Building approvals point to a potential future housing shortage

Building Approval

It doesn’t seem that long ago we were talking about an oversupply of apartments across Sydney, South Melbourne, and Brisbane. However, a lot has changed in the past few years. The ABS October figures on building approvals show a seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwelling units falling by 8.1% in October. The graph below from…

Read More

Our predictions – Property Market Scorecard for 2017 and 2018

Property Market

What a year property has had in 2017. We’ve seen some double-digit growth in major capital city markets and a big move from APRA in the investor lending space. We’ve also written extensively about changes to depreciation. There’s also been plenty of debate about foreign investors and housing affordability. So, what did the numbers show…

Read More

Is a commercial property investment something you should consider?

Commercial Property

When the Federal Government announced 2017-18 Budget measures to limit tax depreciation claims against second-hand residential investment properties, market experts predicted that many investors would turn their attention to commercial property investment. Is a commercial property investment something you should consider? There are plenty of reasons to have a look: Longer term tenants A typical…

Read More

How will changes to investment property depreciation affect you?

Investment Property

Investment property tax deductions hit the headlines when the 2017-18 Federal Budget was handed down on 9 May 2017. As the second biggest tax deduction after interest, depreciation deductions against investment properties save investors thousands of dollars and can make or break the profitability of a property investment. By claiming a tax deduction for the…

Read More

Four reasons you should always use a construction price estimator

Construction Estimate

So you’ve decided to build. You’ve had plans drawn up and you have a ballpark budget in mind, but how can you be sure that it’s realistic? With a professionally-generated cost estimate, that’s how. Here are four reasons you should employ a construction price estimator before you get started:   Belief in your budget An…

Read More

Tax Depreciation Calculators – Is there merit in the estimates?

Depreciation Calculator

Google is telling us that more and more people are searching for a ‘tax depreciation calculator’. Admittedly, this search ranked well below the top 2016 result of ‘US Election’ and even a few million short of number 6 ‘Pokemon Go’. Putting the self-deprecating Quantity Surveyor stuff to the side for a moment, searching for an…

Read More