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August 28, 2010 - 1:47 am

thecrest,

Not sure on expenditure, but public funding goes something like this:

Each political party who polls over 4% of the primary vote in any seat in the House of Reps gets ~$2.30 per vote.  Same in the Senate.  http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/public_funding/index.htm

There's private funding as well on top of this.

Andrew

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August 27, 2010 - 7:34 am

Thanks Terry.  Interesting point.  I'd be thinking more about my cashflow than a tax reduction scheme (although it is good to pay less tax if you can).  How routine (and expensive) are private rulings?  I'd never heard of them before I came to this site.

Andrew

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August 27, 2010 - 7:11 am

Hi Terry,

Do you just mean that the LOC is used exclusively for investment and is not being diluted by nondeductible reborrowing?

Andrew

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August 24, 2010 - 6:10 am

Do any of these higher LVR loans apply for IP's or are we only talking PPOR's?

Andrew

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August 24, 2010 - 5:57 am

Richard, how do they work out servicing now if they don't use a calculator?

Regards,

Andrew

itsandrew

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August 24, 2010 - 1:45 am

Hi M,

Welcome to the forums!  Great to see your question.  I bet a lot of people feel like you do but just don't say anything.

I've done one development and felt nervous and worried the whole way through it (there were many tough challenges)!  I think there just came a point where I had to 'jump in'.  I made a couple of mistakes that effected the bottom line (relating to how I structured the project) but thankfully I still came out in front. 

Do you know what your goals are?  ie life goals, investing goals.  I'd look at these first.  Then I would choose a strategy to move forward.  From your post its not clear if you've done that.  If you know the way you want to go put it in your next post and I'm sure there'll be people able to give you some good tips on where to go.  Once you are more focused on a strategy that may help you not be so overwhelmed.  But I think you will always have a level of angst when doing your first project.

I'd be really interested to hear from others what there thoughts may be.

Regards

Andrew

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August 24, 2010 - 1:31 am

Hi Jon,

Welcome to the forums!

A good question to ask yourself is "what are my goals?"  If it is for passive income then buy and hold with CF+ is a great strategy.  A couple of things people regularly say about this is that you often sacrifice capital growth to achieve CF+.  An alternative is to buy a house that needs work and renovate before renting out to bring the rent up in better areas for capital growth.  But there are many other strategies that people use to create wealth through property.

How to start = educate yourself, and get a good team.  There are many good books and I would also buy Australian Property Investor to read each month.  As far as a team goes you need accountant, conveyancer/solicitor, mortgage broker or bank, real estate agent, builders/handymen, amongst others.

Hope that helps.  Check the forums there's heaps of info to answer your questions.

Andrew

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August 19, 2010 - 8:59 am

As of this year my local council calculates rates based on the CIV.  Not sure if it is happening across the board though.

Andrew

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August 18, 2010 - 1:44 am

There was a thread about an iphone app that may do something along those lines.  I haven't used it but others were recommending it.

Andrew

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August 12, 2010 - 9:00 am

You could check next door in Coburg?

A good idea would be to buy, or subscribe to, Australian Property Investor.  Apart from their articles they have a section at the back showing 10 year historical growth for each suburb (also number of houses sold, 12 month growth, yield).  There may be some clues there.

Andrew

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August 11, 2010 - 10:31 am

Hi obvious,

First of all welcome to the forums.

I would recommend that you search the forums for 'housing bubble'.  Quite a few threads will pop up for you.

Regards,

Andrew

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August 11, 2010 - 9:52 am

Hi Matt,

Rather than demolish and sell vacant land why couldn't you select a block where the house is offset to one side.  Do a makeover on the existing bulding.  While doing that subdivide and then sell the vacant land and/or renovated house.  Saves on demolition and you would get better return than selling to vacant blocks I think.

An alternative is to pruchase a house offset on the block.  Get TPP/DA approval for a second dwelling and sell to a developer ready to renovate the existing dwelling and build a new one without the hassles of getting their own TPP/DA.  I did this option recently and made a profit.

Andrew.

itsandrew

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August 11, 2010 - 9:31 am

Hi Darren,

I haven't received my ITIN yet.  Anyone else?

Andrew

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August 10, 2010 - 4:15 pm

Hmmmm, I've heard four months but mine took nearly two years after going through VCAT.  Even after being given a VCAT order the council still made objections delaying the process by 8 more weeks instead of stamping the VCAT order.  Thankfully my situation is reasonably rare (no good for me though).  Even more thankfully I turned a profit!  It's worth having a good buffer.

Andrew

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August 10, 2010 - 4:00 pm

Welcome to the forums Daniel. 

It's great to see you've been working hard to reach a great savings goal in a short time.  A question for you … do you know what your life goals are, and therefore your investing goals? 

The way for you to invest will be driven a long way by your lifestyle goals.  For example, if you want to build wealth it might be worth buying a property with higher capital growth potential that will build equity quickly (probably negatively geared so cashflow must be considered).  I worked out recently that the equity in my home was building at an average of $1600 per week over the last 5 years.  Pretty serious gains.  Only problem is I have to work to pay for it so if I wanted a passive income stream as income replacement for example I would need to find positive cash flow properties.  If I wanted to build quick cash to build the bank account then choose what to spend it on later I could do a develoment (I just completed one) or a renovation.

If you know your investing goals there will be less room for you to regret decisions as you are more likely to choose an investment strategy that suits your future life goals.

Having said all that, most of the comments I have read on student accommodation has been quite negative.  Low, or even negative capital growth.  Low control on the property (ie. you may not be able to live in it as it may be only for students).  Short term leases that match academic years (so 20% vacancies?).  But I have also read that many are positively geared.  Search the site if you haven't already as there are some really good discussions on the topic.

All the best with your journey.  Keep us up to date how you go!

Regards,

Andrew

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August 10, 2010 - 10:01 am

I found this article http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/nothing-new-on-offer-since-houses-that-kevin-built-20100805-11ktk.html An interesting read. 

Although they haven't released their election policy yet the opposition spokesman for housing said there won't be much change to existing policy if the coalition gets into government.  At the bottom of the page there is a precise on the Minister and shaddow spokesman and their respective policies.

Andrew

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August 10, 2010 - 3:00 am

Just curious, but why shouldn't people live on urban fringes if they want to?  Why should they be restricted?  Ammenities such as schools, transport and shopping areas will develop with it.  It has done this out towards Narre Warren, Cranbourne etc.  If people have a long commute to work etc., isn't that their own choice?  Won't increasing the housing density in the inner areas create serious stress on infrastructure that was only designed for low density housing?

Note: I just find this topic interesting and would like to hear more about people's views.

Andrew

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August 9, 2010 - 8:16 am

Hi scott.

I'm sure they were using the median price in the 90's but I could be wrong. 

When you say 'average' house price can you clarify?  Statistically an 'average' can be the median, the mean (several types), or the mode.  Each has it's own uses.  In the 2000's did they actually change the calculations or did they just clarify what type of average they were using by calling it the median price?

Andrew

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August 6, 2010 - 7:12 am

Hey Novus,

I am afraid to say but it's the same experience that I had.  We even had a ruling from VCAT that we complied with 100% and they still wouldn't stamp the plans till we made changes.  I thought for a moment I was going to have to go back to VCAT to get the plan approved … AGAIN!

Council also messed us around with the original plans before VCAT.  We complied 100% with council 'suggestions' in the pre planning meeting and complied 100% again to their requests after our drafts were completed by the architect when we met with them again.  Very frustrating but it seems like it's just how things are with council town planners.  If i hadn't been there myself I would have considered my architect a bit dodgy.  But he was good about it and did the final ammendment at no extra cost.

With council you need to just keep chipping away at it.  On the upside you at least know what they want (I assume in writing) to get the plans stamped.  Council just rejected it straight out for us and gave us no 'second chance' to get it through.  Sounds like you'll get there.  Keep us updated

Andrew

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August 3, 2010 - 9:59 am

Hi Philip,

Here's a link to an article on the Victorian Premier's website http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content/article/11321.html

It gives a bit of basic information between the lines of propganda!

Andrew

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