfolio, that's where to go.