As it is an owner-builder, all the more reason to be wary. They will need to provide you with home owners warranty insurance (will be very difficult to get if there have been no approvals or inspections).You would want to pay less than land value due to the risk of council demo order and the cost to demolish so that you would be in no worse a…[Read more]

When you say that the house has not been approved, is it a new house (recently built)/additions or a house built say 30+ years ago?In order to have the house approved you will probably need to submit a DA as well as have engineer certification of footings/structure and certification from a  building certifier. This may involve destructive testing…[Read more]

It is very much horses for courses scenario: low entry costs compared to a house, budgeted annual costs for maintenance (strata levies/sinking fund/insurance etc), no mowing/grounds to worry about, easy care. Units appeal to a different demographic, especially outside of the capital cities. You'll need to understand who wants to live in a unit in…[Read more]

Simply put, no there isn't. It is treated in the same way as a holiday house or any other property (except productive rural land). I'm not sure what the threshold is in Vic but you would generally be liable for tax above the threshold. It would not be unreasonable to generate a nominal rental (or enough to cover the outgoings/insurance/rates/land…[Read more]

According to the SMH prices are set to continue falling throughout Oz. When you read on, they say 18% (avg) from 2003 highs, which is OK provided that you didn't buy at the peak as your losses will be less (if you sell). On the otherhand, you could well be buying at 18% less than what the vendor bought the property for. Add that to the FHBG and…[Read more]

god_of_money wrote:
Too specific type of invesment

So are residential units, industrial, commercial, retail, hotels, pubs, storage units – each one has its own market, risk profile, returns etc. It is up to the investor to determine their property mix.

An expensive bit of realestate which could be seen as a high risk – that is, availability is subject to planning laws (is council restricting the number of parking spaces in new developments thus increasing competition/parking space levy increases/land tax).As for the gst, unless you're registered it will make very little difference. Commercial…[Read more]

jazamite, some will disagree with my reasoning, these would be considered capital costs as they are part of the work required in order to create the new blocks, the physical works could not take place if you had not done these works. However, in saying that, these aren't costs that can be depreciated, so they would need to be added to the 'cost…[Read more]

shangrila00 wrote:
Hi All,I'm interested in investing in commercial property, and while I generally know what to look out for and where to begin prior to investing, my main concerns are mainly financial -1. How to actually get started without a lot of (and if I can avoid it, any) capital input from me (I'd be relying on the banks for this…[Read more]

http://www.trustmagic.com.au/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=11

Sam, outgoings are very subjective on units and vary widely depending upon several factors – age of building, owner/tenant mix, no. of units, services (lifts, concierge/onsite caretaker, pool, grounds maintenance/landscaping etc), and the list goes on. By rights, a 1/1 may have proportionally higher costs associated with it as the floor area is…[Read more]

I'd also throw in Mitchelton/Gaythorn – rail access/schools/sub-regional shopping centre (can't remember prices around the area but they weren't too bad a few years back).

Consider having spray on epoxy finish (stencilled concrete).

Yes on both counts.

Thanks IP, that's the sort of thing I was looking at but I need to understand more about the product. Do I need to wait 10 years before I can borrow against these savings (or can I lob up and ask a bank to hold it as security prior to the 10 years)?

Depends how the lease is set up but tenants usually have to get phone, power & gas in their own names (ie you don't arrange for these to be connected other than having the meters available).Tenant is responsible for the water usage (but not the services charges).

What? You still use a financier which charges you for app fees & vals???? Shop around Kaz & get a better deal.SNM

A good yield is very subjective and closely related to the type of risk that you are exposed to. Risk varies greatly between each category of investment – residential ppty has a lower yield than say industrial or retail property (although I know that UK yields are generally lower than in Oz and lease terms of 10yrs plus are very common). You'd…[Read more]

Generally I always consider my net returns (exclusive of borrowings) ie Gross Rent less outgoings (insurance, rates, repairs/mtce etc) divided by purchase price (property, legals, sd & capital works).As each investor has differing borrowing costs these are excluded from the calculations of determining net returns.I will add that many people simply…[Read more]

I have had dealings with a couple doing ES works (both of them located elsewhere) – Somervilles Real Estate (Summer Hill) and Strata Partners (Willoughby). Somervilles can be quite proactive with regards to getting BC/SP budget for admin & sinking funds working so that the premises have a 10 year plan in place and are proceeding towards doing…[Read more]