There was a case a few years ago in which someone with 12 properties was considered not to be in the business of property rentals.

Why do you want to be considered to be running it as a business?

I know of no book that covers asset protection for australia. I have half written one but i keep getting g side tracked so may never finish.

You should read the bankruptcy act and just dona search on posts that i have written here and at other property forums.

Pia software is good for forecasting. Property investment analysis.

Ultimately it seems bankruptcy is what you want to protect against and the best protection for this is an appropriately structured discretionary trust that has an open class of beneficiaries and gives the trustee the power to accumulate. Seek legal advice.

But assets of a trust cannot be willed. Ie cannot be left in your will.

For family law purposes trusts can be attacked but there are ways to strengthen then against childrens future spouses.

An alternative is to own in your own name with a discretionary testamentary trust set up in your will. This will provide slightly more asset protection than a yrust set up during life. There will also be more tax advantages.

To strengthen asset protection for personally owmed assets you can consider using loans from spouses or parents or related trusts. The lender could take a mortgage over your property to secure their loan and this could cause them to take priority over other creditors.

Also consider that structure is only half the story. The other half is how you transact things. Who pays deposits and how. How contracts are entered. Where rent money is paid etc etc.

Hi. I am a lawyer specializing in asset protection. Firstly what are you trying to protect against?

A tax agent or a lawyer could assist. Tax agent would generally be cheaper. Perhaps the one the does your tax return.

Vardy wrote:

Due to refinancing to keep the place the LVR is around 90%, but hoping after the fixed interest period it will be closer to 80% or even slightly less

It is only the interest on the loan associated with the purchase of the property that is deductible against this property. So if you have ever increased the loan or used redraw the interest on this portion won’t be deductible against this property’s rent.

For asset protection reasons you wouldn’t want to be liable for someone else’s loan, even a spouses, unless it is absolutely necessary.

Yes this is fairly common and it is a way to get an extra land tax threshold in some states (once).

The ultimate holding company is just a shareholder so it will be difficult for this to be dragged into any litigation if it does not own the asset where the slip occurred and where it has not contract with a tenant. However loan agreements and transactions have to be above board and done properly.

My advice to clients is to use a LOC to access equity and once it is used convert this to a term IO loan. This way you are safer from a tax deductibility point of view.

Also make sure you keep investment and person borrowings separate, in different loans.

To borrow you need income and equity. Having equity is not enough as you must be able to demonstrate that you can pay the loan.

All borrowings will reduce serviceability