Can anyone advise on the Aussie end of things? My username has been a misnomer for the last three months, which means I don’t have to lodge my first NZ tax return for another nine months, but I’ve caught the last three months of the Aussie tax year.
Can anyone suggest a Sydney accountant who is cluey about NZ property investing and taxes?
thanks!

Thanks Kay! It’s true that rent money may be dead money, but massive interest repayments that leave you with nothing are pretty stone cold dead anyway! (particularly if the market is about to plateau or drop)

What I would like to know is why anyone pays for PMs if they are not capable of dealing with situations like this? I plan to invest overseas and if I had to take tenants over there to court without active assistance from the PM (ideally to stop the situation from occurring in the first place) I would be very unimpressed (and in major difficulty). What on earth do they do? Take 8% of your income to do two inspections a year?
Please tell me this is an example of an appalling PM and that the rest actually earn their keep.

fnash, I don’t know how long you’ve been in oz, but as a Kiwi, the first thing you need to do before buying back home is to ensure your tax status with inland revenue is “non-resident” (presuming you have no NZ income still coming in), otherwise I understand they could potentially count your aus income when assessing what tax you have to pay on your IP, but I’m happy to be corrected on this count. Go to http://www.ird.govt.nz, download the form and send it off to confirm your status. Your status doesn’t necessarily change just because you’ve been overseas for years – you have to ask.

If you point out what the current market rate is and don’t even raise it to that level, even though they might be disappointed at a rise of $50 or whatever, if they look around they’ll see they’re still getting a fabulous deal and they’d be crazy to leave, even with the rent rise.
I just wish your sister was MY landlord

A mortgage broker friend in NZ tells me that HSBC is the only lender there that will loan overseas investors 90% to invest in property. There’s just one catch – you have to be a Kiwi. Knew there eventually had to be an upside to my heritage []
I don’t know what the interest rate is like, but for all you NZers out there, it’s worth checking out! I’d be interested in hearing how others go with this as I hope to invest in NZ later this year.

Melissa

thanks Mel, that makes sense. Didn’t think of it that way since I’d never be without my trusty calculator!

LLTB