I would most likely be investing in property for income or a place to live when I need it.I do not own property,but I do work abroad.
I read your thread Gios.
Correct me if I am wrong,from what I read it appears that the INDI is the way to go for the highest return on financial/time/effort investment.
The Downside
Off course, this would mean I would have to rent and will not have an income should I return to S.A .I could always sell some of those stocks should I need them,cheers for the advice.
I'm not offering advice, you need to draw your own conclusions. I too lived overseas for a few year while renting my props out. I can tell you it was a freaking nightmare letting agents do it. You are so far away with no control. The minute I got back I started managing them myself and things improved. Still quite a pain though, especially when tenants vacate. Frankly had I invested in the Indi instead I would have much more capital today. There's so many variables with property though. Your case you're looking to purchase for yourself to live in one day, so different scenario. You never mentioned whether you were going to bond or not?
If you were going to buy cash, why not bond the property to a point where you'd break even every month once rented, let the tenant pay the bond while you abroad, claim the tax rebates on expenses and bond interest and then invest your cash lumpsum/monthly surplus in the indi. Like orca says, 3yrs holding period you'll only pay cgt. So if you going to be abroad for that period longer you'd probably be in a position to pay the bond off with your gains if it continues to grow as it has historically.
There's no guarantee that the indi will continue to grow at the pace it has over the last 5 years. But if it does, it will most definitely outpace residential property growth.