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FAQs & Glossaries
Find the answers to all your property
investment questions right here.
What is capital gains tax?
Capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax you pay on profits from selling assets, such as property.
You report capital gains and capital losses in your income tax return and pay tax on your capital gains. Although it is referred to as ‘capital gains tax,’ it is part of your income tax. It is not a separate tax.
What is negative gearing?
Negative gearing essentially means borrowing to invest, as when you take an investment loan, your property is ‘geared’. ‘Negative gearing’ happens when the costs of owning a rental property exceed the rental income. The key benefit of negative gearing is that any net rental loss you have during the financial year may be offset against other income you earn, such as your salary. This reduces your taxable income and how much tax you have to pay.
What is Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)?
Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is insurance that a lender takes out to insure itself against the risk of not recovering the outstanding loan balance if you, the borrower, are unable to meet your loan payments and the property is sold for less than the outstanding loan balance.
What does off-the-plan mean?
What is buying off the plan? Buying off the plan means buying a property that hasn’t been built yet or is still under construction. You make your decision to buy based on the building plans and designs, rather than the finished product.
What is stamp duty?
Stamp Duty is a tax imposed by State governments in all Australian States and Territories. It is more than just a tax on the purchase of your family home. Broadly, it arises on the sale or transfer of a wide range of personal and business related assets.
What is strata?
Strata title is a model of property ownership in Australia that allows individuals to buy ownership in a larger property or building. As an owner of a ‘lot’ within a ‘Strata Complex’, you own your lot as well as a share in the ‘common property’.
What are rental yields?
Rental yield is basically the amount of money you make on an investment property by measuring the difference between your overall costs and the income you receive from rental income. Understanding what your rental yield is, allows you to determine if your overall ins and outs of the property are viable.
What is depreciation?
What is property depreciation? … Australian law allows investors to claim tax deductions on both the decline in value of the building’s structure and items considered permanently fixed to the property and the decline in value of plant and equipment assets found within it (think ovens, dishwashers, carpets and blinds).
What is rentvesting?
Rentvesting is a home-owning strategy where you rent a property to live in that’s right for your lifestyle, while you own an investment property that’s right for your budget. As home prices in inner-city areas have gone up, this strategy is increasingly popular, especially among younger buyers.
What is homevesting?
Using nothing but your own home to invest in property.
How long has your business been opened?
Our CEO and Founder, Dr Tony Hayek, opened Blue Wealth’s doors back in 2009 when he realised there was a considerable gap in the property research market. He has over 25 years of experience in the property world and is passionate about giving everyday Aussies access to the high-level knowledge needed to make good investment decisions.
Are you a Buyer’s Agent or Real Estate Agent?
We are legislated under the Real Estate Act, but unlike a Real Estate agent, we are very selective about the properties we sell. We don’t sell anything that doesn’t pass our research methodology, which has a 92% rejection rate. We are also not a Buyers Agent because we don’t ask our clients where they want to buy. We simply research the market for the best opportunities and then give our clients access to it. Visit our research page for a breakdown of how the research methodology works.
What does it mean ‘92% rejection rate’ for your property selection?
Blue Wealth’s independently audited research methodology ensures that properties that do not pass the stringent 112 point check will never be presented to a client. This research has rejected over 92% of properties reviewed over the past 5 years, ensuring the 8% of properties remaining are the best investment opportunity – attracting the best tenant to facilitate a strong cash flow and with the best exit strategy to deliver the greatest price growth.
What are your thoughts on buying and renovating for profit?
Renovating for profit has been popularised by reality TV shows and can be a great way to add value to an older run down property. I’ve even done it myself. However, the margins are usually slim and if you find an older building has asbestos or requires structural repairs it can be a nightmare that adds cost to the project and typically results in a negative return on investment. In addition, most people don’t factor in their own time when doing these renovations and those hours can add up quickly, eating up all your spare time while the building remains untenanted. At the moment we’re at the beginning of an upswing in the market and a lot of good quality property is cashflow neutral or positive – its really a no brainer to increase your exposure to the property market and just wait for the gains to come to you.
Why do you guys only sell/recommend off-the-plan properties and not properties that are already built?
Off-the-plan property is by definition ‘new’ – the main benefit of buying a new property is it costs less to hold.
There are a few reasons for this:
- Depreciation of the build and the internal assets makes your investment more affordable. See Brad’s article here for what depreciation is and how much you can get back on brand new property.
- The builder’s warranty is still available for 6 years in case there are any defects in the build.
- New property tends to have lower maintenance costs.
- New properties attract more tenants, who are often prepared to pay more rent.
Off-the-plan also gives you the opportunity to pick the best apartment in the complex, because you’re getting in first. In most cases buying off-the-plan through Blue Wealth will give you access to a range of negotiated inclusions that will make your investment journey smoother.
How do I find a good mortgage broker?
Finding a good mortgage broker can be tricky, there’s a lot out there and you can’t usually tell the good from the not so good just by googling. We don’t employ a mortgage broker, but work with a lot of them within our company and always make sure their values are similar to our values before referring anyone on to them. Just reach out if you want us to start the conversation for you.
Do you help with property management?
Yes! Although Property Management is another business, Helen, our Property Management Integration team member, has over 20 years of experience in the Property Management world. She is here to help with any tenant, rental, fees and general property manager queries.
How do you measure property value?
What a question! This is an issue of contention at the highest levels of the property research profession. Value is defined by international bodies as ‘the estimated amount for which an asset should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s length transaction…’ but in real estate, things can complicate this (e.g. unlike shares, no two homes are exactly alike). We could write a whole report on measuring value, but suffice to say that for our clients, it is an exercise in ensuring you are paying an attractive and reasonable price for a property today (compared to the rest of the market), which also offers strong growth fundamentals into the long-term future.
How much do you charge your clients?
We don’t charge our clients anything. Blue Wealth is legislated under the Real Estate Act, which states that we must act in the best interest of the party that pays us. We know that Australians don’t expect to pay an agent when buying a property, so as we charge the developer to sell their property, the Act states we must act in the developer’s best interest. So how do we make sure that our clients are buying the best investment based on research and not based on what the developer wants to sell?
Enter the Research Model and the Blue Wealth Index.
Blue Wealth’s independently audited research methodology ensures that properties that do not pass the stringent 112 point check will never be presented to a client. This research has rejected over 92% of properties reviewed over the past 5 years, ensuring the 8% of properties presented are the best investment opportunity – attracting the best tenant to facilitate a strong cash flow and with the best exit strategy to deliver the greatest price growth. Most importantly, clients will never be able to buy the same property cheaper from the developer or anyone else.
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