Hi Chris

Sure happy to elaborate.

The first thing to say about "trading properties" is that a fair whack of money is lost in doing so.  You pay stamp duty to get in, you pay selling agent fees and capital gains tax to get out, which erodes a fair whack if not all your profit, and them you have to stump up stamp duty to get in again.

Did you know that in super, after you've held a property for a year, the capital gains tax is only 10%.  This is a far more appealing figure if "trading properties" is the approach.

An asset base can be built far quicker (than trading properties) by buying, adding value (eg renovation), revaluing and refinancing to pull out the equity to fund the deposit on the next one.  Because no sale takes place, no capital gains tax is payable, but you are still leveraging the increase in value of your property.

In super, you use money you otherwise couldn't touch till retirement age, to fund deposits and buying costs of property.  Assuming we are talking residential property, the bank will loan up to 80% of the purchase price.  As a rough guide, it costs about $60k of superannuation money to acquire a property worth $250k.  The tenants then pay it off.  In retirement, you either live off rents or sell a property or two and pay yourself a lump sum.  Going back to those figures, you essentially swap $60k for an asset worth $250k.  That is essentially a return of over 400%, before you even factor in capital growth of the property in the years to follow.  I don't know about you, but I don't see retail super funds producing that kind of a result.

It is a very powerful thing, taking control of your own super and using leverage (borrowings) to get into property.  The earlier you start, the more powerful it can be.  The money is stuck in super anyway – you cannot pay it to yourself for living expenses until age 65, so you might as well put it to good use and make it grow in the meantime.

In addition to this, acquire more property in your own name outside of super.

Hope this helps.

Hi Kallan

You have said the magic words…. money in super.  Would it be rude to ask if you know how much is in there?  This will help us see how many properties you could buy straight up front with the funds already in your super.

Something else to be aware of is that if you have the right providers on your team, you can learn an awful lot from them when purchasing property.  I have learned a heck of a lot from my mortgage broker, property lawyer and accountant over the years. 

Hi Josh

What is it you would like your accountant to do?  Is it that you'd simply like them to be aware of all the relevant deductions, or are you wanting them to guide you with strategy? 

Hi Sil

Rather than decide that your strategy is Sunshine, it might be better to define the goal and then choose a suburb and strategy that will allow you to achieve the goal.

For instance, the goal might be "to make a gross profit of $40 on a property deal within 12 months".  You'd then choose a suburb where a renovation would enable you to deliver on that goal (or a subdivision or whatever).

Is this property part of your "assembling enough property to live off when I'm retired" phase?  If so, you might care to consider setting up a SMSF and using your superannuation as deposits on property.

I didn't keep the brochures but pretty sure when I read them the reason I had to disregard this insurer was because they didn't include excess water from overflow from gutters in the flood definition.  Pretty big issue if your properties are in areas of high rainfall.

Don't do drugs.  Don't do mining.

Strange.  Normally insurance is an annual premium.  Who is arranging the insurance for you?  Have you requested a copy of the insurance policy and most recent receipt?  This will show you if the insurance is current, and also how much the complex is insured for.  You will want of course to ensure that you are insured, but also for a sufficient amount should a demolish and rebuild ever be required.

HSBC does expat bank accounts.  You can set it up from an Australian branch.

Wow. Talk about choking on holding costs. Regardless of whether that is the QLD standard or not, that is a high percentage. Council rates on my properties are at 0.33% and no body corporate.