Sana and Mona Ali came to Australia from Pakistan in their teens with few resources. They told SCHWARTZWILLIAMS they built a $5 million property portfolio by focusing on cash flow and buying "nothing flashy".

You came to Australia from Pakistan when you were 15, and you both went on to have successful careers. Where did your passion for property come from?

The desire to have a good financial foundation and build a better life instigated our passion for property. Moving to Australia was a major change in life circumstances for us. It’s always hard to settle in a new country and culture when you have little resources and see others living a comfortable life. You almost start in the negative. However, the challenges you face drive you to work hard and succeed.

Sydney was always deemed 'expensive', even in the times when the market was flat between 2005 and 2012. With this in mind, we didn’t buy with the mindset that properties would double in value over the next property cycle, but rather bricks and mortar would give us security we could count on. If the rental returns were high enough and the properties were costing us little or nothing to hold, with minimal reliance on negative gearing, we knew it could still be something to take us forward.

You amassed a $5 million property portfolio in your 20s. What was your investment strategy?

Our strategy was to buy established properties (nothing flashy) in good locations. To us, a good location is not necessarily the most expensive suburb, but where the fundamentals stack up. All of our purchases have been within a kilometre of either a train station or a major shopping mall and in areas with plenty of investment happening (e.g. new retailers showing up, infrastructure improvements). This ensured our properties were desirable to tenants and future owner occupiers and were in areas with capital and rental growth.

In addition, we concentrated on how our cash flow stacked up for each deal. We don’t like our purchases to impact our lifestyle, so each of our deals were done with minimal reliance on negative gearing. Saving tax has never been our driver for investing – you don’t make money by losing money.

You’ve begun your own mortgage brokerage, Property Twins. What do you enjoy most about your new business?

Connecting with people from different walks of life and speaking about what life looks like for them over the next 5 to 10 years, how they’d like to improve it, what scares them, what their road blocks are and how they can work through these aspects is exciting. We enjoy having a big picture focus for our clients, rather than focusing only on the transaction in question.

We also like the problem solving involved in developing a financial strategy that will help our clients structure their home and investment loans in a manner that achieves results for themselves and their families. Scenarios can be complex, requiring research, and we enjoy talking with various banking stakeholders and reaching a solution.

What makes a good mortgage broker?

The ability to not just look at a transaction and punch the numbers in a calculator, but to holistically view a client’s goals and what they want to achieve is something that makes a great mortgage broker. Focusing on a transaction at a time is a “stab in the dark” approach and doesn’t really motivate one to take that leap to go and build a portfolio. From our experience investing in property, your mortgage broker needs to challenge your current approach with questions to ensure you mitigate risks and, at the same time, aim to maximise the opportunities available to you. They should also be one step ahead in showing you possibilities. It doesn’t mean the lending policies won’t change, but that you can aim higher from day one.

There is a lot of speculation about what stage of the cycle we’re at in the property cycle. What’s your outlook for Sydney real estate for the next 12-18 months?

Most people thought Sydney was at peak 24 months ago and that it was due to slow down. In our opinion, the recent stamp duty concessions from the NSW Government are likely to boost the lower end of the market, because for every $1,000 a buyer doesn’t need to put toward stamp duty means a potential to add it to their deposit. However, the lending calculators are tightening so we may see further restriction of borrowing capacity should the market increase further.

Where do you live now, and where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world?

We currently live in the Parramatta region in Sydney.

Sana: If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be in Karachi, Pakistan, so I can spend more time with my grandma and work remotely.

Mona: I’d love to experience living in different countries a few months at a time, to experience their culture, lifestyle and food, and work remotely.

Read other get to know profiles in The Real Estate Conversation:

Get to know Chris Wilkins of Ray White Drummoyne

Get to know Gail Miller, former Olympian, now McGrath New Farm agent

Get to Know Fiona Young, architect of high-rise schools