A new report has shown Australians are the richest people on the planet and, apparently, it’s all thanks to our houses.

And the root cause of our good luck? Yes, it’s home ownership. The study found that the average Aust household had $319,700 of equity in their homes, which represented about 60 % of each person’s wealth.

The report follows on from recent data that showed 1.8 million Aust own an Investment property or 6.52% of the overall population (although that number does include minors). While according to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, investor lending now constitutes 50% of all home loans in the country.

Such has been the rate of investor lending, CBA’s general manager broker Sales, Sam Boer, recently told The Adviser that “2014 would well turn out to be the year of the property investor”.

However, Mr Boer added that a cooling market could throw up some real challenges for investors. “If anything, the current state of the market leads to more questions such as: Will these trends continue? Are investors concerned about the recent price increases in our two largest cities? Are investors looking to ‘cash in’?

RP Data’s senior research analyst, Cameron Kusher, agrees that investors Looking to buy into ‘hot’ markets such as Sydney and Melbourne have arguably missed the boat by 2 years.

Mr Kusher also fears a glut of investor property could hit the market if other investment asset classes – such as shares – improve. “Housing has always been a long-term asset class and at the moment investors are simply shopping around to park their money somewhere. Mr Kusher also feared that  due to low rates, investors may be unconsciously over-borrowing.

John can be contacted on 0749722081 or 0410433919. or email him at jwhitten@ihl.net.au or net www.ihl.net.au. John Whitten is a credit representative (CRN 399796) of BLASSA Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence No 391237).