What Creates Security for Your Loan?

Loan-Security

WHEN YOU TAKE out a property secured loan, you understand that a lender will register a mortgage against the property that is being secured.

However, typically, when you read through actual loan agreements, the mortgage is just one part of the security that is taken.

In this article, we will be looking at some of the other types of security that lenders will typically request when applying for a loan. [Read more…]

How to Claim Depreciation on Your Older Commercial Properties


older-building

ARE YOU FAILING to take advantage of the depreciation deductions available on your property because you believe your property is too old to warrant making a claim?

Your assumption is wrong and you could be missing out on valuable deductions. [Read more…]

Beware of Latent Conditions or Undocumented Scopes

Latent Conditions

ARE YOU AWARE of your latent condition or scope of work costs? If you are investing or developing you should have contingency funding set aside for these expenses.

Latent Conditions

Latent conditions can take many forms. You should know what kinds of latent conditions exist so you have a better picture of the possible rectification costs of these issues. [Read more…]

At last, Something Nifty for Commercial Property Investors

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FOR THE PAST month or so, I’ve been working behind the scenes to produce this free App … the Hi-Return Filter. And it was released only last week.

You see over the years, I have noticed how even seasoned investors can sometimes make subjective judgements, about the potential of certain properties.

What this App does is take your 8 Investment Objectives and neatly combine them with your 12 Buying Criteria. And then, create an inter-active matrix … which allows you to objectively shortlist your potential properties. [Read more…]

With Commercial Property … Balance Wins the Day

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Sub-Lease-Space-L

THIS CHART APPEARED as part of a recent article in the Financial Review, by Mercedes Ruhl (30 October, page 41).

The article reassured investors that the anticipated short-term surge in sublease space (within Australia’s CBD Office markets) has simply not eventuated.

“Sublease space spikes at times when the economy is weak and business confidence is low because companies are restructuring and downsizing.”

Furthermore, the article suggests the overall amount of sublease space is expected to fall sharply over the next few months — following the post-election improvement in business confidence.

And of all the capital cities, the CBRE research shows Melbourne has provided the greatest improvement over the past year. [Read more…]

Depreciation Differences: Part 2

ComVsRes-Depn-2

Commercial Vs Residential Property.

LAST WEEK, we covered the different types of Depreciation and the depreciation rules for tenants in Commercial properties.

Read on now, for the rules for claiming occupancy in a Commercial/Residential property — plus another useful tip, when it comes to when claiming deprecation. [Read more…]

Commercial Property and The Baby Boomer Dilemma

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Baby-boomers

YOU MAY RECALL several blogs in the past about Baby Boomers … explaining the effect they will have upon the property market — both Residential and Commercial.

In 2005, I warned investors that: If you hadn’t sold your traditional inner-city family home by 2010-11 … you had better be prepared to hold it until 2025.

My reasoning for this was NOT that there would be any fewer buyers. Rather, they would be five times as many of these homes on the market — as baby boomers sought to downsize en masse. [Read more…]

Commercial Vs Residential Property … What are the Depreciation Differences?

ComVsRes-Depn

THIS IS THE FIRST of a 2-part article, to help provide you with a useful comparison between the depreciation of Commercial and Residential property.

Investors considering purchasing an investment property will often enquire whether a Commercial or a Residential property will provide them with more deductions in the form of depreciation.

However, there are many important factors you need to be aware of when making a choice between these two investment options. [Read more…]

Watch Out for the Hidden “Soft” Project Costs …

Costing2

DEVELOPMENTS generally comprise two types of costs:

  1. SOFT costs being the Designers, Engineers, Planners, Project Managers, Cost, Planning and Specialist Consultants.
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  2. HARD costs, which are actual physical building costs, Builder preliminaries and Contingencies.

Both of these costs need to be managed. But there are two specific traps to avoid when reviewing initial planning soft costs — so that your soft costs do not blow the budget later on. [Read more…]

Debt Recycling & CGT for Your Commercial Property!

DebtRecycle

DEBT RECYCLING INVOLVES converting bad debt into good debt. In other words, converting debt you cannot claim as a tax deduction into debt that you can.

This can be a little complicated to explain so take a look at a couple of practical examples. [Read more…]

Tenants — Beware When You Fall Behind With Your Rent!

payment-overdue

WHILE THIS MAY have be written from a Tenant’s perspective … the message is equally valuable for Landlords, owning Commercial investment property.

Many landlords, tenants (and legal practitioners for that matter!) do not appreciate the significance of a default clause in a commercial lease that deals with the non-payment of rent. [Read more…]