REVEALED: THE BIGGEST BLOCKERS TO PROPERTY SUCCESS

When it comes to property investing, most people don’t fail because they picked the wrong suburb or mistimed the market. They fail before they even begin — not from bad decisions, but from the wrong beliefs.

Property commentators Bryce Holdaway and Ben Kingsley say mindset is often the biggest barrier, not money or opportunity. After two decades advising Australians on how to build wealth through property, and being investors themselves, they’ve seen how a few common myths can keep people stuck on the sidelines.

Here, they break down the six most damaging beliefs holding Australians back and reveal the mindset shifts that could make all the difference.

Myth 1: “You Need to Be Rich to Invest”

This is the most common belief that holds people back. Many assume property investing is reserved for high-income earners or people who already have significant wealth.

In reality, wealth is built by what you do with your income, not how much you earn. Holdaway and Kingsley have worked with teachers, tradies, nurses and young professionals who all started with modest savings. The difference? They followed a strategy aligned to their goals, avoided spruikers, and played the long game. You don’t need to be rich — just intentional.

Myth 2: “I Need to Learn Everything Before I Start”

Education matters, but perfectionism is progress’s worst enemy. They’ve met countless people stuck in a loop of reading books, attending webinars, and watching YouTube videos — and never taking the first step.

Property investing is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t need all the answers before you begin. You need a clear goal and a trusted process.

Myth 3: “I Missed the Boat”

We hear this every time the market rises. And yet people were saying the same thing 10, 20, even 30 years ago.

The truth? The best time to invest was yesterday — the second-best time is today. Property rewards time in the market, not timing the market.

Myth 4: “Property Is Too Risky”

Every investment carries risk, but inaction driven by fear is often the greater danger. In Australia, property represents more than investment; it’s stability, aspiration, and security.

Yes, buying the wrong asset in the wrong place is risky. But that’s a reason to get educated, not a reason to avoid the market altogether. When you buy investment-grade property in a good location with a long-term view, risk becomes manageable. You’re not gambling — you’re making a calculated decision.

Myth 5: “You Need 10 Properties to Retire”

Some investors chase a big portfolio. But the truth is, you only need enough income to live the life you want — and that often comes from two or three high-performing properties.

The authors have seen small, strategic portfolios outperform larger ones built on volume. It’s not about how many properties you own — it’s whether they’re working for you.

Myth 6: “I’m Too Young/Too Old to Start”

You’re never the wrong age to shape your financial future. Young investors often underestimate their greatest asset — time. Older Australians worry they’ve left it too late. But Holdaway and Kingsley say they’ve worked with people in their 40s and beyond who’ve built strong passive income streams later in life.

It’s not about age. It’s about clarity, action and alignment with your goals.

Bryce Holdaway and Ben Kingsley are co-authors of How to Retire on $3,000 a Week: The Property Couch’s Playbook for Passive Property Investing (Major Street Publishing RRP $32.99). They are two of Australia’s leading voices in property.

The most convincing luxury interiors rarely need to announce their value.

Their appeal is revealed more gradually: in the weight of a door, the texture of a natural material, the proportion of the furniture or the way lighting changes the mood of a room after dark.

It is this quieter expression of luxury that has shaped the work of Charlie Rizk, founder and design director of Sydney studio Edge Design Consultants.

Established in 2006, the boutique practice works across residential and commercial interiors, offering services that range from architectural interior design and material selection to bespoke furniture, furnishing and final styling.

Its portfolio spans family homes, waterfront retreats, commercial workplaces and apartments within some of Sydney’s most prominent residential buildings. But according to the studio’s philosophy, the common thread is not a readily identifiable aesthetic.

Instead, it is an emphasis on longevity, personalisation and a close relationship between designer and client.

From the salon to the design studio

Rizk’s route into interior design was unconventional.

Before establishing Edge Design Consultants, he founded the Sydney hair salon Escapadehfb. While the two businesses operate in different creative fields, Rizk’s early career gave him experience in interpreting highly personal client briefs.

That ability to listen — and to distinguish between what a client initially requests and how they ultimately want to feel — became central to his work in interiors.

A client may arrive with a collection of reference images, favourite colours or individual pieces of furniture. The designer’s role is not simply to assemble those elements. It is to identify the underlying preference connecting them and translate it into a coherent environment.

That distinction becomes particularly important in bespoke residential design, where the success of a room is determined by more than its appearance in photographs.

The interior must accommodate routines, collections, entertaining, children, pets, privacy and storage. Materials must also be selected according to how they will perform after years of use.

A deliberately boutique model

Edge Design Consultants has remained a relatively small studio, allowing Rizk to maintain personal involvement across its projects.

For clients, that structure offers continuity. Architectural detailing, fixtures, finishes, furniture and styling can be developed as parts of the same design narrative rather than commissioned as disconnected stages.

The studio’s full-service model can begin with spatial planning and architectural interiors before progressing through mood boards, material selections, custom furniture and the final installation.

This continuity is particularly valuable on complex homes involving architects, builders, specialist trades, suppliers and landscape designers. Decisions made at the beginning of a project can affect everything that follows, from the dimensions of a custom sofa to the placement of lighting, power and joinery.

Bringing the interior designer into the process early can help prevent decorative decisions from being imposed on a largely completed building.

It also creates opportunities for furniture, art and objects to inform the architecture itself.

The case against a signature look

Many successful designers become associated with a recognisable palette or recurring visual device. Edge takes a less prescriptive position.

The studio’s work includes warm, layered family interiors as well as more restrained contemporary apartments and sharper commercial spaces. Its stated priorities are durability, considered materials and an understanding of the way each space will be occupied.

This does not mean abandoning a point of view. Rather, the designer’s sensibility is expressed through proportion, editing and consistency instead of a formula repeated from one project to another.

For affluent homeowners, this can be an important distinction. A heavily trend-driven interior may look current when completed but quickly reveal the moment in which it was designed.

An enduring home needs enough character to feel individual without becoming hostage to a short-lived fashion.

Natural stone, timber, metalwork and well-made furniture can provide that foundation, but material expense alone does not create permanence. The detailing, installation and relationship between the materials matter just as much.

Designing from the building out

Edge’s published portfolio includes residential projects in Pymble, Epping, North Rocks, Strathfield, Pyrmont and Wagstaffe, along with the furnishing and styling of a residence in Crown Sydney. A Pymble residence (below) was featured on Channel Nine’s Australia’s Best House in 2023.

The scope varies between projects.

Some commissions involve complete architectural interior design, furniture and styling. Others focus on furnishing an existing residence, where the challenge is to introduce identity without altering the underlying architecture.

A penthouse, for example, may already possess exceptional views, finishes and proportions. The designer’s task is then to create intimacy, establish visual rhythm and ensure the furniture remains appropriately scaled to the volume of the rooms.

A freestanding family home presents different considerations. Storage, circulation, durability and the relationship between indoor and outdoor areas may take precedence over creating a formal sense of arrival.

The best result is not necessarily the most dramatic. It is the one in which the architecture, finishes, furniture and objects feel as though they were always intended to coexist.

Luxury as a personal experience

After 20 years, Edge Design Consultants sits within a design market transformed by social media and unprecedented access to international references.

Clients can now identify furniture, stone, lighting and interiors from around the world before their first conversation with a designer. That access can broaden a brief, but it can also produce an overwhelming collection of competing ideas.

The designer’s role is increasingly one of curation: deciding what belongs, what should be removed and which references can be translated convincingly into an Australian home.

For Rizk, the boutique scale of Edge allows that process to remain personal.

The studio’s version of luxury is therefore not defined by a single material, brand or visual signature. It lies in the time spent understanding a client, the care with which each element is selected and the sense that the completed space belongs specifically to the people living within it.

Fact box

Designer: Charlie Rizk
Role: Founder and design director
Studio: Edge Design Consultants
Established: 2006
Location: Sydney, NSW
Services: Architectural interior design, spatial planning, mood boards, fixtures and finishes, bespoke furniture, furnishing and styling
Project types: Luxury residences, apartments, penthouses and boutique commercial interiors
Selected locations: Pymble, Epping, North Rocks, Strathfield, Pyrmont, Wagstaffe, Macquarie Park and Crown Sydney
Selected media: Australia’s Best House, Kanebridge Quarterly and Robb Report Australia
Website: edgedesignconsultants.com.au
Instagram: @edge_design_consultants