The TAFE 'millionaire factory'

A property investment course through TAFE is touted as an alternative route to becoming a property investor.

If you have the right academic qualifications, are socially acceptable and get through the 10 or 12 formal interviews you'll undergo, you could join Macquarie Bank and get on the road to becoming a millionaire.

That bank has the unofficial nickname of "the millionaire factory".

But we've found another one, where success is determined by brains alone - and a humble course at TAFE.

Developed with an organisation called The Property School, the Property Investment Course costs $3,000 for seven days and it is already a runaway success.

Steve Kunze was a taxi driver. Now he runs a small bus company and has a tidy housing portfolio to boot.

"Using the things that I've learned in the course, my portfolio now includes six properties," Mr Kunze said.

That's right, six properties.

The hope in this class is refreshing, at a time when the average home now costs four times the average income. Unless you live in Sydney, where it's up to eight times as much.

And monthly repayments for first home buyers cut into a third of the average income.

"What we're giving them is knowledge, because knowledge is power," The Property School's Peter Koulizos said.

"We can't teach them everything in seven days, but at least what we can teach them is to know the question to ask of supposed experts in property."

More info: The Property School
www.thepropertyschool.com.au