scutterUK

Evening fellow forumites, I need to pick your brains.

Does anyone know what the go is when buying property with larger acreage. I think I’ve read somewhere that over a certain size a property is classed as commercial even though you don’t intend to use it as such – or something like that.

Can anyone confirm this and what the consequences are?

Cheaaars!

Leigh

Megalania

Check rates and land tax.

scutterUK

I had a good google but still couldn't find it, but then again these government sites are far from helpful.

i shall keep looking.

Cheers anyway.

Megalania

Ask vendor, council.

ProofReader

G'day Scutter

Never heard of large acreage being magically turned into commercial just for size alone!

These things do, of course, vary from state to state.

You will pay land tax on acreage over a certain value (again, may vary from state to state). In Queensland, you pay land tax when the total unimproved value of land (ie just the land, not buildings, etc, and is shown on rates notices) owned by you exceeds the taxable threshold. The current taxable threshold is $275,997 for an individual, however a principal place of residence is usually exempt. See here for info for ACT.

Likewise, you can only claim a stamp duty exemption for a principal place of residence (ie your home) for the house and curtilage (area immediately surrounding the house) in Qld. Not sure about ACT, but links to the ACT Revenue Office follow:

Duty on the Purchase of Property

Home Buyer Concession

Suggest you also look up the local Council site for the area in which you intend to buy and check out the rates.

If you're buying in another state, let me know and I'll find the equivalent info for that state.

Good luck with your purchase in any event!

scutterUK

i think i've found out the problem with getting somewhere with land. me'sheila was told today that a friend of hers had a LOT of trouble getting a mortgage on a big property. anything with a decent bit of land and the banks want to charge business rates for the mortgage!!! they had to look all over until they found a home loan that didn't.

hmm looks like we're gonna have fun tomorrow when we go see the bank then!

cheers for the info PR, i'll give it a going over tomorrow when i get to work.

Leigh