Can you get rich from property in NZ?

Yes, many New Zealanders have built significant wealth through property.

How much do property investors make a year?

It depends on the strategy. Buy-and-hold investors often don't make much from cashflow if they have a big mortgage. Most of their returns typically come from long-term capital growth. Active investors tend to receive larger lump-sum profits instead.

Is property still profitable in 2026?

Property can be profitable in 2026. However, it depends on the strategy you use.

How much money do you need to start investing in property?

For buy-and-hold, you typically need a deposit, often 20-30% of the purchase price. At the same time, flipping and development need far more upfront to cover renovation and build costs.

Property Investment

11 min read15 Jul 2026

How much money can you make through property investment [2026]?

Get an idea of how much money you could potentially make using one of the top 4 property investment strategies.

How much money can i make through property investment WEBSITE

Author: Andrew Nicol

Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host

Book a session with Andrew

Reviewed by: Ed McKnight

Resident Economist, with a GradDipEcon and over five years at Opes Partners, is a trusted contributor to NZ Property Investor, Informed Investor, Stuff, Business Desk, and OneRoof.

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Property investors primarily make money in two very different ways.

They either wait for their properties to grow in value over time or actively create value themselves.

A buy-and-hold investor might earn around 5-6% a year (on average) in long-term capital growth.

A renovator or developer might make $100,000-$500,000 from a single project, but only after taking on significantly more work, risk and capital.

The challenge is that those strategies are often difficult to compare.

One generates wealth gradually. The other generates lump-sum profits.

So in this article, we'll compare New Zealand's five most common property investment strategies. And we'll use one simple benchmark to do it. We'll answer: “How long would it take to make $1 million using each strategy?”

That gives us a fair way to compare approaches that make money in different ways.

We’ll also show real-world examples where investors have done better – or worse – than the average.

Strategy	Ballpark after-tax profit	Time to realise	When you see the money	Capital required	Relative Risk*	Better fit for
Buy & hold	5% - 6% p.a. average capital growth	10+ years	When you sell or refinance.	Low-Medium	Medium	Long-term wealth builders
Cashflow	$27k a year on a $1 million mortgage-free property	1 year	Fortnightly, through rental income	Very High	Low	Income-focused retirees
Flip	$35k per project	4–9 months	When you sell a property after renovating it	Medium-High	High	Investors who want to renovate
Subdivision	$70k per project	9–18 months	When the new sections sell	High	High	Experienced investors
Development	$40k–$100k+ per dwelling	1–3 years	When you build then sell the properties	Very High	Very High	Professional developers

#1 – Buy-and-hold

Buy-and-hold makes money mainly through long-term capital growth.

Often, investors will assume that property prices rise between 5%-6% a year (on average), depending on where you buy.

It’s a simple and lower-risk way to invest in property. That’s compared to some of the other strategies on this list.

You buy a property, rent it out and hold it for the long term – often 15 years or more.

Rental income helps cover the costs of ownership. However, if you take out a big mortgage, most of your wealth typically comes from long-term capital growth.

But simplicity comes with a trade-off: it usually takes decades to build significant wealth.

*Compared to other strategies on this list
Pros	Cons
Lower-risk strategy*	A slower way to build wealth
Mostly hands-off once the property is tenanted	Cashflow is often negative in the early years if you take out a big mortgage
Requires less money to get started than some other strategies	Most of your wealth stays locked in the property
Long-term capital growth does most of the work	Still requires ongoing management

The other thing is, most of your gains are tied up in the property's value.

You generally don't get access to that money until you sell the property or borrow against the increased equity.

In other words, buy-and-hold can create wealth, but most of that wealth builds up slowly in equity rather than arriving as spendable cash.

How much money can you make?

Let's say you buy a $1 million investment property, but you borrow all of the money to invest using the No Cash Needed Method.

If it grows at 5% a year, it'll roughly double in value after 15 years.

But that's not the same as making $1 million.

What happens once you allow for selling costs, repay the mortgage and adjust everything for inflation? You'd need to hold that property for around 22 years before you've genuinely created $1 million of wealth in today's dollars.

That's a long time.

But it's also why buy-and-hold is considered a lower-risk property investing strategy. You're letting time do most of the heavy lifting rather than relying on your own skill.

These are example numbers. Use them as an illustration, not a guarantee.
House value	$1,000,000
Mortgage	$1,000,000
Capital growth	5%
Sales costs	5%
Inflation	2.5%
Capital Gains Tax	0%
Years to make $1 million	22

Case study – Lynne and Darren

Listen to the full podcast.

Lynne and Darren chose a classic buy-and-hold strategy. That’s because they wanted to build wealth gradually for retirement.

They were nearly mortgage-free on their own home. But, they realised they were “frittering” money away and could be doing something more useful with it. So they used the equity in their home to buy two investment properties, then later added a third.

Around 10 years later, those properties had increased in value by roughly $660,000. One property had grown by about $250,000, another by $275,000, and the third by $140,000.

Their plan isn’t to sell everything at once. Instead, they expect to:

gradually sell properties during retirement,
live off the proceeds
reduce debt,
allow the remaining investments more time to grow.

Now, let me be really clear – this is one real example, not a guaranteed result. Buy-and-hold returns vary depending on how many properties you own, where you own them, how long you hold them, and what happens in the market.

Property prices don’t always go up by 5-6% a year. Sometimes the gains will be bigger. Sometimes property prices will fall.

Top tools:

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#2 – Cashflow from property

Cashflow investing makes money by turning property into regular income. Not every investor wants to wait decades for capital growth.

Some would rather own properties that generate enough income to eventually replace their salary.

That's the idea behind cashflow investing.

Tenants often pay their rent weekly or fortnightly. So, in this strategy, you can receive money regularly while still owning the property.

That's why many investors focus on cashflow later in life, when they want income rather than long-term growth.

Unlike buy-and-hold , this strategy focuses on generating income now.

The catch is that you need a lot of money invested before the income becomes meaningful.

Pros	Cons
Generates income you can actually spend	Requires significant capital upfront
Doesn't rely on capital growth	Most investors can't buy properties with a low mortgage
Predictable income stream	Takes a long time to build substantial wealth

How much money can you make?

Suppose you own a mortgage-free property worth $1 million.

If it produces a 6% gross yield, then after paying your rates, maintenance and insurance, you might be left with a 4% net yield. That means you earn about $40,000 before tax.

After tax, that's roughly $27,000.

Unlike capital growth, that's money you can actually spend.

However, the catch is that you have to have the property with no mortgage.

Even with no debt, it'd still take around 37 years to earn $1 million purely from rental income.

These are example numbers. Use them as an illustration, rather than a guarantee.
Property value	$1,000,000
Mortgage	$0
Net yield	4%
Tax rate	33%
Pre-tax cashflow per year	$40,000
Post-tax cashflow per year	$26,800
Years to make $1 million	37.3

Case study – Mitch

Listen to the full podcast.

Mitch deliberately chose cashflow investing because he wants to retire early. Rather than waiting for capital growth, he looks for properties that generate income. He uses that to borrow more money from the banks while building a passive income stream.

After using equity from his own home, Mitch teamed up with his parents. He combined his deposit with their income to buy three standalone units on one title in Rotorua for $570,000.

It was an extremely dodgy area (in his words), and most people couldn’t get insurance. That put most people off.

On top of that, one of the units had foundation issues and couldn't be rented straight away, so he spent $39,000 repairing it.

Today, all properties rent for $1,650 a week, which is about $530 a week in passive income and delivers a 13.5% gross yield on his all-in costs.

Mitch’s result is exceptional rather than average. Mitch himself described it as his “unicorn deal”.

Finding deals like this required months of searching and a willingness to take on a property many other investors walked away from.

#3 – Flipping

Flipping makes money by improving a property and selling it for more than it costs.

Instead of waiting for the market to do the work, you create value yourself by renovating a property and selling it.

If you get it right, you can make far more money in a much shorter period. You receive the profit when you sell the property.

But these kinds of properties come with risk, and your profits depend on getting the numbers right.

*Compared to other strategies on this list
Pros	Cons
Fast way to generate cash*	Risk that you can't sell the property at the end
You get the profits when you sell	Renovation, legal and selling costs reduce returns
Can be repeated as a business	Requires significant time and hands-on involvement
Doesn't rely on holding property long term	Often needs more expensive short-term finance

How much money can you make?

Let's say you buy a hose for $600,000 and spend $60,000 renovating it.

You sell it for $750,000.

After paying the real estate agent, your lawyer and taxes, you might walk away with around $35,000.

That's more cash than many people have ever had in their bank account.

But it also comes with much more risk.

If every project generated a similar return, you'd need roughly 28 successful flips to build $1 million after tax.

That's around one flip every three months for seven years. (And they all have to go well.)

These are example numbers. Use them as an illustration, rather than a guarantee.
House purchase	$600,000
Renovation	$60,000
Final value	$750,000
Sales costs	5%
Pre-tax profit	$52,500
Tax	33%
Post-tax profit	$35,175
Flips to make $1 million	28.43
Flips per year	4
Years to make $1 million	7.11

#4 – Subdivision

Subdivision makes money by creating extra value from the land. You carve up a piece of land into multiple sections. Then you might decide to sell them off.

It’s the same principle as flipping – you create value rather than simply waiting for prices to rise.

The difference is that instead of improving the house, you're improving the land.

That usually means bigger profits.

It also means a longer process and potentially bigger headaches.

Pros	Cons
Higher profit potential than many flips	More complicated than renovating alone
Creates value by changing the land	Council approvals can delay projects
Can be scaled into a business	Higher holding and compliance costs

Like flipping, the profit usually arrives when the subdivided lots or properties are sold. Because subdivision projects often take longer, you may wait 12 months or more before receiving any return.

How much money can you make?

A successful subdivision might leave you with around $70,000 after tax.

That's roughly double the profit of a typical flip.

So instead of needing 28 projects to reach $1 million, you might only need about 14 successful subdivisions.

Of course, each project also takes longer.

That’s because you need to get council approvals. You need to work with land surveyors and build the infrastructure. Then there’s compliance. That all adds complexity. That’s why there are more opportunities for things to go wrong.

House purchase	$600,000
Subdivision costs	$150,000
Final value	$900,000
Sales costs	5%
Pre-tax profit	$105,000
Tax	33%
Post-tax profit	$70,350
Subdivisions to make $1 million	14.21
Subdivisions per year	2
Years to make $1 million	7.11

Case study – Abe

Listen to the full podcast.

Abe was a 29-year-old contract engineer who subdivided properties for a living, so he had more experience than most investors.

He found a section in Alexandra and estimated the subdivision would cost around $140,000. But the property had a shared driveway, and to run services like power, water and sewerage, Abe needed permission from three neighbours.

That’s where the project stalled. One neighbour agreed only after Abe offered to resurface their driveway. Another said no because they were planning to sell. After a year of negotiating, Abe was still stuck, so he bought another property and subdivided that instead.

The lesson: even people who do this for a living can get caught out. Subdivision can create value, but the profit is only real once the title is issued, the services are connected, and the section actually sells.

#5 – Development

The property development strategy makes money by building new homes.

Development sits at the far end of the ‘active investor’ spectrum.

You're no longer renovating one house or splitting one section. Instead, you typically buy a section, carve it up and build multiple new houses.

Developing is the strategy with the highest earning potential. It's also the strategy where investors stand to lose the most if a project goes wrong.

*compared to other strategies on this list
Pros	Cons
Highest profit potential*	Highest-risk strategy*
Can build wealth quickly	Requires a lot of money to get started
You can build multiple properties on one site	Construction delays and cost blowouts can erode profits

Property development can mint new millionaires. It can also cause you to go bankrupt. It is higher risk.

Developers typically receive their profit as each completed home settles with its buyer. So the big payoff often comes at the end of the project.

How much mony can you make?

Let’s say you decide to build townhouses. You might generate $40,000 per townhouse after tax.

To build $1 million, you'd need to build roughly 25 townhouses.

If you’re starting out as a developer, you usually wouldn’t start with a development that big. You’d gradually build up. So you might do 5 developments of 5 townhouses each.

For experienced developers, that's achievable.

For someone starting out, it's likely to take many years to build the knowledge, capital and systems needed to reach that scale.

Development offers the biggest upside.

But it also demands the biggest commitment.

Post-tax profit (per unit)	$40,000
Properties to make $1 million	25
Units per year	4
Years to make $1 million	6.3

Case study – Sarah*

Listen to the full podcast.

Sarah specialises in buying properties with development potential.

Her strategy is to look for sites where she can add value by renovating, subdividing or building on unused land.

One of her most challenging projects was a steep section that most buyers would have dismissed because it looked too difficult to build on.

First, she renovated the existing two-bedroom house into a three-bedroom home.

Then she craned two prefabricated three-bedroom homes onto the back of the section. To do that she needed to organise traffic management and cranes. She had to work with the neighbours and the logistics of building on a difficult site.

Looking back, Sarah says it was her biggest headache. It was her biggest risk. But, it was also one of her highest-growth and highest-yielding investments.

Today, her property portfolio is worth around $6.5 million, with about $2.5 million in equity.

*Name changed for privacy reasons

What strategy do I use? Andrew’s view:

"For most of my clients at Opes Partners, I recommend buy-and-hold.

It's one of the lower-risk, most repeatable strategies on this list. And you don't have to quit your job to make it work.

Earlier in my investing career, I made a lot of money through renovations. That happened particularly in Christchurch after the earthquakes. But those were unique market conditions, and I don't think I'd be able to replicate those returns today.

These days, most of my own portfolio is buy-and-hold.

Some of my older properties have become too expensive to maintain, so I'd rather own quality properties that can be held for the long term.

Flipping and development can make more money on individual deals. But they're businesses, not passive investments”.

Which is the right strategy for me?

All of these strategies can help you make money.

Flipping, subdividing and developing can get you there faster. But they also need much more of your own time and money.

A buy-and-hold strategy is simpler. It doesn’t take as much of your own cash (and is often tax-free). But it takes longer.

The key is to understand what sort of return you can get and whether those returns come in capital gains or cash.

Just be careful to weigh up the returns with the risks and the time you need to commit.

Generally, the strategies that make more money ... require you to put in more money, take more risk and commit more time.

So, the right strategy is going to be different for everyone.

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Key Takeaways

Buy-and-hold is one of the lower-risk strategies on this list. It’s the more common path, but the gains are in equity, not cash. You can’t spend them without selling or refinancing.
Buy-and-hold investors can still build substantial wealth over time. In one example, a couple bought three investment properties. These increased in value by about $660,000 over 10 years.
Flips and developments pay out in cash at completion, which is why people choose them despite the higher risk and workload.
Active investors can make around: $35,000 from a flip; about $70,000 from a subdivision, and roughly $40,000 to $100,000 per dwelling through development.
But those higher returns usually require more capital, more risk, and more hands-on work.
Always check whether a quoted figure is before or after tax. Flips and developments are taxed as income, which can cut the headline number by a third or more

Andrew Nicol

Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host

Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.

Book a session with Andrew View Profile

Ok, now for the legal bit:

This article is for your general information. It’s not financial advice. See here for details about our Financial Advice Provider Disclosure. So Opes isn’t telling you what to do with your own money.

We’ve made every effort to make sure the information is accurate. But we occasionally get the odd fact wrong. Make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

You might like to use us or another financial adviser

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