How to Invest in Overseas Property Without Losing Everything with Matt Towner

If anyone's got a block opportunity like that right now anywhere in the world, buy it now, because chances are it'll be worth a million dollars in 10 years. If you think nobody cares, try missing a few house payments. They care. I think I've always been very much on the ethical side of, of anything I do.

The only way I've made any real wealth in my life and stability is real estate.

I'm getting a little bit jealous of your lifestyle. I mean, I'll be honest, I'm not an apartment sort of guy. I, I like land.

You wanna have a good relationship with the country and the people you're going to. If you're gonna go in there, um, with the wrong attitude, they will chew you up and spit you out.

Mm-hmm. Um, definitely

Hi, I'm Andrew Wright, principal of Professional Southport, and this is the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. I've built a multi-million dollar property portfolio, delivering a seven-figure annual rental income, and led my real estate team through thousands of sale and lease transactions. In each episode, I share real deals and strategies that will help you find, fund, and operate profitable property deals.

The aim of this show is to provide education and build a community of like-minded investors who can collaborate, share insights, and help each other in each other's journeys. You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can't do both. So come and join us

Hello there and welcome back to the Andrew Right Property Podcast. Today we've got a very, very interesting guest, a man who has a lifestyle that we'd all dream of. He's lived most of the last few decades in Byron Bay in Northern New South Wales, in Thailand, and in Bali. Sounds like a tough life, right?

Matt Towner and I met in, uh, 1983 when my parents dropped me off with a suitcase full of clothes to a boarding school at Ipswich Grammar. Matt, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, mate. Very good to see you again. Yeah. Yes, it's been a long road since then.

40 years.

Yeah, that's right, of blood, sweat, and tears.

Or is it blood, sweat, and beers perhaps? We're people who get things done. We don't dr- cry about spilt milk. That was our hard upbringing.

Yeah, mate. Uh, we were just talking offline, uh, before the, uh, camera started rolling, and I, I just thought I'd run through for the listeners, nothing to do with property- Yeah

but about the discipline of going to a boarding school. And I'd, I don't know if all boarding schools are the same, but certainly in our school, um, 7:00 the bell would ring. Mm-hmm. You're not allowed out of bed before then unless you're going to sport training. Uh, you have 25 minutes to have a shower, get dressed, make your bed, polish your shoes.

7:25 a.m. a bell rings again, and the boarding master walks round the floor, inspects that you're dressed correctly, your tie is properly adjusted to your collar,

that y- Beds made.

Yep ... beds are made perfectly, and that your shoes are polished. And if they weren't, you didn't pass the inspection. You had to quickly fix it up, and you're in trouble.

Yep.

This wasn't once a year. This was every single morning.

For five years.

That's right. For five years.

Yep.

We had 15 minutes to get to breakfast, then we all stood in a line and they did a roll call. They called out everyone's name from A to Z in each grade, and you had to say, "Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir."

Then we went to breakfast, and then at 8:20 we finished breakfast. We had 10 minutes to get ready to s- for school, and at nighttime we followed the same process with deadlines, uh, two and a half to three hours of study every night, 15 minutes left over to get to bed. Lights out, people walking around, and you

It was, it, it sounds very dictatorship or like the military now- Yeah ... when we

think

back.

Yeah. And it does. I'm sure there's listeners right now saying, "Oh my God, that sounds like hell." But even back then as a kid I realised, I think some people hated it. Uh, well, I know some people hated it. Some people lasted only a- Yeah

week or only a year. I actually loved it. I, you know- Mm ... I went from a, a little town of, of 20 kids in the whole school where we had to ride our push bikes for half an hour every morning to get there on time, and then ride half an hour every home and home to the farm. Yeah. And then we'd have a list of chores that our mum and dad would give us from feeding all of the animals to chipping weeds and cutting onions and, you know, talk about slave labor.

But, um, that was farm life. And so, but going to a boarding school for me was like a resort 'cause then although it was strict every afternoon- Mm. Mm ... you could choose whether you wanted to play rugby, basketball, cricket- Mm ... whatever, swimming pool, tennis, everything. It was like a resort for me.

I, I absolutely loved it.

They were the best five years of my life. Yep. But, but you're right. And I haven't thought about this for the last 40 years, but every year you'd be sitting there maybe, uh, one or two months down the track of the start of the year in March or April, and some poor kid just couldn't hack it, and they went home, and they just quit the school They just couldn't handle it.

And it was, you, you ... It made you tough

Oh, it was tough. And again, it was Ipswich, which again is a tough town. Even still to this day, but back then, you know. Yeah We're talking 40 years ago. It was very tough. Yeah. And I, I joke, you had to learn to run or fight real quick. Yes Often both at the same time.

Either that was in the school with, you know, we- we're 12 years old, you had 17-year-olds who just loved to bully and bash in those days, which you, you just can't do these days. Yeah But, um, even, or you remember you were allowed to go downtown one afternoon a week if you had a reason, you know, to ... You had to get a, a- Sign out

a sign out and then go for a haircut or- Yeah ... you needed to go to, to buy something, a bookstore or whatever. But then sometimes you'd come around a corner and there'd be a gang of literally young teenage thugs, and we're literally in suits and ties. And literally they used to love wanting to try and catch us and bash us.

So it was kind of fun both ... Uh, it was an adventure to try and work your way through the minefield to get either out of the school or back into the school one way or the other.

I think for those, uh, students that love sport, boarding was a great thing, particularly for the weekend. If you're a boarder that stayed there on the weekends, all Saturday and Sunday was just sport.

Yeah, totally. Yeah

Absolutely. Fan- and, and we've had some tremendously famous and successful athletes- A lot ... come from that school.

And interesting enough, 'cause there was that other side, there's been a lot of great musicians come out of our school too. Mm. Mm. And a lot of other schools in that GPS system.

Yeah 'Cause when you're talking about discipline, that's one thing. There, there were a lot of people who couldn't hack it. Yeah 'Cause it was tough, but it did teach you that discipline, whether you were a sportsman, an academic or a musician. Mm. And that's what, what it takes to make it. Because as we all know now, only 90%, well, sorry, only 10% of anyone- Mm

in any field is actually gonna make it to a successful level. 90% of people- Yeah ... especially in the arts industry or in the sales industry. Mm. You know, a lot of people fall by the wayside if you don't have that discipline. You've got to get up every morning no matter how you're feeling. Mm. Mm. And you've got to p- buckle up, put your shoes on, make your bed and get there and get things done.

Mm. And that's what we do, especially in real estate.

You're 100% right, Matty. And, and I won't list through all the famous sports people from our school, but just a couple that come to mind. Mm. The, the Walters brothers of rugby league. Yep And around your year we had- Yeah ... Brett Plowman and Willie Kan of the Broncos and

Well, I ... That was my, my team. I was actually the captain of the 16 As and then I toured ... 'Cause I, when I first went there, as, as you said, 12 years old, I, I wasn't very sporty at, at all. I, I was very ... I, I wanted to be. My father, we have a great joke. Mm. That my father was ... From when my brother and I, before we could even walk or talk, he used to joke that we didn't have to play rugby.

Mm. But if we didn't, we wouldn't be in the will. So he, he still to this day, he's 90 years old, he's still a rugby tragic. He lo- he's, he's ... He doesn't even watch rugby league. It's rugby union or nothing. Yeah,

right.

Um, but I, I w- my nickname when I went to school at 12 years old was Mousey. 'Cause I was, funnily enough, I was really little and really shy.

So I started playing rugby in, like, the 13Fs.

Yeah, we

had Fs, yeah. And e- that's right. And then every year I worked my way up team by team to then become the captain of the 16As, which again, was just discipline, determination. And I wasn't the best player in that team, but I, I had some sort of- Mm

leadership qualities. But out of the... I toured with the first 15 to New Zealand. Right. And from that team was exactly half, or more than half that team went on to play for Australia, either in rugby league or rugby union. Kevin and Darren Walters, for example. Mm-hmm. Dave Wilson, one of the greatest rugby players ever.

Wallaby.

And then, um, Brett Plowman, Willie Kan, again, some of the greatest rugby league- Craig Golemaio. Craig Golemaio. Yeah. You know, we were undefeated for quite a few years there- Yeah ... in, in that whole genre.

And- And Craig, Craig McDermott, the famous cricketer ... cricketer.

Yeah. Yeah. Lyndon Johnson, who was breaking records.

Yes.

And now they have that- And Gowt Gat ... incredible Gowt Gat. He, I think he's even better than Lyndon was, and that's saying something.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Uh, shout out also to one of the best all-round athletes I've ever, uh, seen in my lifetime, Ricky Hastie, who listens to the podcast. Yep. Uh, fantastic-

And a, and a

lovely

guy

like, absolutely- Yeah, yeah ...

Rolls-Royce guy. Rob Charles in my year or so. Yes, indeed. They were a couple of years apart, but I think Rob was an Australian schoolboy in about eight different sports. Yeah. And then funnily enough, I remember there was one day, 'cause I, I didn't... Cricket was too boring for me, for lack of a better word.

Sorry to any cricket players. But, um, I played basketball in the off-season. Yeah. So it was rugby and basketball. Mm. And I remember once, you know, in the boarding school you always had p- you know, uh, you could run and get people like, "We need a player, we need a player." Rob Charles had never played in his life, came down and he was top scorer, his first ever game of basketball, because he was just such a natural sportsman.

Amazing athlete.

He's

now the sports master at that school to this day.

I... Do you remember the, um, blazers we had, and they gave out the full colors and the half colors, and Rob Charles'- Yeah, yeah ... sporting thing went like this.

Yeah. They used to be pockets they were called, but his went all the way down- Yeah

his, his uniform.

Because- I think his, his was the most that I've ever seen, I think. I

think it might be hanging on a wall up there now.

Um, what happened after school? What, what, what

happened? Mate, I, um, I, I did go on to university. Mm. I was the first Towner ever to graduate from university, which again, I did more for my parents, I think, to make them proud, than me because I did an arts degree.

Well, a film degree really, 'cause I was, I was always, and still am, very much a film filmmaker, a script writer. That's one of my passions. Right. Um, but yeah, I, um, I, I literally, uh, didn't even hang around for the hats in the air. You know, it was really the degree where you do when you don't know what you wanna do.

You do a bit of everything in an arts degree. And then before I'd even... I, I'd graduated, but- Mm ... I was playing rugby still after school, um, at Wests Rugby in Brisbane, and a bunch of us, we got contracted to play rugby for San Diego. Back in those days, if you were an Aussie, a Kiwi, or a South African, and you were any good, you could go to America or a lot of other countries actually, because it still wasn't professional.

You couldn't get paid as such. Mm. But literally we had a house right on the beach in San Diego, five of us Aussies, 'cause you're only allowed 5 out of the 15 in the team could be international.

Yeah, right.

And literally we did a season there for San Diego State University, the old Az- Aztecs, which was great at 21 years old when I'd just graduated.

What a great experience. And but then that was pretty much the end of rugby for me. I just wanted to see the world. It- Mm ... it opened my eyes up to so many things. And I d- I didn't come back for 10 years. I was traveling the world. I left Australia a private schoolboy rugby player. I came back, uh, a gem-dealing gypsy.

It was the days before the internet, and I just fell into this whole life that every country has a gemstone that no other country has. So I would come... I didn't even wanna come back to Australia. I was running away from that, that sort of Australian upbringing. If I heard an Australian accent, I'd be, "No English, no English."

But the Portuguese business partner that I had, that we were basically smuggling gemstones all over the world, um, he'd never been. And every time I opened my mouth to any jewelry shop, they'd say, "Well, have you got any opals?" So I c- used to come back and fill my backpack full of opals, go to Thailand, get sapphires, go to Burma, get rubies, go to India and Nepal to get red coral, turquoise, so that by the time I got to Europe or America, I'd literally have 60 kilos of stones in my backpack that literally had cost me 30 or $40,000, but I could sell them for $300,000 at times, because jewelers all over the world needed gypsies like us to bring them stones.

You know, the internet changed all that, and they can Google now and get them sent. But back in those days- Right ... there was no way a jeweler, unless they jumped on a plane themselves, they couldn't get opals and diamonds and sapphires and rubies and... So it was a great life. That was my whole 20s. I took, uh, Australian opals all over the world.

Well, at that time, you... Was that when you actually set up a jewelry shop in Thailand?

I did. I had, um, well, both Carlos the Portuguese and I, we basically set up office on Khao San Road. Yeah. Uh, back now it looks like a, like a Westfield shopping town, that road. Mm. But back then it was like a, a sort of village, and there was- Mm

sort of little market stalls. Mm. And yeah, we basically used to sell, um, stones from all over the world, not only to, uh, all over, people from all over the world, but then even to the Thai stallholders, 'cause a lot of them couldn't travel either. Mm. So we'd go to India and Nepal and, you know, obviously I'd take- Mm

opals there. And yeah, we, we were set up there for years, and then I'd go back and forth. I had the same, a jewelry shop in the island of Paros in Greece. Mm. And I had, um, a, also a shop on Grafton Street in Dublin.

Wow.

Um, I used to do the Camden Markets in London, uh, the Tucson Gem Show in Arizona. So yeah, I, for 10 years, I basically did this circuit traveling the world.

Wow. And I'd have stalls pretty much in a dozen locations.

Wow. You just... Come from, coming from my subconscious just now is- Yeah ... a memory from the early 1990s in Surfers Paradise when a mate of mine had a, um, tourism business. He was a, a tour guide.

Yes.

And he'd take busfuls of Japanese people to the gem stores down in Surfers Paradise, and he would make thousands of dollars- Yeah

every time the bus stopped, 'cause they paid him a cut- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ... of what all the Japanese people paid for all these gems.

They were two of the biggest markets, really. Germany was, was- Mm ... always big. Two different markets. Yeah. The Japanese tended to like more the whiter opals. Mm. Mm. Um, whereas the Germans like the greens and the blues.

Mm. Um, and a- again, opal's an interesting stone because it's not like any other stone, you know? Mm. Um, it's, it's in the eye of the beholder. You know- Mm ... diamonds, sapphires, rubies, there's pretty much a grading system by carat- Yeah ... by weight, so you can work out a value. But opals are like a work of art, really.

Yeah. What are they worth? Yeah. It depends really on the color. Yeah. Once you see red, you're talking real money, and once you get that flicker, you know, a real... If you're looking at opal, if you hold it under a table- Mm ... a- in the dark and it's still shimmering like a disco ball, you've got serious, serious money.

That's, that's the big, big gun.

The next move in your life, Matt, was it to Bali?

Yeah, I, I'd always been going back and forth 'cause in that 10 years while I was doing the gem dealing gypsy thing- Mm ... um, I was basically constantly going in and out of, you know, I'd leave Australia, I'd go to Thailand, I'd go to Indonesia, I'd go to India, go to Nepal, and zigzag my way to Europe and then to America.

And then I started to... It's interesting, we were talking before about my brother who was also went to the same boarding school. Yeah. And he and I are very close still to this- Hi, Adam ... Hey, AJ. He and I are very, very close still to this day, but in some ways we're total opposites. I call him my big little brother.

So he's younger than me, but he took the big road. He's got the big house, the big job, the big car. He's a CEO of one of the largest construction companies in the country. Mm. And he's always been very disciplined and very focused in that regard. Mm. And even though I had that upbringing, I literally for 10 years was literally living a very alternative life in, in- Mm

the fact that, you know, I was even a long-haired hippie freak was, I suppose, my wardrobe. And I was avoiding the system. I, I didn't, I did everything in cash. Mm. And I was traveling the world with a backpack for 10 years. And it was when I got to 30, I remember he changed my life because he said, "You know, all the, all the trouble you go to to avoid the system," because as I said, I didn't really even have a bank account, let alone pay taxes or-

or vote or, I was really living off grid in every way. He said, "You, if you start to l- work out how to learn the system, you can actually use it to your advantage." And that's when I started to look at buying property, um, to look at, uh, at ensuring myself in every way, um, all the things that, that now have been lifesaving for me.

Because from a real estate point of view, the turning point, I was always coming back and forth to Byron even in my 20s in those gem dealing gypsy hippie days, 'cause that's Byron, that's what it was really. Everywhere else in Australia was too Australian for me. Mm. Still for th- to this day. Byron's, it's almost like you're still traveling 'cause- Even on the weekend, I went to a dinner party in Byron, and there'll be 10 people from 10 different countries.

Some of them now are second generation- That's true. That's true ... 'cause people come to Byron and never leave. But I'll never forget, I'm the godfather of a whole family in Byron. They're now all adults. Um, but I've known them all since they were born, and I knew their parents, um, since, God, since school days.

And, but I remember in that e- era where I was just traveling, I wasn't interested in real estate at all. I was just looking at my next airfare, and they were great tenants in this house a block back from the beach that I remember I could have bought for $150,000, which I had in cash, no problem, but it's the last thing I thought about doing.

And they lived there and raised four children. If anything was broken, they would fix it. The landlord did nothing for 10 years except take rent, and then it sold for over a million dollars, and that's when my penny dropped at the same time when my brother was like, "What are you doing?" And I was like, "What am I doing?"

You, you can't save that sort of money. No. You know, it's literally 100 grand a year- Yeah ... which is hard to make if you get it right with property. Mm-hmm. And again, we all know there's, you've got to do a lot of due diligence 'cause even in Byron you c- think you can never lose, but- I've learnt the hard way that you can over time, but at the same time, if you're buying something a block back from the beach for 150 grand, if anyone's got a block opportunity like that right now anywhere in the world, buy it now.

Because chances are it'll be worth a million dollars in 10 years.

Yeah, right. So your, your first couple of property purchases were, were-- how old were you, Matt? Well- And where were they?

It's-- and you know, I do-- I really-- my life now, I'm, I'm pretty much retired. But- Mm ... I, I love trying to help people. I- Mm ... I think-- and again, being in sales our whole life, you know, sold-- being sold is, is a four-letter word.

Mm. No one wants to be sold anything. Mm. People wanna be helped. Yeah. And again, if you're a real person- Mm ... and I like to joke I, I'm a real estate agent. Mm-hmm. You know, the-- as we know, there's a lot of real estate agents I would not have a beer with if you paid me. Mm. Mm. Um, but if you're a real person- Mm

you're, you're, you're not trying to-- it's not-- life's not much more than just money. You know, even wealth is much more than money. Sure. It's, it's being able to help people. And I couldn't afford Byron, so I'd missed that boat. I have mates of mine who were buying properties in their 20s and are now set for life, because they own half of Byron Bay.

Mm. But I c-- I missed that boat, so I didn't start until I was into my 30s. So Byron Bay already by then, these properties had gone from 150 grand on the beach to a million dollars- Mm ... which I didn't have a million dollars. But then I started looking up the coast, and there was-- were opportunities a block back from the beach in Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone.

Mm. So that's how I started. I started with a mate and I, and we're still business partners today at a nightclub in Byron Bay called Haven. Anyone wants to come to Byron Bay, look us up. You'll find the Haven Gallery and the nightclub. But, um, Cor Picone and I started doing stuff all the way up that coast, both personally first, and then professionally as property buyers agents.

'Cause again, we could see what had happened in Byron. Mm. So we started buying, and the beauty was the rental returns were even better. There was mining booms happening in those days. So we were buying properties for even less than 150, sometimes under 100, a block back from the beach. A lot of 'em were old Queenslanders.

We'd just paint 'em all white inside and out, put in big glass sliding, you know, the mirrored wardrobes that makes every room look bigger- Look bigger, yeah ... and better. Yep. We'd do a bit of landscaping, and they looked great. And then we'd get $500 a week- Mm ... rent from mining companies and from miners who were making crazy money back then.

Mm.

Again, that-- everything has its sort of booms and busts, so it's not as lucrative up there now. But it's still the-- it-- I couldn't have done anything if I didn't buy those for n- literally, they doubled in a year. You know- Wow ... we were buying properties for 150. A year later I could either refinance or sell at 300.

Yeah. And they'd already been cashflow positive since day one.

Mm.

And that's always pretty much been my strategy. I only really look for properties that either are cashflow positive- Yeah ... or can be, so somehow I can add value to them. Yeah. I look at, you know, turning, turning garages into granny flats, for example, or, or buying houses on stilts so I can legally build in underneath, so that I've got double or triple rental return.

So then if anything goes wrong, I can move into one section or so c- any of my family and friends. I now even house the mother of all my godchildren lives in one of my properties. Um, when people are going through a hard time, I'm lucky enough that I'm been able to help people. Again, whether that's people be able to want to buy property- Mm

or people who missed that boat or lost everything, I've got somewhere they can live.

And, and that, those, uh, investments that you made- Yes Uh, the results of that, uh, eventually gave you the capital to buy your own place in Byron.

That's right. Yeah.

So, and you've, um, you haven't subdivided it, but you've actually got three separate, uh-

Yeah

places of residence. There are three dwellings on that site in Byron, and-

That's right ...

you're getting a couple of grand a week potentially rent on those other two- Yep ... um, where you don't, the ones that you don't live in.

Exactly. So, and again, it's been, so it's a, a property that it used to be cashflow positive, and again, anyone with property would know.

A- and I do, I have friends my age, I'm 57 now. Mm. I have friends my age who are constantly complaining about the property prices, either to buy or to rent- Mm ... which I agree, it, it's getting ridiculous anywhere. Mm. Um, but you know, i- if you missed the boat, you know, what were you thinking? You know, I, I wish everyone had bought property 30 years ago, but- Mm

at the same time, it's not that easy either. You know, you think it's easy, but you know, the bank still owns it. As, as my big little brother told me way back then, it doesn't matter how much money you've got, it's how much you can borrow. Yeah. Which is true, but you know, I, I've got millions of dollars in assets as such- Mm

but the bank owns a good portion of that, that I have to keep paying. Yeah. And, um, I collect quotes being a writer. One is, if you think nobody cares, try missing a few house payments. They care. So every month you've gotta have that money to be able to pay the bank, and then some, as you know, some weeks, all of a sudden the water heater blows up.

There's 1,000 bucks, and then, or, or you know, I've had, I've even been through floods and droughts and bushfires where I've lost whole studios or cabins, or the whole roof's been blown off my property, or... Again, I'm, I'm the biggest fan of insurance luckily. Mm. But you know, it still takes time and money when you've gotta put a brand-new roof on within a matter of days, 'cause you've got people who are cold and wet and paying rent.

Matt, can you talk the audience through the life-changing accident-

Yeah ...

that you're involved with?

Well, it's a good segue from insurance, because again- Mm ... I, I suppose I didn't, because in my early 20s, that whole year, 10 years of, of being a gem-dealing gypsy, I had no, wasn't interested in insurance or any of those things.

So it was lucky that I was 40 and then I was quite well established in, um, in being able to use the system for what it's designed for. Mm. So I don't, I, I insure everything. I'm the biggest fan of insurance, luckily, because I had a motorcycle accident in Thailand. Um, and again, I w- I was just being, uh, reckless really.

I was, um, which a lot of people are, especially when you're in, in Thailand. Um, it's, it's the Wild West and it's good fun, especially when you're on the dirt bike and you're in the forest from the beach to the, the jungle. And I was going way too fast, so I was not wearing a helmet, no shoes, no, no nothing, and just, you know, being wild and free.

40 years old but pretending I was 14 again back on the farm. And I came over a hill, got a bit of air. I can still see the pothole that I couldn't miss, and as I came down, that was it. I just buckled and, um, the steer- the, the handlebars actually went straight through my stomach and came out my back, but luckily didn't pierce any organs, which is a miracle.

Um, but I've still got scars front and back, and I fractured my skull, my spine, my ankle, my knee, my shoulder, my elbow, broke three ribs, perforated my lungs and had a brain hemorrhage all in the middle of nowhere. And, um, some Thai villagers in the jungle saved my life, and luckily I had travel insurance, which I was in a coma for three days.

I was in intensive care for three months. 200,000 US dollars was the bill. I still have a metal spine and a metal ankle. And yeah, if I didn't have that insurance, I would've ended up in a waiting room somewhere in a public hospital and probably died there because, um, both Thailand and America are the hardest countries for that.

If you don't have insurance or a credit card, they'll leave you in the waiting room. You've got to, you've got to... You know, we're very lucky in Australia to have a healthcare system that does have some free possibilities. But in Thailand or in America, there's nothing for free. You've gotta have insurance or a credit card

I'm sure the viewers just find that amazing.

Yeah,

it- Did, and you, you had no, no family there. Did, what support did you have? I was with, um, one of

my b- one of my property partners, um, in Byron Bay. We have a, a night, a previous nightclub called the Cotton Club, which was a great, great, uh, era of Byron Bay, so that's going way back now. And we owned an incredible property overlooking the whole of Byron Bay, which unfortunately we lost all of that in the global financial crisis.

Mm. Um, which when, you know, we all thought Byron Bay was bulletproof, but Byron Bay's pretty much a luxury item, so- Mm ... I went from making 150 grand a year selling real estate in those days, basically surfing and golfing, uh, to then in that first year of the GFC I made $7,000. One sale. Mm. So trying to then survive on $7,000- Mm

in 12 months was very hard. So, um, yeah, we basically lost everything. We, the bank said, "If you guys can't afford to sell up, we will." We had 50 ac- acres overlooking the whole of Byron, which would now be worth $30 million. We bought it for three million and then had to sell it for 1.5, so that hurt. And so that's why we, we jumped on a plane, went to Thailand, and jumped on dirt bikes and wanted to get as far away from civilization as possible, and the wind in the hair and...

Um, but yeah, I, I, I learnt, I, I tend to learn everything the hard way, which again is why I love doing podcasts like this and try to help people to don't, don't do what I've done. Try and save p- some people that pain. But, um, I don't know what luck it is. I keep, uh, touching wood, wherever it is. But yeah, one specialist explained to me that...

'Cause I, I'm lucky to be alive. I'm, I'm lucky to be walking, lucky to be talking. I had to learn to do all of that again, actually. Um, it was, you know, I was, I was a vegetable pretty much from the beginning. But, um, but yeah, my spine, most people in a wheelchair, it's not a broken spine, it's a broken spinal cord.

And I spent 40 minutes in the back of a truck. I was in four pieces, basically. Mm. And my spinal cord, which one specialist explained is like a string of toothpaste, that's how fragile it is, still didn't break. Even though my spine was broken, everything on, from my head to my toe on the right-hand side of my body was broken- Mm

and some parts even hanging off me. But my spinal cord didn't break, even 40 minutes in the back of a truck, which is an absolute miracle

Wow, and just, just from a medical point of view-

Mm ...

um, have any doctors told you when, when bones heal, like you've mentioned that you got some steel plate in there, but the other bones that actually heal, do they heal stronger or are they always weaker?

No, actually they can heal stronger. Mm. Like my collarbone, for example, um, I, I... It is a bit, uh, you can see where it's w- been broken. Mm. And at, at times I did wonder whether I, it would need to be reset and re-broken. But yeah, specialists have told me that it, it's quite incredible, the human body, that it will, even though it's, it's like that- Mm

it actually grows, it, it mends. Mm. You know, it, ideally you want bones to mend like that. But it's mended like that, but it's actually stronger-

Strong. You're right ...

than if it had mended that way.

Yeah,

right. So, you know, it's just a bit of a lump, but, you know, it is what it is.

Wow. Let's, let's talk to the viewers about we're gonna change the, uh, topic now- Sure

to international property. You've- Yep ... spent time in Thailand and Bali in particular-

Yeah ...

marketing property as a project marketer.

Yep.

And before we go there, I, I forgot to ask you, you, you had your own real estate office in Byron Bay for about 20 years?

Yeah.

Was that secondhand sales, or was that project marketing, or a mixture of both?

No, no,

that, that was residential, um, real estate. Okay. So I, I joke that, you know, I've lived in Byron now for, what am I? 57. I've been there since I was 21, basically. Mm. So, um, yeah, I've lived there a long time, so, you know, 35 years. And, um, I owned a nightclub and then a real estate agency, so I joke that I know everyone and all their dirty secrets-

especially in that eccentric little town. Um, but yeah, both of those, and I still own to this day, I'm still involved in a nightclub in Byron Bay, and I'm still involved in a real estate agency here on the Gold Coast. But we do focus a lot on international property, mainly because I'd traveled so much. So a lot of the, the, the, uh, uh, couple of, I'm saying the older viewers, um, I'm showing my age now, but, um, anyone who remembers going to, to Bali, I've been going there, again, probably 35 years, since I was 21.

And, um, yeah, y- La Lucciola, the restaurant, was the end of the road really. There was no Canggu. That was all rice fields, you know? It was... That was La Lucciola, which I still go back to every time. It's a beautiful restaurant right on the beach near Double Six on that strip. Um, that was the end of the road literally.

Um, but as a writer, I collect quotes, and one taxi driver about a decade ago said to me once, "Before, people grow rice, now people grow buildings," which again, i- in between Byron and Noosa we see that as well, and certainly i- in Bali f- all the way from the airport now to Seseh you see that. Mm. It's a reality whether we like it or not.

Mm. Um, it's, some ways it's sad. Um, it's, it's all about development. It's going to happen, but you want it to be ethical in every way for, for the people in those countries, whether that's here in Australia or in Indonesia, and for the environment. Sadly, a lot of developers don't do the right thing by the people or the environment.

Sure. Um, and the same with a lot of investors. So I think I've always been very much on the ethical side of- of anything I do, and I think that's why I've had, I've had so much success. I, I've heard of people who've got themselves in trouble in foreign countries with foreign investment. I, myself, I've never had any issues.

I have friends who've lived in all of these countries for 30, 40 years and never had any problems. Um, it, I think y- you do that law of attraction. You, you get what you attract- Mm-hmm ... one way or the other. Mm. But yeah, I've b- I've done a lot of stuff in, in Koh Phangan in Thailand. I've been going there since 1991 every year.

Um, and I've been involved in, um, a lot of projects in Koh Phangan in Thailand, and other places in Thailand, in Phuket, um, in Koh Samui, um, Khao San Road. I've done a lot of stuff in Indonesia, and now even doing stuff in Lombok, uh, Nusa Penida, um, the other regions of Indonesia, um, which are n- are nowhere near as busy, which is nice.

Mm. And now I'm, I'm venturing into the Philippines, which I'm really enjoying.

I'm getting a little bit jealous of your lifestyle. I mean- It's taken a long time ... nothing's easy.

I

mean, apart from that terrible accident you had, um, I'm really jealous of your lifestyle. But let's talk, um, international, uh, different rules- Yeah

to Australia.

Yep.

Freehold versus leasehold. Now, most of those countries you just mentioned, Bali, Thailand- Mm ... Philippines, a foreign person is allowed to buy an apartment-

Yep ...

but they're not allowed to own land in their own name. No. So typically, the, the structures that they implement to purchase land in those countries, one is they'll have a girlfriend there, and they'll put it in the girlfriend's name-

Yeah

or two, or a wife. Yep. Number two is to set up a company and have a native, uh, person- Nominee, yeah ... nominee in that country that owns 50% of the shares in that company. Yeah. Tell us a couple of... Have you got any stories about that, or- Yeah ... strategies that people use in the different countries to buy freehold- versus the apartments where they, where they actually own the land.

Like, yep, I'll be honest, I, I'm not an apartment sort of guy. Yeah. I, I like land.

Yeah. Well, again, we're both, you know, property investment is not only- Mm ... well, it's our life. Mm. And I always say real estate, it's not a job, it is a life. Yeah. You know? I, I remember one time I was surfing in Byron Bay on a Sunday, and someone paddled over to me that I didn't even know, asked me real estate advice.

I'm like, "Mate, come on. Would you do this to your doctor?" But that's what people do in real estate, especially in Australia. Yeah. It, it's a pastime. It is. It's, it's a, it's an addiction for a lot of people. But I've, I've done a lot of things in my life, from being a gem-dealing gypsy, to a travel writer, to a nightclub owner, a events promoter.

Nothing has re- You know, that's all been fun, but the only way I've made any real wealth in my life- Mm ... and stability is real estate. Yeah. Both personally and professionally. So I highly recommend that anyone get into it as soon as possible. Yep. It's not easy, but, um, it's all about due diligence. Mm-hmm. And Australia is very safe, so we still offer a lot of property investments in Australia.

Mm. Right now, for example, I highly recommend Kingscliff. I think it's a great area. There's a lot of brand-new property- Yeah ... you can buy there, and the same with Aura on the Sunshine Coast. Mm. Anything that close to international airports and beaches with capital cities within a matter of an hour's drive away, that's gold anywhere in the world.

But then internationally, it's a very different ball game. And I, I do know people who've, who've... Especially now, you, we see it all the time, people are complaining about everything that's happening in the world or in this country, and they wanna sell everything up and move to a tropical island, and I get that, and I know people who've done that.

And, and that's, that's a risky move, a life change. Mm. For me, I would never sell my properties in Byron Bay, but I leverage and use that to then invest in my tropical island dream for my retirement now- Mm ... where I can come back and forth from a little bungalow on the beach. Mm. Um, and so in terms of doing that- Mm

I'm still very careful because- Mm ... I've been doing this sort of business since the days where people- Mm ... would be doing a deal on a handshake and- Mm ... and a scribble on a, on a napkin with some local chief from a tribe that hardly speaks English.

Yeah, I just wanna mention, um, on the phone, uh, last night I was mentioning to you, Matt, that one of my clients- Did buy land in his own name, uh, in Thailand, and I- I'm not gonna get in trouble by saying this, but basically he n- he knew the politicians there-

Yep

and he gave them some Thai baht in a brown paper bag, and they said, "Oh yeah, you're, you're allowed to buy land here."

Yep.

My understanding is, from a fair bit of social media over the last three or four months, is that a lot of people like that are having land repossessed from them. Is that true? Totally.

Because wh- what they're finding out now is that, you know, that, that brown paper bag, that handshake, that- Mm ... scribble on a napkin, th- that even if it was a government official, which with all due respect, even in this country, they can be more corrupt than anything. In some ways there's more honor in the underworld than there is in the corporate world, because in the underworld it's all about a handshake.

Yeah. You're only as good as your word. But some of these government, government officials, especially in- Yeah ... foreign countries- Mm ... are the biggest crooks on the planet- Yeah ... whether that's Australia or America or Indonesia.

Yeah.

But yeah, then there's people who've done all of that, then 10 years later they find out they were sold land that the guy that sold it to them didn't even own it.

Mm. Mm. And someone turns up and going, "Hang on, what are you doing building... You've built all this on my land." And all of a sudden you've lost everything. Mm. Or the, the government then kicks them out. Mm. So it's a very good time to be buying internationally- Mm ... because those days are over. Mm. The cowboy era.

Now you... And what I do, and I certainly recommend, I've just come from my accountant's office, I don't do anything, especially internationally, let alone in this country- Mm ... unless I sit down with my accountant and my lawyer, in this country first and foremost, tell them what I'm looking at, give them all the stats, facts and figures, um, and the paperwork, and then I also have an accountant and a lawyer in each of those countries that I use personally and that I- Mm

recommend to my clients. So that then everything is triple checked, not just double checked. So I don't care what someone tells me, "Oh, this is a great deal- Yeah ... and here's the contracts and you own this." That's great. I'll get my lawyer in that country to have a look, then I'll get my lawyer in this country to have a look.

I'll get my accountant in that country to have a look- Mm ... and I'll get my accountant in this country to have a look. And that's what I do for every project personally- Mm ... and professionally, and, and anyone who's doing any different than that is very risky.

Yeah. This is not a, a political podcast, but I can't help but mention this thing that just- Sure

came to my mind, um, maybe six or eight months ago when I was on a, a flight back here from the Philippines. A gentleman there was talking about this property that he'd purchased, uh, in his wife's name, who was from the Philippines. And- Yep ... talking about corruption, um, a w- water utility from the local government there was connected all, all the way, uh, to the village there, but the last part of it hadn't actually been done, and the gentleman said he bought this land on the basis that the water would be connected, and he said he'd been fighting for six or seven years for it to be done.

And the reason it hadn't been done is the local government- uh, council guy there was getting a cut from the guy who delivered the water bottles in a truck to all the village people there

Oh, yeah

And if he approved the water connection, there'd be less demand for the bottles of water, and he'd miss out on his, uh, take

Yep.

And, uh, yeah A- and a lot of these countries, that's why you've gotta do more due diligence. You know, I, I'm big on due diligence anywhere. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm But especially these countries, there's always a story behind the story behind the story.

Yeah

And, and again, you'll find, I even noticed, the Philippines is a classic.

Mm-hmm. And, but I kinda like that. Yeah It is still a bit Wild West, but you've gotta be very... You've just gotta... You know, in Australia now, we're, we're the opposite. It's the most over-regulated country in the world. Yeah You wanna do anything, you wanna put a granny flat in your backyard- Mm-hmm ... it's gonna take you two years through council planning- Mm

a million f- different paperworks- Mm ... and tons of fees that generally will make it not even worthwhile. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Where in a lot of these countries, you, you could build a bungalow on the beach on a block of land in two weeks and get it up and running. You've just gotta be, expect that someone might come knocking on the door, and exactly, they're gonna want a, a, an envelope of cash- Mm

or one way or the other. Yeah. Um, but you've just gotta have all that documented- Mm-hmm ... and know that in some ways that still is how things work. Yep. You just wanna make sure that you're paying the right person- Mm-hmm ... at the right time, because a lot of time it is... It, a lot, in Indonesia, for example, they're saying they, their local governments or their councils, banjars they're called, um, they'll have their own little rules, and there will be exactly some guy who's in charge of water, and he's a- he's the water mafia.

And y- you know, you'll see a brand-new road going to one property, but that's 'cause the local mayor lives at the end of that road, and that's got the best road in the whole village. Um, uh, so it's kind of funny. But again, you, if you're going to go and- Whether you're gonna go and live in one of these countries or be a fly in, fly out guy like me, I don't, uh, with my personality, I, I don't think I'll ever live in one place.

I- Mm ... I pretty much go from Byron Bay to Koh Phangan in Thailand to Bali or now the surrounds of Bali, um, to the Philippines. So that's pretty, you know, I, I... It's my four little hot spots. Mm. And then I still like traveling to go to other places when I can. But- Mm ... um, you know, I think a, a month or two in one place, then I'm ready to move.

But either way, you wanna have a good relationship with the country and the people you're going to. If you're gonna go in there, um, with the wrong attitude, they will- Mm ... chew you up and spit you out.

Mm.

Um, definitely.

Matt, there seems to be, uh, a fairly large number of entrepreneurs who use a leasehold property investment model too in these countries- Sure

on Thailand, Bali- Yep ... and the Philippines. And you sometimes see on social media where instead of buying the land, they buy it leasehold and then they're, they're getting 20%- Yep ... plus net returns, which means they get all their money back in five years. So if a property has got 20 years left to go on a lease-

Yep

they get all their money back after five years, and there's another 15 years left over. Have you had any experience with leasehold property or do you sell that particular

type of product? I, I've done both sides of the coin. In fact- Mm ... personally, I'm looking at a leasehold property right now, which is- Mm

absolute beachfront- Mm ... on an island in the Philippines. Mm. And the beauty of that one is, um, I can get in and I can get out. Mm. I'm not as tied to it, and again, it's cashflow positive from the get-go. It's already an existing resort. Yep. Um, um, the, the owners there need some cash flow 'cause they're, they're doing a whole pickleball investment.

Pickleball's the fastest growing sport in the world. Wow. And so many property developers now are jumping into pickleball because they can't build the courts quick enough- Wow ... anywhere in the world. Pickleball is incredibly popular, and so a lot of people are just getting in it 'cause it's a, it's a very good business.

Yeah, right. It's, you know, it's like laundromats really. You set up... Th- th- this, for example, this exact... They're building 16 courts, and it's pretty much cash operating. You know, people turn up and they pay by the hour to play pickleball, and they're being used around the clock. You put lights on. So pickleball's a big one right now.

So they're looking to, to do that, and I'm looking to get in and take over this beachfront resort. But they don't wanna sell it, and I am quite happy to just get in and buy a business that literally from day one I'm gonna be making money. It's already got staff. It comes with everything from the cutlery through to the cleaning staff.

Um, and so I can have a beachfront resort for the next 20 years. Or generally I'd only, only look at 30-year leases. Again, this is literally something I've just spoken to my accountant about, so we're still in negotiation. Yep. And in fact, now e- every country's a little different, but in Indonesia, for example, they're looking...

There's generally been 30-year leases. There's now government leases that are even better because you can get a 30, 20, 30. Mm. So then you're looking at 80-year lease. Mm. Um, which again is enough for yourself and your next generation.

And some of them have the possibility to extend and apply to-

Totally. And I know, I know a lot of people who are into their second and third leases.

Yes.

Again, it depends on the relationship you have with your landlord- Mm ... and your local home own- uh, landowner. And to be honest, I think in Australia- We should have followed a very similar system because, again, w- like I say, I, I, I avoid politics, um, but I don't trust any politicians, that's for sure. Uh, my father was in local government his whole life, and he did it when he w- they weren't getting paid for that.

He was on the mayor of the Mulga, which again is a pub and a shop still to this day. He was a local farmer and, and he was literally on the local council there for 40 years, I think. Mm. But not getting paid a cent, and i watched him do that. So many people have wanted me to run for council in Byron Bay.

It's worse than being a real estate agent. Talk about someone paddling up in the surf. You can't walk down the street- Mm-hmm ... without someone complaining about a pothole or their neighbor or this or that. The phone never stopped, and he was doing that as a labor of love. Mm. But, um, but yeah, it's a lot of politics.

He had a friend I remember, this is when we would've still been at school, who was a farmer out at Dalby. So this is a long time ago. We're, we're talking 40 years now. And even back then, he... This real estate agent, you can't blame him. He had a Chinese client who would ring him every three months, a Chinese lady.

And I won't, I won't try and do the Chinese accent. I think y- you get canceled these days if you do that. But she would basically ask him, "So what, what do you have?" And he would say, "Well, we've got this 1,000 acre sheep property. Um, I've got a cattle station, and, um, I've got a, a, a sheep or a wheat farm." You know, he'd, he'd ra- she'd say, "Okay, I'll take all three, sight unseen, and bye."

And the Chinese, if you're an entrepreneur, which an entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and learns how to build a plane on the way down, they've learnt very much the right way. And even now, they'd best be looking at the war in the Middle East and just laughing. Mm. Because they know that war doesn't get you anywhere.

Mm. They- they're buying up food and resources- Mm ... all over the world 'cause then they control the world. Mm. So for 40 years now, they've been buying cattle stations, sheep stations, wheat stations. Mm. All sorts of things, and they don't have to. If they found their loopholes, there's no local owners involved- Mm

in that. Whereas in Thailand and Indonesia and the Philippines, you do have to have a local partner at least for 50% of that, and I think that's a good thing.

Mm-hmm. I agree, Matt. One, one of the things that I find interesting that ever since that budget just came out, and this is not a political podcast- Yeah

but when that budget came out in May, there seems to be a massive increase in the number of, uh, people on social media saying, "If you're a successful entrepreneur, you should leave this country." And I find it quite fascinating, but you've been based in Byron Bay-

Mm-hmm ...

f- for the 40 years since we left school.

Sure.

But you choose to remain an Australian resident for tax. Yep. Presumably you pay some tax in these other countries. Totally. And, uh, where appropriate and under the law, you're allowed to, you can claim a, a, a trade off the tax already paid to- Yep ... what, what's liable in Australia. Do you know much about that?

And why do so many people now talk about don't e- don't give up your Australian residency for tax purposes and just go to another- Yeah ... country where the tax rate is less?

I know a lot of people who are doing that. Mm. And as you said, y- now in social media because, and now even our phones are off, but- Mm-hmm

even it's probably still listening and because we've had this conversation- Yeah ... more and more of that'll pop up. And, um, whatever you, you show an interest in, you keep getting these feeds. Yes. But there's a lot of people and a lot of even- Mm ... property spruikers- Mm ... ex- exactly advocating that. Mm. And, uh, my business partner, David Simpson, and I at Super Realty- Mm

we're very careful not to ... I, I understand- Mm ... and in some ways I agree, but- Mm ... I'm never gonna say g- you know, "Get out of Australia. Australia's dying," all of those sorts of things which a lot of people are saying. Mm-hmm. I, I will never sell my properties in Byron. Um, it's, it's my, I don't have any other super.

That's my superannuation really. Mm. Mm. It gives me an opportunity to now gamble as such in some of these other beautiful locations where- Mm ... I do want that tropical island lifestyle, um, where I can literally be living in a- Mm ... in a sarong and, um, r- cruising around, um, very carefree instead of the hustle and bustle of traffic and, uh- Mm

the ins and outs of this country. But yeah, the, the rules, I say, are changing all the time. Mm-hmm. And I, I always use an accountant here and an accountant there and try and weigh up the options, but I don't close any door, and I d- I don't, um, I, I think there, there's still good options here in Australia. Mm.

The hard part is I, and I don't have children, I'm the godfather of nine and the uncle of six, but I feel sorry for the next generation. If you're even starting out as, as late as I did in my 30s, not my 20s, thinking about buying property- Mm ... you know, a block of land anywhere along the coast especially is a million dollars.

And then to build a decent house is almost a million dollars. So unless you're gonna go, well, even if you go as far as Ipswich now, you're still looking at a million- Mm ... plus- Yeah ... to get into a market. Yeah,

you are. Yeah.

And that's a l- that's a big mortgage to have unless- Mm ... you, you, you're going to invent some app and, and win a million- Yeah

dollars overnight. Mm. If you're going into a million dollar mortgage, whether you're 20 or 50- Mm ... um, it, that's a lot of money. Mm. Um, so- Yeah, I understand why w- a lot of people... 'Cause, you know, a lot of the stuff we offer overseas, I could get you properties for 150,000 within a block from the beach, which is what I started buying in Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone- Mm

'cause I missed those opportunities in Byron. But I have those opportunities now in Thailand, in Indonesia, in the Philippines. But I still, I don't encourage anyone to put all their eggs in one basket. Mm. You wanna diversify.

Mm.

Again, I, I'm, I'm very property-centric, but I do have some shares, I do have some crypto- Mm

I do have some other options.

I hope you don't have the shares that I hold.

Well, again, like, the, again, it's in ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows.

Look, one of the, one of the things I just wanna point out to the listeners, uh, there are a couple of other countries we haven't talked about, in particular that I'm looking at right now- Mm

and that is, um, particularly with the strength of the Australian dollar right now, buying in New Zealand- Yep ... at, at $1.20 per dollar-

Yep ...

where there's no, uh, capital gains tax, no stamp duty, seems to be an opportunity. Yep. And Japan-

Yep ...

is on, on sale, particularly- It's

very cheap ...

outside of the major cities.

Yeah. Yep. And you're getting over 110 yen, uh- Yep ... per dollar. There's... And you are allowed as a foreigner to own- Yes ... in those countries. So there's plenty of opportunities out there to diversify, as you point out. Yeah. And, um,

yeah. I have a lot of clients who've been buying in Japan, especially if you're into skiing.

I know a mate of mine just bought a ski chalet. Ski resorts, yeah. Yeah. 10-bedroom ski chalet, a big old timber beautiful thing. The timber alone in this country would be worth God knows how much, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mm. I think it was about 50 grand Aussie-

Yeah ...

for a 10-bedroom ski chalet- Yeah

that literally, it's already cash flow positive. He's renting it out. Um, because a lot of the, the Japanese next generation who are born and bred in those little villages- Mm ... they're all moving to the cities. They don't wanna be in this little village- Yeah, exactly ... at the s- base of a ski slope. Yeah. They wanna be in, in Tokyo.

And so there's, there's absolute bargains. Mm. I've also got friends who've been buying even brand new off-the-plan in those countries, in Japan. Yeah. And again, y- you know, you, you're looking at 100, 100 grand, 150 for something brand new.

Mm. Mm. Amazing. Matt, your, your lifestyle, I just wanna... I've said it once already- Yeah

at the start of the podcast, but living in Byron Bay, living in Thailand- Living in Bali, it, it sounds like a dream come true, and maybe, um, maybe it is for the majority of, of people, particularly those who aren't raising a family on the Gold Coast of Australia, for example.

That's right. The grass is always greener.

See, I'm 57. I, I'm still jumping on a plane as much as I can- Yeah ... which, which again, it sounds idyllic, but again, it's- Mm ... it's hard to, to keep up with because, um- Mm ... yeah, I'm in a different country pretty much every month. Mm. And, and that's how I've pretty much lived since we left school- Yeah ... or me leaving university.

I, I've got that gypsy blood.

As I mentioned, I'm, I'm sort of jealous of your lifestyle. But... And I haven't prepared you for this question. I didn't tell you- Sure ... I'm gonna ask it, but do you have any advice for people who do want an alternative life, who do wanna just travel, but maybe keep Australia as their domicile-

Yes

and do what you've done? Is there any advice? I don't know if there's an answer or not, but-

Yeah. Well, that's pretty much what I do. You know, I love... It, it's funny, whenever... And I've been doing this since, since we, we left school and university, and I laugh at myself. You can't laugh at anyone else unless you laugh at yourself.

But I remember when I first went to Koh Phangan in Thailand, or first lived on Khao San Road in Bangkok, or first went to Bali, and even just now, first time going to the Philippines, that first month- Mm ... that's it. Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm selling everything. I'm moving here. I'm gonna buy this resort. I'm gonna have this tropical island lifestyle.

You know, I always joke, if I, if I go missing, I'll just be on a tropical island, just me and Tom Cruise, you know- ... making cocktails. I think that movie was my senior year, and it was that idyllic lifestyle of just running away from everything and, and, you know, a thatched roof on the beach. But then the second month, if you're smart, and you should always be, you start to do your due diligence of the realities- Mm

of owning a property- Mm ... owning a business- Mm ... maybe getting married or having children in these- Mm ... tropical island locations, um, or any sort of remote location. Mm-hmm. And, and you realize it's not as easy as you think it might be. Mm-hmm. And then by the third month, um, especially now in Bali, God love it, the, you know, the pollution, the traffic jams, the corruption- Mm

the, you know, the, the language barriers, you know, it starts to get a bit frustrating month three. Mm. And you're like, "Oh, get me out of here. I'll get back to Byron Bay. I'm on my deck in the forest, you know. I walk to the beach." I think, what was I thinking? You know, my life is so good, you know, I can just retire here.

Mm. But then within three months- Mm ... I'm bored out of my brain. I love this country, but it, and it is very safe. Mm-hmm. But we're so over-regulated. Mm. Again, dri- even driving from Byron to here now, or especially I drive pretty much once a month from Byron to Noosa, um, to check in on my father who's now 90, and, uh, he's, he's in a home, and my sister's up there, and I, but you've got to be so careful.

You get a, a ticket, uh, for going five kilometers over the speed limit or- Or

touching your phone ...

touching, you're not even using it- Yeah ... on the passenger seat, every... You know? And all a sudden that's $1,000- Yeah ... and five points because it wasn't in the cradle. Mm. You're not even touching it. Mm. Or your seatbelt was, was i- under-

Under, I got one of them, under my shoulder.

I got 1,000 'cause of my ca- cars- Yeah ... in my company. $1,000 fine 'cause my seatbelt was under my shoulder, not over my

shoulder. I've had all of those, and you're just like, "Are you kidding me?" You know, 66 in a 60, or 110 in 100. Yeah. And in the c- in the camera. Yeah. On the photo. It's only me on three lanes. Mm.

Firstly, how is that not 110? Yeah. And, and again, a- again, we're not being political. Mm. And Big Brother, you know, don't knock on our doors, but it's revenue-raising- Mm ... as far as I'm concerned. Like, really, are you really- 100% ... saving lives? 100%. Or because every time, and again, I'm like, whatever. Because in the old days- Mm

you used to be able to plead your case. Mm-hmm. Now, y- you know, it's, they make it so hard to do that. Mm. You're like, "Okay, I'm gonna pay this ridiculous fine- Mm ... for doing so little." And again, we- we're, we pay our taxes, we work hard, and we do things, and you're like, "Really? Who are you penalizing in this- Mm

weird country now?"

Matt, can you help the audience out if someone listening to this actually does wanna diversify?

Yeah.

Um, what are we talking here? Are we talking maybe only $100,000 that they can do something with in one of these

companies, or? Oh, yeah, definitely. And again, please feel free to contact- Mm

either of us through your details on this podcast- Mm ... through our details, which is superrealty.com.au. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you can contact myself or David Simpson, my partner here on the Gold Coast. We work between Byron Bay and Noosa, and that's either the properties at Kingscliff or at Aura, or then, um, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines.

And yeah, we basically look at anything in this country. If we can find anything under a million dollars these days for a brand-new four bed, two bath, double lock-up garage- Mm ... within a, a close distance to the beach is a bargain. Yeah. Seems crazy to say that, but it is. And again, it, it, we all said it can't keep going up.

They'll be 2 million in five, 10 years. So, um, the other options overseas, I've now got some currently some very good options where you're looking at, you know, a one-bedroom bungalow villa, but brand new. And yeah, you can get in for as little as $100,000 and- Mm ... we've got some options in Phuket in Thailand.

I've got some in Koh Phangan- Mm ... in Koh Samui. Now, in the Philippines, some options, and also in Indonesia or in Lombok- Mm ... which is- Mm ... again, not as busy as Bali.

Even in the Philippines now, like, you're getting 45 pesos to a dollar. It was 37 not that- Yep ... long ago. So the Aussie dollar's- Yeah ... a- against some currencies is actually pretty strong and-

Yep

um, maybe in the future, it's the most difficult thing in the world to predict is- Sure. Sure ... is currency, but- Yeah ... it's certainly a lot better time now than, uh, even 12 months ago to do

something. Exactly. And I do think, you know, this area, south, uh, the Southern Hemisphere- Mm ... you know, 'cause with all due respect, you know, I've traveled the world most of my life.

I have friends all over the world, but especially my friends in the Northern Hemisphere always say, "You guys are so far away." I'm like, "Yeah, that's a good thing." Because I would not wanna be living in the Middle East, in America, or in Europe right now. You know, the uncertainty of what's going on- Mm ... is crazy, where it makes Australia look really safe.

Yeah. New Zealand is, is being voted one of the safest countries in the world- Yeah ... to, to go and live. Yep. And I know there's a lot of people from America jumping on planes and going there as we speak. Um, and then you look at the islands, you know, if even for what uncertainty there can be in Indonesia or the Philippines or Thailand- Mm

it's a hell of a lot safer than Europe or America or, or the Middle East.

Mm. Matt, thank you for coming on the podcast. My pleasure, mate. And, um, I'm, I sort of understand the- uh, tolerance that you must have built for all of these different cultures. 'Cause I've also traveled a

lot, and going to Thailand and going to the Philippines, the, the, the way people live is so completely different, and it's very, very satisfying to- Yeah ... actually spend time in these countries and actually just learn how they live.

I, I love their sense of respect. Mm. And that's what I really wanna give back.

And, and sadly, over the past few years we've seen, without mentioning any names or getting political, there's been some, some nationalities that have come into Indonesia and Thailand specifically out of war zones or otherwise, and they're very tough- Mm ... people. Mm. But they've disrespected that sort of respectful culture, that really- Mm.

A- and, and it's really ruffled feathers. Mm. And sadly then they can't be seen to being racist one way or the other, and they've made it very hard- Yeah ... for any foreigners and any- Mm ... foreign investment, from- Mm ... tourism through to property.

Yep.

But in some ways it's, it's making it very tough, but I think that's a good thing.

Mm. Because it means, yeah, you've gotta play by their rules. It's their country. Yeah. Sure, even if you wanna live there, and y- you can ... I have friends who are fully immersed. I mean, for example, I have a friend who has a construction company in Bali. He's been there most of his life. He's in his 60s, been there 40 years.

He's got five children- Mm ... a beautiful wife. He speaks fluent more than one dialect. He's got 100 staff. He's fully immersed in that culture, and he's probably more Indonesian than he is Australian now. Right. But still there's a mutual respect. Mm. He respects their culture. Mm. And it's still, it's their country.

You're living in their country, so don't go there and think you can- Mm ... boss people around and click your fingers and people are gonna come running, whether that's at a restaurant or on a building site. Mm. I, I think that's really important.

Viewers, uh, if you wanna get in touch with Matt, uh, we'll leave his contact details at the bottom of the podcast.

Um, I, I just find your story fascinating. Thanks, mate. It's certainly very entertaining as well, and thank you for your time today, Matt. I,

I, I really appreciate your podcast, and I, I think it's great. And, uh, and the more people can support podcasts like this, the more we all help each other.

Yeah. Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, mate.

Cheers. Thanks for listening to the Andrew Right Property Podcast. This is all about building a community of like-minded investors who can share real-life stories, experiences, and collaborate with a view to helping each other. Join us. Get in touch through the link in the show notes. I look forward to you joining me on the next episode.