Yep. If there were a super easy way of getting zero percent homeloans, we'd all be doing it!

Good luck

I kinda sounds like you elected the east coast house as your PPOR, and that therefore you do not qualify for the 6 year absence ruling.  The type of loan you took out to purchase the east coast house would no doubt be sufficient grounds to deem this to be so, in the eyes of the ATO.  If you gave them a quick call they'd verify for you.

As far as I can gather, the Bank of Japan is located in Japan and not Australia, and therefore the loan would be issued in the Japanese Yen currency.  Let's pretend the interest rate is indeed 0%.  Sooner or later you would still have to pay out the principal amount though, and this would have to be paid in Yen, regardless of the exchange rate.  So let's say you are borrowing to buy a house worth $500k and thus the loan is for AUD$500k.   Today's exchange rate is 1AUD=JPY82.1918  and therefore the loan would be JPY41095900 (ie 500*82.1918).  Now lets say that when the time comes to pay out the loan, the exchange rate changes to 1AUD=JPY70.2563.  Suddenly you owe AUD584942.6 (which is JPY41095900/70.2563).  So instead of owing AUD$500,000, you now owe AUD$584,942.60.  This is just talking about the principal amount.  I doubt very much you can lock in the interest rate of 0% forever, so your interest payments will also be subject to fluctuating currency exchange rates.  It could work in your favour but it could also work against you.  Don't think a currency can't change that much… as an example: just over 2 years ago, on October 12th 2008, the AUD/GBP exchange rate was 1GBP=2.61AUD.  And now it is 1GBP=1.6AUD – a drop of almost 40%.

Why would you have to sell?  Why not get a valuation and refinance on the new value?

Advertise on http://www.gumtree.com.  Also there might be a government assisted housing program in the area.  In Geelong it is called Diversitat.  Basically helps new migrants find somewhere to live for their first little while in Oz.  Advertise with local TAFE and Unis…

Try and think of it like this: imagine if you had 20 different loans.  Just have one offset on the loan that has the highest interest rate and put all your spare cash in there.  That way you'll save the most money.  Who really cares which precise property loan was the one that you saved against.  It's the overall numbers that matter.  Does that make sense?

And the matter of having 20 properties in one trust; the boys are suggesting this might not be wise, no doubt, for asset protection reasons.  What if a tenant trips on a bit of threadbare carpet or something and sues "the owner" (ie the trust) ?  Conveniently for the tenant, the "owner" owns 20 properties, so there is a giant pot of cash up for grabs in a law suit.  However if that trust only owned one or two properties, well those are the only properties you would stand to lose in that law suit.  The other 18 properties would be tucked safely away in other trusts.

Hi!

If it were me, I don't think I'd be keen to put all my eggs in the one $600k basket.  Imagine if something went wrong.  For instance, sometimes tenants decide to stop paying rent, and then do not leave the property when ordered to do so.  This situation could be financially cripplying for you.  Perhaps you might be better off looking at a property of lesser value, and keeping some emergency money on hand in case "something" happens.  Then you'd be able to ride out the storm for a few months until the problem was sorted, without being forced to sell in a panic.  Then when you feel you can do so comfortably, get another property and add it to your wealth pile   Sleep at night money.  That's all I'm suggesting.  Don't put your back so far against the wall you're really stressed out all the time.  Mortgages tend to be of the 25 year nature.  That's a long time to be stressed and without the odd fun night out or little luxury because you can't afford it.

Not to dampen the spirits, but the stamp duty alone on a $600k property is going to be in the order of about $30k.  That leaves rather a small deposit….

Try and point it out of your mind – there are so many inconsiderate people in the world it'll make you bitter.  Just console yourself with the fact you'd never do such a thing yourself, and the fact that you're steadily building a nice pot of wealth because you are smarter than them

Hi Terry,

I'm trying to get my head around company and/or trust structures also.  I'm a contractor and have pondered the idea of working through my own company for tax minimisation reasons.  This business (or trusts within it????) would then use incoming monies to buy properties.  How would the setup of this look?  Let's pretend I bring in say, $500k per year (I wish! but for the purposes of the exercise…).  So the company "income" would be $500k.  Can the company then pay me as its director $30k (ie mimimum wage), spend say $5k on accounting fees and so on, and the remaining $465 on buying a house outright?  And therefore leave no "taxable income" for the company to be taxed?  Is this how it works?  I realise this is a basic example.  Just trying to get my head around it.  And how would it work if the company didn't earn enough in one year to buy a place outright?  Would the principal and interest payments each year all be deductible business expenses?

Thankyou for any insights you fancy offering