03/09/2026
A $1.03m investment property in Morningside costs you $18,210 a year to hold. Here's why investors still buy them.
A 3 bed, 2 bath unit recently sold in Morningside for $1,030,000, with an estimated rent of $835 per week. Let's run the real numbers.
Upfront: with a 20% deposit plus government and solicitor fees, you're looking at roughly $252,704 to get in the door.
Annually: $43,420 in rent coming in, against around $61,630 in council rates, property management, body corporate, insurance and finance costs going out. That's a net cashflow of –$18,210, or a net yield of –1.77%.
On paper, it looks like a bad deal. So why do investors keep doing it?
Because rental income was never the main game. At 5% annual growth, that property could add around $647,000 in value over ten years. Take out $182,100 in accumulated holding costs and you're left with an illustrative gain of roughly $465,000.
The catch is that those holding costs are real, they're monthly, and they don't wait for capital growth to show up. The investors who do well here are the ones who've stress-tested whether they can comfortably carry that shortfall through vacancy periods, rate movements and rising body corporate fees, not the ones who assumed rent would cover it.
Thinking about an investment purchase in Morningside or anywhere across Brisbane's inner-east? Send me a message and we'll model the numbers on a property you're actually looking at.
📍 Max Gustafson | Finance Broker | Astute Camp Hill
📞 0481 090 313
