QLD land tax thresholds:

Land owned by a resident/individual: $600,000
Land owned by a company, trustee or absentee: $350,000

See: http://www.osr.qld.gov.au/land-tax/about-land-tax/index.shtml

We have some trusts with ourselves as trustees as being an overseas investor I wasn’t able to get a resident director for an australian company and so could not get a company as trustee. I have now found a nominee director who can do this so future trusts will be with a company as trustee. I looked into changing trustees and as Terry says it’s a hassle but can be done and I will do some time in the future. If you have yourself as trustee and beneficiary the asset protection is reduced compared to using a company as the trustee.

I have to admit I have not followed the new closely in the last few months due to a relocation, but I still believe the fundamentals of the Australian property market are sound and property will prove to be a good investment into the next decade and beyond. And that’s my focus, wealth creation over the long term so I am not too worried about the current correction. I don’t believe in a wide spread 40% drop in property values, yes there are properties which will be badly hit and the market will stagnate / decline in general to not so severe. So the next 12 – 24 motnhs depending on how this all plays out will probably provide the ideal period to add to my portfolio …

No need to live in France, real estate can be bought by anybody, at least since 2000 onwards…

Investing overseas is safe …

…as long as you know what you're doing and understand the basics, i.e. if you expect to get a higher return by investing overseas (either in capital growth or rental yield) then you must be prepared to take a higher risk.

Conduct lots of research both in terms of properties but also regarding the country/market you're planning to invest in, one good place to start is: http://www.globalpropertyguide.com 

Don't buy overseas if you don't have access to a decent property manager and obviously you need good quality legal/finance/accounting support. Also think about how you will repatriate your income/capital gains and do whatever you can to minimize your tax before you buy.

I think the current US market with so many foreclosures provides excellent opportunities if you have the time / contacts to source premium property in  well established markets e.g. certain parts of florida. At the same time I would stay well away from the widely publicised areas of upstate New York and Buffalo areas even though they have rental yields of 20% and above – those yields are for a reason !! and those reasons make it very hard to manage those investments from overseas.

I also think that certain European markets will soon become attractive again e.g. certain areas of London that are up of urban renewal could be a good investment with the UK market having dropped and still dropping, low interest rates and a cheap british pound.

Most Asian markets I would now avoid until we see the full effect of the dramatic drop in exports to the US, also in quite a few asian markets investors have to setup legal structures to hold control over real estate as foreigners are not  allowed to directly own real estate. Something that can be done if you know the market, but personally I want to have a titled property in the name of an entity I can control 100%.

Another risk of overseas investing can be currency risks, which can be huge and wipe out years of capital gains in the space of a few weeks or months. I know …  … and learned an expensive lesson.

And maybe the most important point, if things go wrong or you have made an expensive mistake, cut your losses and get out if necessary. It's a classic mistake beginning investors make, holding on to losers in the hope they will recover and selling winners. That way you limit your upside and expose yourself to downside.

There is several ways to play the Google ads game:

(1) you can create a (niche) website, achieve high traffic flows and then put up the google ad using their adsense program – adding the ads is only a few minutes work, the hard bit is creating a lot of traffic. I did it for a while but took it off my site as it was just annoying me and unlikely to really add up in value and not provide meaningful links to my visitors.

(2) you can write google ads using google adwords, just google it

(3) become an affiliate to something using e.g. clickbank or clixgalore, put up a site with a couple of pages and then invest in google ads to dive traffic to your site and if you have written good copy your conversion will be high resulting in many people buying the affiliate product you’re marketing and you get the cash straight into your clickbank account… sounds easy and actually is not too hard, but you have to find a good niche where buying the google ads is relatively cheap (good keyword selection is critical) and where you’re affiliate commission is high.

Most people who have made a lot of money on the web in this area, usually have sold a product which is aimed at how to make money online – ironic isn’t it…

Anyway, I think there is some merit in it and once I have got my property investment site up and trucking I might give give the affiliate thing a shot on another site… if it works I’ll let you know

Ellieguinn, seems your thread got hijacked by the regular doom vs gloom discussion. Some quick suggestions:

(1) do not rush into anything, take your time, if you believe in residential property as a wealth creation vehicle then there are always good deals to be had, again take your time.

(2) save, save and save and live below your means until you have a serious buffer in place. Make a budget if you don't already. Personally, I really enjoyed reading "The Millionaire Next Door" by Stanley and Danko which truly highlights the power of living below your means.

(3) Before you put money into an investment, property or otherwise, seriously consider having several months (3-6) of living costs in an emergency fund so that you're not forced to liquidate an investment (of whatever type) too early just to solve a cashflow problem

(4) in my view, wealth is a function of money, time and health so don't sacrifice time and health in the pursuit of money, at least not too long otherwise your wealth will not make you any happier.

(5) if you're planning to get into property investing read some books like Michael Yardney's "How to grow a multimillion property portfolio in your spare time", Steve McKnights "0-130" and "0-260" books, books by Jan Somers etc. Don't buy them, just get them from you local library!

(6) if you're unsure about selecting a property, consider using a buyers agent, I can't recommend any, but I do believe that a good buyers agent can be of real value, especially to beginning investors – maybe ask around on this forum for experiences…

(7) for property wise I would suggest you consider something in an up and coming suburb in some of the major capital cities (e.g. Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, …) or a large regional city with a diverse economy. There are good research reports out there, e.g. at hotspotting.com. Look for something you can add value to by renovating (avoid anything with structural issues) and is close to transportation, employment, schools etc.

Other regions to consider are the Aude and the Ariege which are more inland, but offer beautiful country side, great small villages and easy access to Carcassone famous for its walled city (and an airport serviced by budget airline Ryan Air) and Toulouse which is France's 4th biggest city with an international airport. From this region Barcelona is still about 3 yrs away. You would also be very close to the Pyrenees which offer great mountain hiking in summer and decent skiiing in winter.

Renovated an old farmhouse is wrought with potential pitfulls, as Phil says, these can be very old! I've looked at farmhouses which were 400 yrs old or more and yes they provide great atmosphere but to get modern day plumbing, electricity etc can cost an arm and a leg.

Another good webiste to look at is http://www.bluehomes.com/french/property/france/F/en/country.html which is a company I have talked with and even inspected some of their properties. They seem reliable and trustworthy, but I have not bought anything from them and I am in no way connected to them. They have a lot of stock although their properties are a bit too far to the west from the area I'm interested in. But it gives you a good idea of what you can find and the site is in English which is always useful !

My thoughts:

I don't believe in a global 10 year recession, but a prolonged affair in most western economies and as a result emerging markets will suffer too. However, the 21st century will belong to emerging markets, yes decoupling didn't exist yet, but the growing middle classes in Brazil, India, China etc. will eventually start to drive more domestic consumption and reduce their reliance on the US as the primary consumer in the world. But it will take time.

Property will remain a good long term investment, but not as we know it. Affordability will remain an issue, combined with growing population which will lead to densification of the capital cities and a shift in generations (Gen Y wants very different things from live than baby boomers or X'ers) I think good quality medium/high density units in strategic locations will do well.

Also, in the next 10 yrs the number of 65+ers will rise from 2.8 million to about 4.0 million (in 2018). By 2028 it will be around 5.5 million, this will have a huge impact on housing demand (not necessary volume but type). Whoever figures out what this demographic group looks for in housing and caters for it efficiently will have a great opportunity to generate wealth (I don't think the answer is retirement villages as we know them). It will also create a huge business opportunity in terms of providing services.

With boomers leaving the workforce the workforce will slip in relative size (from just over 67% now to just over 65% in 10 yrs), but with an overall population growth I expect that migration will stay high, productivity will have to increase and as a result wages will increase faster than in the last decade, alleviating some of the affordability issues.

Or maybe we'll enter the biggest depression ever, which will eventually lead into WWIII and all our IPs will be bombed to rubble…  … maybe need to include a block of land to increase self sustainability!

You can deduct:

 – interest on the property loan
 – costs associated with renting the property e.g. management fees, advertising, maintenance etc.
 – depreciate the house/unit plus plant/fixtures get a professional to make a depreciation report for you (e.g. DEPPRO or many others, costs about $400) 
 – reasonable travel costs

Talk to your accountant or google it for more detail