Investment property FAQs

Equity is the value of your home, less any money owed on it. For example, if your house is valued at $600,000 and the current debt is $250,000, the equity in the home would be $350,000.

You can leverage the equity in your home to cover the deposit on a new property, using your existing property as collateral. It’s great to make the first step to enter the property market because once you’re in, using equity is generally much easier than saving for another deposit. Find out more about using equity to buy another home. 

If you purchase an investment property, you are likely to come across the term “gearing”. This means borrowing for the purpose of investing.

If you borrow to make an investment it can be negatively geared - where interest repayments exceed net income, or positively geared where net income exceeds repayments.

Negative gearing means that the cost of owning an investment property outweighs the rental income it generates. As an example, assuming your rental property earns $20,000 in one year and the expenses of owning the property (loan repayments, body corporate fees, maintenance, etc.) are $25,000. You will have a loss of $5,000 which you can claim as a tax deduction.

One benefit of this is the ability to claim tax deductions and reduce your taxable income. Additionally, a negatively geared property investment may appreciate in value over time.

It’s important to note the risk involved in negative gearing because you are losing money, so you’ll need to be aware of this so you can budget and prepare for the losses.

Buying an investment property is a popular choice of investment for many Australians. Compared to other forms of investment like shares, bonds and ETFs - investing in property is easy to understand. Plus, home loan rates are at record lows, and you can use your home's equity to fund your property investment.

Some benefits of purchasing an investment property include:

• Potential tax benefits for property investors
• Potential capital growth
• Relatively stable investment
• Passive income

Use either the weekly or monthly rent to determine the annual rental income, then subtract annual costs. Divide this total by the property’s purchase cost and multiply by 100, so you get a percentage. Rental yields help you calculate the profitability of an investment property. To learn more, click here.

If you’re looking to invest in property, whether you’re buying or building, you’ll need to consider an investor home loan. There are two main options: Interest-only loans and Principal and Interest home loans. Each has its own pros and cons. To learn more, click here.

An investment loan can have interest-only repayments for up to 5 years from the settlement date. To learn more, click here.

The key difference is the property’s purpose. Owner-occupier home loans are for applicants who will live in the property, whereas investment loans are for people that will instead rent the property to others. Lenders will offer different loan products depending on the purpose. To learn more, visit here.

You can avoid paying a cash deposit by leveraging your home equity to buy a second property. Accessing this equity is easy with a mortgage refinance, which also lets you potentially find a better interest rate. To learn more, click here.

Typically, you’ll need around 20% deposit (an 80% loan-to-value ratio (LVR)), for an investor home loan if you want to avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance (LMI). At loans.com.au you could put down as little as a 10% deposit to buy an investment property. To learn more, visit here.

Yes. You need to tell us when you change the use of your home from an investment property to your principle place of residence. You may also need to notify others, such as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), as property expenses like interest payments may no longer be tax deductible.

Yes. If your circumstances change and you decide to switch your owner-occupied home into a rental property, then you need to let us know. This ensures that you have the right financial product, and we have your most up to date personal data to maintain your loan compliance.

There are many costs associated with an investment property, not just the original purchase price and loan repayments. These include upfront costs like stamp duty, legal costs, council rates, property maintenance costs and so on, as well as ongoing maintenance costs. To learn more, visit here.