I think maybe the “use equity to buy investment properties” advice was popular when lending was super loose prior to the GFC and maybe some dodgy brothers mortgage brokers are still getting them through but without an increase in income you can’t just ratchet up your leverage (at least not anymore, I know 10-15 years ago everyone said that you could do this but I didn’t own a house at the time so I don’t know if it’s actually true or just hype sold by investment gurus flogging overpriced Gold Coast apartments).