Negative gearing deferred: here’s how to manage the cash flow gap 

I would like to explore a funding strategy that may help investors prioritise investing in the highest-quality property they can afford while managing the cash flow impact of quarantined negative gearing.  However, before I explain the strategy, I want to make one point very clear: this is not an attempt to justify investing in established …

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Blame the 20-year growth cycle, not the government 

grandfathering

Property investors who owned assets before Budget night will continue to benefit from negative gearing. Therefore, most will be reluctant to sell, because if they subsequently reinvest in an established property, they will lose immediate access to those tax benefits.  However, given the Melbourne property market’s significant underperformance over the past decade, investors are naturally …

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Liquidity: the value of optionality  

Value of optionality

It’s been fascinating to watch how differently asset classes have performed over the past few years.   Share markets have generally delivered strong double-digit returns, while others, such as unlisted commercial property trusts and residential property in Melbourne and to a lesser extent, Sydney have really struggled.   This is nothing new, of course. All investment markets move in cycles, and a long-term investor should expect periods of …

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Can property investing still work after the tax changes? We tested six strategies. 

Property changes

Before you try to work around these changes, get the full toolkit This blog tests six strategies for keeping property investing attractive after the tax changes. None of them stack up on their own. Our free decision tool goes further: it helps you work out whether to hold, act modestly, or change strategy altogether, and …

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Upgrade your home or invest in shares? The numbers surprised me. 

Historically, the big difference between upgrading your family home and preserving borrowing capacity to buy an investment property was negative gearing.  Home loan interest is not tax deductible. Investment loan interest, by contrast, generally is. So, from a tax and cash flow perspective, borrowing to invest in property was often more attractive than simply spending more on your …

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Tax grabs dressed up as housing policy: what investors need to know 

new law

Last Friday, both Houses passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026. At the time of writing, the Bill has not yet received Royal Assent, so technically it is not law. However, Royal Assent is generally regarded as a mere formality.  Importantly, the practical application of the new rules still depends on several key ministerial decisions that …

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The 4 decisions that determine 95% of your financial outcome  

Handful decisions

I have said before that there are only a handful of financial decisions that truly move the dial over a person’s lifetime. The reality is that if you get those decisions right, most of your financial outcomes will take care of themselves.  That is why I originally wrote Investopoly and have now completely rewritten it as Wealth by Design. …

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Beware: Commercial property values look very stretched 

Commercial property

Over the past decade, and especially over the past five years, there has been a significant increase in the number of commercial buyer’s agents in Australia.  Many are actively promoting the benefits of investing in commercial property. And with higher interest rates reducing borrowing capacity, more investors are being tempted to consider commercial property as …

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