No you cannot transfer equity like that.

If the property is in VIC you could possibly sell it to your spouse for no stamp duty. if NSW full stamp duty would apply. But it may still be worth at as your spouse could borrow 100% and then claim the interest.

On a loan $400,000 that would amount to another $24,000 pa in tax deductions (approx).

If house in VIC one party can sell to the other party at full market value. Probably no stamp duty, and no CGT. Just legals and new loan fees. This will enable you to claim the interest on a loan to half of the value of the house

Yes, heaps of problems. Especially with unresponsive scripts. Somersoft is a professionally run forum without these sorts of problems

I've done it before and was lucky enough to rescind the contract.

Think about the fact that it could hold you back from investing in the meantime because you will have it hanging over your head. worried that if you buy something now you may not have enough capacity for the finance for the one off the plan.

Seek legal advice on that gift – first thing to do.

Best thing to do is to look at the legislation. First Home Owners Grant Act in the state in which you are purchasing.

Found it Richard,

In NSW this is probably the relevant act MINORS (PROPERTY AND CONTRACTS) ACT 1970

eg see s20
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/maca1970348/s20.html

I was inviited into a group thing many years ago and didn't join. but the group went ahead anyway. It is very hard to come to decisions when there is a group. It is dedious and then the ones who don't get their way resent the others. This group took many months to just choose the name and they then formed a company. Then they realised finance was the biggest hurdle.

Actually there was a second group that I was involved in. 5 people and 4 all wanted to be a director. I was the only one that didn't want to legal burden. This one purchased a property and 4 of those sucker directors guaranteeed the loan while I didn't. This was for a development deal and also went nowhere because it was just so hard to get people to meetings and to agree on things. Also a silly name was chosen which I didn't like, but it didn't really matter, but I was outvoted. It was also hard to extract money from members. We all had to put funds in and everyone agreed, but then when it was time to do it a few just didn't and it was like getting blood out of a stone….

Hi Jamie

This was a loan increase and I tried to get anz to leave the funds there available as redraw or draw down and pay back in but no luck (just had an idea now – could have paid out as a bank cheque and client deposit back in).

This is called a deed of partition. It has to be set up like you say with each % ownership in accordance with the final land size for that person. Should be possible to avoid stamp duty on the final transfer (or nominal) and a beneficiary is assessed, generally, as the owner for income tax purposes. Legally each person will own the same percentage too so it will be the same.

But the hard part will be finance. Each and every wner will have to guarantee or be joint borrowers with all the others. Joint and severally liable etc.