KFRE1810, that’s bad news losing all your IPs because of a development going wrong.

Before you go any further I’d suggest you make sure you really understand what happened and how you can protect yourself against it happening again. If you undertake a very risky development, make sure your existing assets / investments are protected e.g. using a…[Read more]

Jolley, as an overseas investor if you want to use a trust structure with a company as trustee you do need to appoint an australian resident as director of the company.

QLD land tax thresholds: Land owned by a resident/individual: $600,000 Land owned by a company, trustee or absentee: $350,000  See: http://www.osr.qld.gov.au/land-tax/about-land-tax/index.shtml

 God of Money, I agree that the portfolio needs to be a reasonable size to justify the use of trusts, but the costs to set up the trusts and the annual accountant fees are not that high in my view. The proper use of trusts also allows you to avoid paying land tax in QLD as each trust has its own threshold so if you don’t put too many properties i…[Read more]

We have some trusts with ourselves as trustees as being an overseas investor I wasn’t able to get a resident director for an australian company and so could not get a company as trustee. I have now found a nominee director who can do this so future trusts will be with a company as trustee. I looked into changing trustees and as Terry says it’s a…[Read more]

Paul, we’re overseas investors and don’t live in Australia (yet) but do hold a reasonable portfolio of properties across QLD. First properties were bought in our own names but latter ones through discretionary trusts – there are a number of benefits to this but it depends on your situation and what your plans are if this would be worth your while.…[Read more]

I have to admit I have not followed the new closely in the last few months due to a relocation, but I still believe the fundamentals of the Australian property market are sound and property will prove to be a good investment into the next decade and beyond. And that’s my focus, wealth creation over the long term so I am not too worried about the…[Read more]

wow…I've been away for about 6 weeks or so due to a relocation and am totally surprised by the change in tone of the discussions here. If you were to interpret this as a contrarian, I would suggest that based on the fact that even the property investors are getting bearish we must be close to the bottom which would mean it's time to become…[Read more]

No need to live in France, real estate can be bought by anybody, at least since 2000 onwards…

Maybe you should revisit your reasons for selling?

Investing overseas is safe ……as long as you know what you're doing and understand the basics, i.e. if you expect to get a higher return by investing overseas (either in capital growth or rental yield) then you must be prepared to take a higher risk. Conduct lots of research both in terms of properties but also regarding the country/market…[Read more]

If you invest in QLD another aspect to keep in mind is that each trust has a land tax threshold, so by holding your properties in multiple trusts rather in a single trust or in your own name can you most likely avoid paying land tax (depending on property values of course). I have essentially put units in pairs per trust and only a single house…[Read more]

There is several ways to play the Google ads game:

(1) you can create a (niche) website, achieve high traffic flows and then put up the google ad using their adsense program – adding the ads is only a few minutes work, the hard bit is creating a lot of traffic. I did it for a while but took it off my site as it was just annoying me and unlikely…[Read more]

Freelance, thanks for pointing that out, I always struggle to remember which sites are the .com.au and which are just .com … http://www.hotspotting.com.auI have bought several of Rerry Ryder's reports over the last couple of years and think that for the $90 you pay you get a lot of value and as an overseas investor who only gets to come to Oz…[Read more]

Ellieguinn, seems your thread got hijacked by the regular doom vs gloom discussion. Some quick suggestions:(1) do not rush into anything, take your time, if you believe in residential property as a wealth creation vehicle then there are always good deals to be had, again take your time.(2) save, save and save and live below your means until you…[Read more]

So far I've only held investment properties which are on permanent let as I can't yet afford the luxury of a holiday house, well at least not without endangering my longer term plans…. but it hasn't stopped me from researching and keeping an eye on the market, just in case a great deal pops up   I think chances of squatters in rural France are p…[Read more]

Other regions to consider are the Aude and the Ariege which are more inland, but offer beautiful country side, great small villages and easy access to Carcassone famous for its walled city (and an airport serviced by budget airline Ryan Air) and Toulouse which is France's 4th biggest city with an international airport. From this region Barcelona…[Read more]

One of the things I have noticed is that the so-called ROI they use can be including all the costs or if the don't know any holding costs it is just a gross return. Guess which one they use more?But still, for an overseas investor I have gained a lot ideas out of this, which I will use in my own research for my next purchase. I will not extend…[Read more]

My thoughts:I don't believe in a global 10 year recession, but a prolonged affair in most western economies and as a result emerging markets will suffer too. However, the 21st century will belong to emerging markets, yes decoupling didn't exist yet, but the growing middle classes in Brazil, India, China etc. will eventually start to drive more…[Read more]

I think you have a lot of good advice here, this is not the market in which to make a purchase that you're unsure of. Exit whilst you can and then educate yourself and do a lot of research on where and what to buy and how you're going to finance that taking into account some scenariios e.g. interest will go down for now but then back UP.Great to…[Read more]