As to your specific questions, I'll try to give my personal thoughts.

or have any alternatives?

It is landlord-friendly, and specific pockets have gone upwards of 2-4x in the last 5-10 years.

So whenever you have specific questions, share them on the forum and you'll get a lot of answers.

@Paul Baldwin - I have found there are two ways to understand/learn something....find someone who already knows or teach/learn yourself...the later works, but just takes longer and often has room for more errors.There's no true cheat sheet until you have done enough projects in your specific area!

Are there any specific tips or knowledge you could share when speaking to lenders? 

But, I am alway mindful of how my money is performing relative to its possible alternative uses and the fixed deposit rate is perhaps the easiest rate to focus on for a comparison. 

Assessments are with valuations from a specific year.

Yes, reading is great to learn about specific technics, but hands-on application when running alongside guys that are doing it day in and day out is far superior.

Here are some specific questions I have:What would be the best approach for someone like me who is completely new to real estate?