I’m eight years old and already have a four-bedroom house in Melbourne. Here’s how I became Australia’s youngest property investor – and the secrets I learned from my smart dad
Ruby McLellan isn’t like most eight-year-olds. Instead of spending her pocket money on toys and sweets, she chose to enter the property market and earn the title of ‘Australia’s youngest homeowner’.
Ruby and her siblings Angus, 14, and Lucy, 13, bought their first four-bedroom home in Clyde, Victoria, two years ago for $671,000. It is now worth $960,000.
The siblings collected $6,000 of their hard-earned pocket money for a down payment by helping their parents with chores and packing their father’s manual on investing.
Their parents paid the rest and the children are on their way to purchasing their next investment property using the equity in the current home’s mortgage. All their names are on the title.
Ruby told FEMAIL that being a landlord is “pretty cool” and admitted she has yet to tell her school friends about it.
Ruby McLellan (pictured) and her siblings Angus, 14, and Lucy, 13, bought their first four-bedroom home in 2021 for $671,000. Since then, it has grown in value by $289,000
Ruby, eight, told FEMAIL it’s ‘pretty cool’ to be a landlord and has told her school friends about it
The building, which covers more than 200 m², is positively furnished, which means that the rent is higher than the mortgage repayments. This means it costs the family nothing to hold onto it.
Their father Cam, 50, the CEO of real estate investment company OpenCorp, taught his children the basics of investing and why debt can be a “good thing.”
The rationale behind the idea is to give their children real estate, to give them a head start.
“Ten years from now, when our kids might want to buy their own homes, the down payments will be $200,000. There is no way today’s kids can afford a house without the help of mom and dad,” Cam said.
“We have four kids and maybe $800,000 to spend, so the obvious thing to do now is to put down a small down payment, buy a property, double it in value and then sell it.”
The family will hold the property until Lucy and Angus are in their early 20s, meaning they’ve waited a “full real estate cycle” and hope it will reach $1 million.
When sold, the children receive an equal share of the after-tax profit.
“Historically, real estate doubles in value every seven to 10 years,” says Cam.
‘I have been investing for thirty years and now is a good time to invest based on falling inflation and the forecast of interest rate declines.’
Cam, 50, (pictured with his wife Felicity and their four children) taught his children the basics of investing and why debt can be a ‘good thing’. “I walked them through the process in simple terms using lots of illustrations to help them understand how it all works,” he said
Before buying the property, Cam said he walked the kids through the process using “lots of illustrations” to help them understand, but since Ruby was only six at the time, he admitted she didn’t understand how it all worked.
He had to keep telling her that she couldn’t live on the property or bring her friends there.
“We do have a vacation home, so I had to try to explain the difference between a vacation renter and a full-time renter,” Cam said.
‘Now that they have seen some growth in the value of the property, we thought it would be worth buying another to further pique their interest.’
The family will keep the property until Lucy and Angus are in their early 20s, meaning they’ve waited a “full real estate cycle” and hope it will reach $1 million. When sold, the children receive an equal share of the after-tax profit
Cam and his wife Felicity bought their first property together in their early 20s with the goal of becoming “financially free.”
As a result, the couple has not had to work as much in the past fifteen years. For Cam, a typical week means working “four hours every few days.”
Every year he takes three months off, including all school holidays, to maximize the time he spends with his four children.
He also explained why he prefers investing in new construction over existing real estate.
“In the first few years, Felicity and I bought existing buildings, but with new construction you can get the perfect property in every area and hone the right design, and the depreciation is greatest in the beginning,” Cam explains.
‘And tenants prefer new construction over existing ones, there are so many advantages.’
When it comes to choosing real estate, Cam uses a three-step guide: finding the right market, area and property.
“Successful investing is a formula, that’s what it comes down to,” says Cam.
‘When I started, it felt like driving a car blindfolded: there was no internet, no information and no one to talk to.’
After buying his first property, he put everything he learned into the book “My Four-Year-Old, the Real Estate Investor,” which became a bestseller.
Cam’s advice for other young Aussies is to get into the market as quickly as possible, even if you’re renting. He also recommends finding a mentor who has been successful in real estate.