In round figures, approximately 2.2 million Australians own an investment property – which is less than 10 per cent of the population. Of these investor figures, the vast majority own just one holding (over 70 per cent). I firmly believe that investors are getting stuck at one property simply by getting the first one wrong….
Profound predictions, bold statements and audacious utterings are not something normally associated with the button-down persona of quantity surveyors. But I’m about to buck the trend. Perhaps I’ve been I’m emboldened by this year of challenge. Maybe I’ve gone lockdown stir crazy. Possibly, it’s just the end of the year and it’s time to pop…
There’s been a cacophony of opinion this week filling column inches and taking over the airwaves of property centric media. Refreshingly, the big news wasn’t pandemic related. Nor did it involve a concession speech of any description. No, the chatter has been dominated by a NSW government discussion around the abolition of stamp duty which…
What are property investors up to? A long-term study by MCG Quantity Surveyors is helping define investor trends which will flag the property market’s bounce back after COVID-19. The report also took a pre-COVID snapshot of ‘normal market’ trends in place prior to the crisis. We found property investors were pivoting in interesting ways prior to the…
What percentage of property investors had an ‘in-depth audit’ from the ATO in 2019? Last year the ATO announced that they doubled the number of in-depth audits to 4,500, due to an error rate of just under 90% on a sample of investor tax returns. Speaking at the Tax Institute’s National Convention in Hobart, ATO…
Those who know me, know I don’t mind a chat. Whiling away my time via the exchange of ideas is a joy. Best of all, it’s a move out of my professional comfort zone – a chance to expand the mind beyond ‘rates per square metre’ and legislative minutia. Economists, builders, buyer’s agents and investment…
Around a year ago I started a podcast for our property investor clients with the aim of assisting them to get the most out of their investing. We look after their depreciation schedules, but I wanted to put them in touch with experts to assist them with investing overall. The statistics show us that more…
Depreciation benefits have always been helpful to property investors. And again there are some changes in the wind. For the first time in recent memory, the ATO has consulted with the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors regarding their annual review of effective lives. In fairness, I assume they consult more with manufacturers of assets which…
Have you wondered what is depreciation and how a depreciation schedule can save you money? Depreciation is a powerful tool to help investors maximise their cashflow, minimise the holding costs associated with investing and minimise their tax. A lot has been written about various nuances within tax legislation and construction estimating. So I wanted to…
At first glance, this seems like a reasonable question and it’s one we’re asked by residential investors and commercial clients all the time. I’ve written on this topic before but I’m sure in my usual style I went into too much detail and tangential metaphors. Let’s make it very simple in the following example. Say…
