Hello John

Sorry not to have answered before.

Yes the laws in the Netherlands are heavily skewed in favour of the tenant. Many, maybe even most people rent here but the housing is mostly supplied by housing corporations. 

I have not spent time looking into investing in residential property because I saw the problems my husband had with his residential investments. If you have a local tenant in your property it's almost as if you don't own it any more though you are obliged to maintain it. 

There is definitely a shortage of student accommodation and this is safer as sooner or later the student moves on. However I am not sure of the returns and it's a very work intensive investment. I think here much more so than in Australia if you want to keep your property in tact.

The other residential investment that is safer is ex pat accommodation.

Before you jump in do LOTS of DD and don't assume anything works as it does in Australia. The first thing to check is if interest on the mortgage is tax deductible. The interest on the mortgage for your own home is tax deductible but I have the idea that may not be on a res. investment property but am not 100% sure.

Where will you be living in the Netherlands? 

Good luck with your stay and have fun. 
Elka    

Hello Jim
Assuming you haven't rented out your block of land and therefore haven't deducted any of the expenses off your tax why is it an investment block. 

Certainly while you owned a PPOR you could not treat your block of land as such but as from 14 months ago it seems like a different story based on the information on the ATO site.

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/36890.htm&pc=001/002/026/017/005&mnu=5060&mfp=001&st=&cy=1

However, as Don suggested, you accountant is the best place to ask.

Cheers
Elka

Hello Clovies

Now I'm a bit confused. My answer was to the part quoted here.

If you have a potential buyer why would you go through the agent. He will expect a commission if he does the negotiating of the sale on your behalf. Am I wrong?  

Cheers
Elka

I just can't help myself Simon. I have to ask.

What sort of interest rate are we talking about for such a loan.

Just curious at this point.

Elka

Excuse my ignorance as it's a long time since I did any hands on renovations. 

Does the turps work as a drier for the linseed oil. Is that it's intention? 
I used to use 10% Terebin (I don't know if this is how it's spelt) which is/was a paint drier for this and it was great . 
I used to paint 1 or 2 coats on woodwork which I had stripped of all paint (in terrace houses) and it really brought up the grain a treat without being oily.

Love this thread
Elka

Hello pele

Although this site is basically for people interested in CF+ IP's I have always bought negatively geared property with good capital growth potential and have not been disappointed to date. The problem is being able to support the expense until rents and growing equity catches up.

The solution to speed up this process is to see if doing an inexpensive renovation will increase your rent and reduce the gap.
 
Also make sure you are claming everything that you are entitled to including depreciation which will give you some tax deductions to help with the finances.
 
If you don't have any personal debt (non deductible debt) but have some cash then make sure it's sitting in an offset account linked to your loan as this will reduce your interest bill. Also putting all your earnings into this account will have the same effect.

From reading posts on this forum I believe that an equity loan means that you give away 40% of your capital growth not 20%.  You get 20% interest free from the lender but they want 40% of the capital growth in return.

Not something I would do if you think that your IP will experiance good capital growth.

Cheers
Elka 

Hello ourproperty

It's certainly not a market that I would get into. When I first came here to live my thought was that you needed a permit or certificate for everything here, including breathing. A real shock after Australia.

Not a market for the unwary or uneducated in the local laws and conditions. Lots of DD required.

Cheers
Elka 

Hello Nucopia

Do you have a good accountant who can explain it all to you because there are a couple  of things in your posts which show that you may not understand the structure your IP's are in and how it all works.

You are in Australia I assume? There is no system in Australia whereby you can defer paying CGT by buying another investment property. CGT must be paid in the tax year that you sold the IP.

Usually a trust distributes all profits (including the CG) to one or more beneficiaries. I believe that if this is not done then the trust is taxed at the top tax rate for undistributed profits… but as I said, I am no accountant so I can't vouch for that part.

The beneficiary then declares this as income on their tax return in the normal way.

The trust also needs to submit a tax return each year but as all profits have been distributed there is no tax to be paid by the trust.
 
I hope this makes it all a bit clearer.
Elka

This is true in the accumulation phase but not in the pension phase. There is no tax to pay in the pension phase. 
However I agree you need to get some informed advise. 

Do you have a good accountant in Australia who could set up a SMSF for you. The ongoing costs of maintaining a SMSF are about $3500/year for accounting etc. 

Cheers
Elka