All Topics / Help Needed! / How to calculate building costs for depreciation

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  • Profile photo of t803815t803815
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    @t803815
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 23

    Hi,

    I was wondering if anyone can tell me how a Quantity Surveyor establishes the building costs on a residential property when this information was not available at the time the property was purchased (i.e. a 5 year old property)?

    Do they have some sort of chart that tells them that a property with X number of rooms in the year the property was constructed cost X amount to build? Or is there some other method?

    I am interested because I want to establish whether it is worthwhile purchasing a investment property without having to spend $500 or so preparing a depreciation schedule to find out.

    Profile photo of Mortgages Working 4UMortgages Working 4U
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    @mortgages-working-4u
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 7

    Hi

    If the property has been used for investment previously then you should be able to get a copy of the depreciation schedule from the current owner.

    If not then your accountant should be able to help you put one together from a list of fixtures & fittings.

    The property is only 5yo so there will be plenty of book value left on most items.

    Profile photo of t803815t803815
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    @t803815
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 23

    Yes I understand this, by the way I have depreciation schedules for my other investment properties, which I have owned since new.

    My question is, how are the building cost determined if they are not known (lets assume that this hasn't been used as an investment previously)? I imagine this would be especially useful when establishing whether purchasing a property is a good or bad deal.

    Some of the savvy investors on this site should be able to tell me how they work this out.

    Profile photo of here to learnhere to learn
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    @here-to-learn
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 33

    good question i asked my quantity surveyor this last time i spoke to her. she said deduct the land value (this is on rates notice)off the purchase price multiply by 2.5%  to get the capital allowances.bit hard if you haven't got the section 32.  estimate the value of plant (fittings and fixtures as new) and depreciate over life. not very accurate i know but as close as your going to get. i look at my other schedules to try to work plant out. hopefully someone reading this will have a better way. i also use margaret lomas software which is free to download as long as you have a barcode from one of her books (library) this is really quite good as you fill in property type purchase price and year built and it comes up with a figure which is fairly accurate.

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