brisbane adding value

Hi all,

I plan to start investing in Brisbane in the next month or two and just wanted to pick some brains about some of the strategies that you guys are using. I have been living and investing in NZ for the last 8 years but will be moving back in the next month or so. Basically my aim is to grow a rental portfolio by adding value re financing to roll my deposit out and into the next one, and leave just enough equity in to cover any neg gearing by way of line of credit then refinance each year to release any cap gain. I will be looking at more cap gain investing then + cash flow. I was over last week to get a bit of an idea for the market in brisbane and a few things sort of stuck out to me and wondered if anyone is already using these ideas…….
 The first thing was converting a high set house with double garaging underneath into two separate dwellings and renting them out as two houses. Is this possible will it add much value in the Brisbane market? Is there many issues with council or does it just need to be sound and fire proofed? How hard and what time frame is there for getting separate titles issued? or would the down stairs always be classed as a granny flat? And therefore add little value.

The other thing was buying older Queenslanders and renovating to a high standard, fully furnishing it and renting it room by room to help with the neg gearing with the idea of building underneath at a later date to add value.

 any thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated.