Hi all,

Thank you so much for your comments. In the contract of sale there is a nomination clause so putting it in a trust is not really an issue. Especially, as the Trust was established prior to the purchase.

Just to give you a bit more background though…
Both IP's are apartments.
The purchase price for IP-1 was 377,000 and we have paid the 10% deposit from a LOC I have established for the 1st investment property. We are looking to rent it for approx. $300 a wk.
The first investment prior to this new purchase was heading towards becoming positively geared but running at a loss of about $4000 annually. It was bought for 255,500 (3+ yrs ago) and the market value today is about $400,000. Current rent is $300 a wk. The amount owing is about 180,000. I have a seperate LOC for $30,000 which was prior to paying the deposit for IP 2 not owing anything.

We have about $60,000 in savings also.
 
Richard you said… "You mention you are using some of your own savings to defray the purchase price and certainly wouldnt recommend this unless it is an absolute must."
How would we go about not using this money. Do you mean that we should get a loan for the full amount including deposit, stamp duty etc? Even if that incurs morgage insurance?

The new IP will initially be neg. geared but if it is in a trust would we be not better to put all our funds into this one to reduce the interest as it is not a tax deduction and then get any tax benefits from the 1st one as it is in my name.

The accountants thoughts (I think) were that because I am 30 and my partner is 36 we may look to have kids or my work position could change in the future (i.e. buy a business or change profession, kids etc) and therefore we don't want to have two properties in my name or our names so that neither IP's will get any tax benefits. She was saying something about Trusts cannot run at a loss so we would need to soak up any loss.

Just to reiterate… we are just looking at the best way to replicate what we have been able to do so far and continue to grow our property portfolio for longterm investments and financial growth. We just want to know what would be the best way of achieving this? 
 
Thanks once again for your thoughts are any other comments would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Amy