Investing in Australia from New Zealand structuring

Hi all,

I was hoping there may be some people who have invested in Australian real estate but live in NZ.

My situation is we would like to buy an investment property in Queensland. We are going to have a buy, hold, wait for growth, and leverage strategy. We would only sell a property if it was underperforming.

Because we have professions where we are more likely to be sued we are looking to protect any assets we acquire. By that I mean that any deposit we put into the property, or any capital growth we get, or any principal we pay down – all of that equity we want to be personally “disassociated” with should the need arise (ie if we were to to get sued).

A trust seems the way to go. Although the property will most likely be negatively geared for some time, that protection is important, and when we do start making a profit then it would be great to have that option of distributing to beneficiaries who have lower personal tax margins for tax effectiveness as well.

In Australia all of that seems fairly straight forward and a good strategy for asset protection and tax effectiveness. However does anybody know if anything changes when you invest from nz? Where does the trust need to be established and does the trust get the loan or do we? I have more questions but if we could start here that would be a big help. Thank you to anyone interested in helping!