All Topics / Help Needed! / property investing and centrelink child support assett and income limits.

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  • Profile photo of motivated99motivated99
    Participant
    @motivated99
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 9

    can anyone assist me please with their expereince in getting or keeping centrelink payments or child support while investing in property.

    i heard for some payments the assettt test is 166000 for investment property which is not very much.
     so even if it showed losses in income it seems an issue re assetts.

    what are other peoples expereinces

    margaret lomas told me the following but noone seems to know aobut it and anyone it doesnt take into account the assett tests.

    You should be OK from a Centrelink point of view as long as everything is set up the right way.  There is a little bit of a hidden catch in how you set up your loans – if you set them up against your own home then you have to declare the income from the properties but not the debt.  However if you set them up against the investment property then you can claim the loss after all expenses.  It is pretty tricky and you would need the right type of advice. 

    anyone have any expereince or info re this.

    I am a sole parent with high equity low income and al looking for choices to solv emy immediate and long term income security situation while still needing to be low risk as there are children and aged parents relying on me now  and for a while.

    thanks

    Profile photo of MillyMilly
    Member
    @milly
    Join Date: 2004
    Post Count: 288

    CENTRELINK! Boy was I glad when I kissed goodbye to parenting payments.

    What Margaret Lomas told you is correct re cross-collatorising home with IPs.  Unfortunetly, or fortunetly I was first told incorrectly by Centrelink that I could buy an investment property. (you know how you can  phone centrelink 5 times and get 5 different answers?) Anyway I went ahead and bought two, all crossed with my home. Then Centrelink caught up with me and told me I wouldn't be eligible  for parenting payment and that I owed them 10k.

    At first I was at panic stations. I refinanced so the houses were no longer crossed-collaterised. But by then they had increased in equity so I was over the asset threshold. I had caught the property bug and didn't want to sell. I bit the bullet and kissed goodbye to parenting payments. (my god i can't tell  how great that day was). I still get family benefits A and B and with 4 kids it is significant. Then I drew down money from my home and used it for living expenses and bought other investment houses.

    Doing what I did is not for the faint hearted and you must purchase houses in high growth areas. I understand that you do not wish to take this gamble so you will need to find the deposit for your investment property which is usually  20% and as you won't want high growth (so  you don't cross the asset limit threshold) you'll want a good return on your money.

    But consider this; Parenting payment is about 14k/yr. Now if  you bought one 300k house and it increased by 8%/yr,  there would be an increase in value of 24k/yr that you could refinance and live off.
    goodluck

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