You can deduct: – interest on the property loan – costs associated with renting the property e.g. management fees, advertising, maintenance etc. – depreciate the house/unit plus plant/fixtures get a professional to make a depreciation report for you (e.g. DEPPRO or many others, costs about $400)  – reasonable travel costsTalk to your accou…[Read more]

It's pretty typical that high end properties suffer the most in situations like these, and they can distort median prices quite easily.I think the lower/medium end of the market in many places incl the GC will hold up well.

My view is that the family home is something you want as safe as possible and ideally without any debt, however at the same time most people need to use the equity in their home to get started with investing (in property) and creating wealth. So whether you pay off the loan on your home or use the funds to continue investing would depend on your…[Read more]

I'm with James, but take your time and make sure property fits with your longer term strategy. If you have the interest/skills look for something where you can add value. With interest rates coming down and rents going up its becoming easier to find cashflow +ve property with decent capital growth prospects.

Woopi, with the equity you have and the income from a pension, I would suggest you think carefully about using real estate as a vehicle to create wealth when you only have a time horizon of 5 years in mind – unless you're an active investor i.e. buy, add value and sell. I'm not giving advise here but what crashy mentioned, i.e. downsizing and…[Read more]

Steve,The near term picture may indeed be gloomy, but doesn't the longer term picture look very solid for Australia?Continued strong population growth (both natural and through immigration), continued decline of household sizes and if anything a shortage in supply would suggest property values are likely to continue along their long term trend.…[Read more]

With "close to the bottom" I was referring to the various share markets around the world, property markets will take longer to sort out and some I would avoid. I do believe that well selected areas in Australia will suffer relatively little from this downturn and we will not see a wholesale 30% or 40% price reduction across the market (even in the…[Read more]

About interest, yes the current lower interest will drop the treshold yiled at which a property will become cashflow +ve, how much depends on your LVR. But remember, interest rates will go back up even though they're likely to keep coming down for now.

Crunch the numbers… then decide. Sounds to me that the least work would be to use it as a 4 bedroom property, this would allow you to rent to 4 students and most likely give substantially more rent than if you make it a family home? If so that's more yield for less investment. 

As far as I remember the 11 second rule says: minimum rent for cashflow positive = (property cost /1000) * 2. This rule basically assumes you want about 10% gross yield on the property to become cashflow positive. So depending on what your holding costs will be you might be ok with less e.g. 8%. You have to do the math as it depends on many things…[Read more]

I would argue that this is not the time to pile up cash in bank accounts, but to put it to good use and after careful consideration buy either property (Australia or overseas), buy into overseas shares or funds which at the moment present real value for money. We may not be at the bottom of many markets, but I do believe we're getting close and…[Read more]

I looked into DHA investments in the past because the security appealed but once I did more reserach I moved away from it because (1) you do pay a substantial premium for the security and (2) rental yields appeared low compared to the market. Also, the properties are often not in places I would select for good capital growth or high yield.If you…[Read more]

Lance, think about why you are investing in property and translate that into goals (in $ terms), then look at your current financial situation and see what kind of strategy may suit you best. If you are a high income earner with a heavy tax burden, buying high growth negative gearing property may a good place to begin. Alternatively, if you have…[Read more]

Dave,

I subscribed to their site to get the details of the properties they offer – mainly to speed up my learning curve on where to find CF+ properties in Australia, what is typically on offer and how the numbers stack up. Also it helps me to get ideas to take non CF+ properties into CF+. From that perspective the money I’ve paid for just access…[Read more]

Ness1474, I would suggest you don't use percentages for most of the items you list, instead make a spreadsheet where you can enter the numbers for each IP individually and then see the results. The variations between these items can be huge and this is what makes one IP a good investment and another a mediocre at best. As part of your due…[Read more]

French property prices have gone up a lot in the last decade especially in the popular tourist/retirement areas (largely due to UK buyers). I've just come back from a month in France (Midi-Pyrenees and Provence) and still find the prices quite steep in many areas. There is a huge amount of holiday homes for rent and the peak summer months offer…[Read more]

You can buy freehold property in most if not all of Europe: UK, Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy etc. also in Eastern Europe like Romania, Hungary, Poland etc.US could be a very good opportunity now if you buy well (a lot of lemons on the market).If buying in Asia (Thailand, Philippines) you are often limited to condominiums (but there are ways…[Read more]

Thanks for the tips… In the meantime I've engaged REMAX so let's hope that works out ok.

How about some more balanced posts… less doom & gloom and less unrealistic optimism.Topics I am looking at myself:- house prices are likely to correct, maybe crash, but isn't it more likely that the level of decline is going to be much more pronounced in certain sectors/areas than in others? Some may even stay neutral or increase to a small…[Read more]

Hi Nich4 I've looked into student accommodation like http://www.varsityapartments.com.au to do exactly what Richard described above, balance the negative cashflow from my growth properties, but what I found was that despite apparently very high rental yields (11% – 15%) most of this disappears into high management and maintenance costs.  E.g. in V…[Read more]