Hello vyaw2003

It all depends on your lease which, as hookstart mentioned, is much more complicated than a residentual lease and takes into account things that residential landlords only dream about. It should be prepared by your solicior. 
It also depends on what sort of commercial property it is as to what is "usual" in the lease.
 
Generally on a 5x5x5  lease it will say a CPI increase every year and "fair market rental" at the end of each lease period.
 I assume you understand that a 5x5x5 lease means a 5 year lease with an option to renew for a further 5 years, twice. Their option, not yours.

The funny thing about commercial property is that at  the end of the lease period "fair market rental" may be considerably lower than what you were just getting for the property if there has been a large economic down turn in the mean time.

The good thing about commercial property is that usually the tenant pays all outgoings including land tax (single holding value), insurance, rates and water. My lease requires my tenant to paint the whole place whenever I ask.  
However, since a good, long term commercial tenant is a joy for ever, you would be silly to ask when it was not necessary. 
 
The price of a commercial property is dependent on the income of that property. For example I think the current return for a wharehouse  with office is somewhere around 7 % yield. In excellent areas it could be less. It's a different yield for shops and offices. This of cause means that prices of commercial properties fluctuate with the condition of the economy.

You might get some useful information on the following sites

http://his-best.biz/

http://www.propertyupdate.com.au/articles/49/1/Residential-Or-Commercial—Which-is-right-for-you%3F

There is also a book called "How investing in commercial property really works" by Martin Roth and Chris Lang which is worth a read.  

Hope this helps
Elka

Hello jayco

Have you looked at the possibility of strata titeling the flats and selling some off after a facelift maybe? 

Just another option?

Elka 

Hello PK

Seems cheap to me. I was recently quoted $40/sqm to repolish floors or $120/sqm if it's a concrete slab and needs a floating floor. The quote was in Melbourne.

Hope this helps
Elka

Hello pasandbec

I'm not a MB but pretty sure that the bank will not allow you to use the cash in the offset account as security for a loan. 

You would have to put some or all the money into your PPOR loan itself,  then borrow whatever you need (using a split loan to keep the deductible interest for the IP seperate) and then take out a mortgage for the rest secured against the new IP.

For example to buy an IP for $100.000 you could borrow $25,000 against your PPOR to cover 20% deposit and buying costs and $80,000 as a mortgage against the new IP.  

Have you sat down and worked out if this is the best way to go. I mean to sell an IP in Canberra which is, as you posted somewhere, a good CF+ property ?.  I don't know anything about the Canberra market but would imagine that house prices are still appreciating??

I realise that you are trying to reduce your un tax deductible debt as well as reduce your mortgage repayments for the time you are not working  but, with the selling costs, CGT, buying costs plus the fact that a CF+ in a good location is now very hard to find will you be ahead?

If you were willing to post the details maybe some of the great number crunchers on the forum would be willing to help.
Just a thought.

Cheers
Elka

Hello pasandbec

The following is taken from the ANZ site and explains what equity is

Equity is the difference between what your home is worth and how much you owe on it.

For example, if your home is worth $300,000 and you owe $100,000, you have $200,000 in equity. And over time, as you reduce the amount you owe on your home or the value of your home grows, your equity increases.

It’s that simple.

So cash in an offset account is not equity. It may however help you grow your equity quicker by reducing your interest repayments.  

People are interested in their equity because it's now possible to take out loans against this equity. Having money in an offset account is better. You already have the money.

Is there a specific reason for the question?

Cheers 
Elka

Hello Ben

I don't know the rules about how long you can be a resident of Australia for tax purposes and not live there but it seems as if you may have reached the limit.

For the ATO your rental income is your only income in Australia. Your salary will be taxed in the country you are earning it in. The reason that your tax will be about 30% of your rental income is that ,as a non resident, your taxed at a different rate.

There is no $6000 tax free group and also no 15% tax group. You jump straight into paying 29c from the first dollar earned. 
Here is a link to the ATO site which shows the non resident rates.

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001

I assume you mean 30% of your net rental income i.e. after deduction of all expenses including interest on your mortgage, which means that your property is CF+ ?.

Every country makes you pay tax for money earned on it's shores. At least you will not need to pay the medicare levy any more. 

If you are into shares the thing to take advantage of while you are a non resident is the rule that you do not have to pay CGT on any shares CG in Australia. Of cause you will first have to check what the rule is in your situation in the country where you are now residing about CG on shares in another country.  It may be that since your only living there for a few years for work reasons they may treat you as an expat and not be interested in your worldwide income.  

For example I live in Belgium and they do not tax CG on shares, here only on the dividends, so that's great for me. However I do get caught paying about 55% tax on fully franked dividends.  The 30% company tax already paid in Australia on the dividend and a further flat 25% here.     

You may like to brows through the ATO site. It's actually very informative.

Hope this helps
Elka

Hello shivsehgal

As you have income in Australia from your investment portfolio you will need to put in a tax return each year. All expenses, including interest and depreciation, are simply deducted the same way as they are now from the income.
 
Depending on how long you are going for you may want to declare yourself a non resident. The tax rate for non residents is higher as you start  paying 29% from the first dollar (see ATO site). However I believe you can accumulate your loses and I thought I read somewhere that you can use them against any CG for CGT purposes if you sell. Anyhow you should be able to use the loses to offset any income once you start earning again in Australia.

I believe Singapore has very low tax rates.

You may want to speak to a good accountant who is versed in this area.

Also do a search of this site for Singapore as I remember some threads on this topic last year.

Hope this helps     
Elka

Hello spudsta

Just to make sure we are on the same page (pun intended) here is a link to the site karlm63 told you about

http://www.realestate.com.au/

scroll down and there is a box marked  property reports on the right side of the screen. There you will find various reports. One for free and some which you will need to pay for.

Hope this helps
Elka

I wonder if the fact that the loans were originally seperate changes the situation.
I don't know if a finacial planner knows all the ins and outs of loans and how the ATO views them.  

Worth checking with a MB who is into investing maybe?

Cheers
Elka

Expensive lesson.

Thanks Simon.

Elka