Grayling

We could easily be mortgage free if we choose to be.

We will also be in the fortunate position of having enough income from pensions and investments to not have to work,Although we do intend to.

The interest on the money from the sale of our house would easily cover any rent we may pay or, indeed, pay for another mortgage.It would also pay for cars and boats (I would like a sea going fishing boat).

We will wait and see how the land lies re house prices,interest rates etc. when we get there.
Personally I would be happy in a long term rental but then we are a fair bit older than most on here and don't have kids to worry about any longer.

G

jad n rich

To try and sum it up quickly, the reason why its so popular is although your own home is not a tax deduction the rental home basically is. Shortfalls in rent, renting costs, interest on loans are tax deducatable. If you sell the property after 12 months you only pay capital gains on 50% of the profit.

Main argument would be will the government stop this negative gearing system? They did once and it was a disaster for our economy and created a huge housing crisis with a big defecit in rental accom. It was quickly reinstated. Interest rates could go up? but who knows that this mornings Australian predicts they will go down. Just set up a mortage you are comfortable with.

Other irritant is tenants, aussie tenants can be just as much of a pain as UK ones, but we have been lucky, my tip is to rent it out through an agent, they have access to a register of people who dont pay rent/wreck houses etc.

Its worked very nicely for us and I would be kicking myself now if we had not taken the plunge but everyone has to weigh it up on their personal situation of course.

tonyk38

I've never had a mortgage in my life. Would be nice to eventually own a place in Aus, though I won't lose any sleep over it if I don't.

Being a tenant myself, I'd like to think that I'm scrupulously honest and reliable. As are the other folks in the flats in my building. That's because we were all heavy vetted before we were allowed to move in (references, work record, previous addresses going back several years etc). It's a simple but pretty effective way of making sure your tenants are kosher. Oh, and a huge deposit helps too, plus hefty advance rent....

It left me broke, but at least I feel safe here and the other tenants here are great. Which is more than I could say about my old place......

So mortgage perhaps one day, but I won't hold my breath waiting......

ABCDiamond

Chris
Checkout this Property Investors forum: http://www.somersoft.com/forums/index.php?

The link to it is also on my web site http://www.abcdiamond.com.au/chat.htm

Tenants are the main pitfall !! But also these days, you NEED to buy the right property, right price etc. Rents in relation to Cost price have changed a lot recently. It wasn't that long ago that a $400,000 house would get $400pw in rent, but they are now few and far between.

eintracht

What are renting rates and conditions like at the moment ?
For example, if I had a 3 bed $AUS250k house in a reasonable suburb of Melbourne (Sunbury for example) what kind of returns in terms of rent can I expect ?
What bills are tenants expected to pay and what bills are landlords expected to pay on top of that ?
Do agencies take their 10% as they do here ?
Does the property need to be furnsihed or unfurnished and what are the minimum / maximum intial period for letting ?

Thanks

Chris

ABCDiamond

After looking at some examples quickly, I would say you are looking at about 4.3% gross return. eg: a $225,000 house getting about $185 pw rent. That also ties in pretty close to an example up here in Brisbane, where the property is worth $300k and fetches $250pw.

The Landlord pays Rates, Buildings Insurance, all repairs and about 8% Agents fees.
Tenants can be asked to pay for actual water usage.
Most are let unfurnished.

peppi

not there yet but will definately be mortgage free when we do...But I have to add that this is partly to do with the fact we intend to go to Perth...had it been the other side we may have been stretched to be mortgage free..

bridiej

They've been saying that for years though!!

JerrySpringer

interseting poll....but perhaps it would be more revealing if people stated just how much money they were bringing to Oz. There must be people who have come here with over $500,000 but choose not to be mortgage free, just as there are people coming with $50,000 who can't be mortgae-free. So the poll doesn't really tell us too much.

YogiDeb

We COULD be mortgage free but have told the children we are going to try to make our life better: and besides things like having the beach close by and sunnier weather and hopefully a more relaxed pace of life, this includes a BIG garden and a pool for us. Our thinking is that we want to live in a nice area and have a nice house - just like we have here - and all these things could help ease our kids over their (inevitable) homesickness a bit.

We also plan to sell our house here and buy a smaller one to rent out in England and then hope to buy another house in Oz to rent out too once we get settled. Have never done this before and will have to do lots of reading before we commit to the Oz rental house but along with all the other things that Oz may be able to give us NEW CHOICES are the important things for us because we'd never do this in England. We feel we are in a safety zone here - nice house, nice cars, easy life and we're thinking if we take a chance and go to Oz why not take a few more (well- researched!) chances while we are at it!

Incidentally, we'd do things very differently if we had no kids!!

YogiDeb

PS Sorry, I didn't actually say that we will NOT be mortgage free, but it will be smaller. But then HIS salary will be smaller!

ABCDiamond

Have a look at this Australian Property Investors forum for a starter:
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/
You will get lots of info and advice.


You are not alone in that

vicky o

We won't be mortgage free, but hopefully will have considerably downsized our mortgage at the same time as upsizing our house and commodities.
We should be able for a 4X2 or even 5X2, nice car and an old one for work, pool, probably no holidays for a while, but then we've only had one family holiday in four years so that's no different. And unless we win the lotto, I think I can definately quash the idea of a yacht, sorry babes!!!

walaj

if my memory serves me right there was a poll asking how much people were taking sometime ago. The only prob with this is that, say $500k, will give you a lot more choices in some parts of Oz than others.

The other variable would be a persons age - ie older they are, in theory, should be nearer to the mortgage free status. But all these variables make for a complicated poll

Phoenixuk2oz

I agree walaj

There will always be lots of variables however this is just a quick "reality check" for us over here in Aus ....and those still in the UK [good luck to all those still waiting BTW].

It just gives us all a good idea regarding life in Aus Vs UK. Some really useful comments so far