I was very glad my good mate and pal, Mr. Alex Wong has agreed to be on the panel of contributors for this blog. A New Zealand born Chinese, Alex has worked in Melbourne for a large part of his working career and specializes in financing planning as well as tax planning for individual and corporations in Australia, residents and non-residents alike.

He is often invited as a keynote speaker for seminars and workshops and he is also actively involved in teaching with the Singapore Institute of Management as Adjunct Lecturer on topics pertaining to tax in the region.

I met Alex in Melbourne in 2005 during one of my trips to Australia. He came across to me as a very down-to-earth person and is extremely humble. He has no airs and is very passionate about the work he does for his clients. 

In the last two and the half years, I have received very good feedback from clients who have engaged his service. His unselfish and kind support to investors here and the region are well appreciated and I am pretty sure he will be a very valuable contributor to this wonderful blog.

Alex currently resides in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He lives in a house in Camberwell, a suburb east of Melbourne CBD with his wife and two grown-up children. He travels to Singapore twice a year for work and is definitely a lover of our very own hawker food.

You can read more about his profile here.

Welcome on board, Alex!

A friend of mine asked me the other day while we were having lunch why I am into Australian properties when the property market here is booming. My natural reaction was to tell him I am not that kind of person who jumps on the bandwagon when everybody else does… Deep in my heart, I had a very compelling reason why I am into properties Downunder, however I wasn’t going to give him a 2-hour presentation…

‘It’s the banking system in Australia. It allows investors better leverage to build a property portfolio.’ I said.  

Looking a bit amused, he went to comment that the banking system in Singapore is just as good…Feeling a bit flustered, I threw a question back at him.  ‘How many people do you know have more than 5 properties in their portfolio?’ I asked. He pondered for a while and said, ‘virtually no one here he knew in Singapore.’…

Well, I gave him that arrogant smile and said, ‘All my partners in Australia, every single one, have more than half a dozen of properties…’ I am sure he could sense the arrogance in my answer… 

Dreams or dreamers, you choose the way you live. I have begun building my portfolio at age 30. Not too late to start but I am happy I have started…have you?

It took me a while to set this blog up. Just a quick note to readers, bloggers, investors and would-be investors, this blog is set up to provide you with free research information, facts and figures from the various institutes in Australia and around the world as well as opinions of the contributors of this blog.

Property investing in Australia is my passion and will be the main focus of this blog but we do appreciate comments from fellow industry professionals sharing their ideas, expertise, and contacts in this box.

Can’t wait to get started mate…