Don't over analyse. Just check out how many DA's have been lodged in your council area for Granny Flats to see if your development will fall flat,

Council doesn't particularly care who lives in the house (just known as unrelated parties).

You will probably still require the same level of noise and fire separation. (To clarify noise separation, this includes something like 60dB on waste & water pipes which run through the other tenancy).

Likewise, I would suggest contacting an insurance broker and let them do the work.

Point 4 is very pertinent.

You may get more bang for your buck paying down the LOCKS as it will have a higher rate of interest compared to the savings achieved putting money into the offset a/c.

It will depend on whether you have any other property that could be called your ppor during this period amongst other things

Who’s responsible for costs ie maintenance, rates, insurance etc during the option period & in what proportion?

Looks from your question you are considering Terry’s option 1. Are you getting any other benefit in the meantime eg living in the house & not paying rent or just looking to purchase in x years?

Admittedly there are no federal taxes otherwise i’d say there was a vested interest.

Get yourself a copy of the Building Code of Australia, read it from cover to cover.

You will need to fire & noise separate the two tenancies to comply with Australian Standards. Get a DA/CC even though you aren’t building additional space, provide parking ….

Is there any decent property going for sale in Whistler BC? One of my contacts bought a skifield property years ago for next to nix and it wasn't distressed at the time.

Looking at today's Financial Review, they had wild projections of 15%+ total over the next 3 years for locations like Darwin – Defence Housing is big up there and if there is growth to be had you might want to be part of it.

I would only recommend tile on tile once only, beyond that the amount of tile on the wall becomes quite heavy and not the best  if you have compressed sheet walls or plasterboard as it may pull the lining off the walls.

You will also need to allow for site costs, preliminaries, demolition, clearing site, landscaping, driveways, mailboxes etc.

You can always sign a non-exclusive or open agency agreement for the letting this way you can  use a couple of agents to lease the property and wave the carrot of whoever leases the property to a suitable tenant gets the management.

Saw the article in the SMH link to the West Australian newspaper.

Thinking of following suit?

The DA does lapse if works aren’t commenced but the timeframe differs between states.

Check your lease as it is quite specific as to which cpi figure you have to use and how to calculate the adjustment.

The cpi data is on the abs.gov.au website or see the link below.

It depends on your goals – if you are after a worry free investment ie low risk with consistent income, then go for it. If you want a property that you can learn from go for a mainstream ip.

You are paying a premium in many cases for this type of property yet your returns are limited however the trade off is maintenance, vacancies etc are all…[Read more]

The only thing I’dsuggest is putting smoke detectors in each bedroom (hard wired & linked together).

Have you ever lived in a share house?

Provided you aren’t resorting to splitting up bedrooms lounges and dining rooms to create extra bedroom areas ie you aren’t building any rooms there should be few issues.