Hi Leo,

You are correct your existing house could be sold CGT free but if you want to rent it out from this point forward there will be partial gains to be paid in the future.  For example if you lived in it as your PP for 10 years and you paid 300k for it and now it is worth $550k then if you sell now you take the $250k prof tax free.  In the instance that oyu decided to keep it and rent it out for say 2 more years and claim as an investment and you sell it after this point for say $600k then you will have to pay CGT on 1/6 of the 300k profit.  Unfortunately it is purely a time based calculation and not based on a valuation at the time that you move out of the property and then commence the use as an investment.  As you can see on the above calc you would pay $50k CGT  just so you can rent your property out for 2 years and possbily make another 50k which defeats the purpose.

You can gear your existing property easily by transferring the equity into your PP (the new home) and then using that homes equity as security for your old house which is now able to be geared 100%

give me a yell if you need some additional advice

Andrew

0439 526 191