Blog
SMSF compliance, gearing, depreciation, and CGT guidance for AU, NZ, and UK property investors.
Interest-Only Loans: When They Help Investors and When They Trap
IO lending is a cash flow tool or a slow-motion trap depending on who holds it. Here's how to tell which camp you're in — and why the reset matters.
RBA Cut vs BoE Path: What Rate Divergence Means for Investors
The RBA cutting and the BoE repricing pull cross-border portfolios in opposite directions. How to model pass-through, Section 24, and dual-currency cash flow.
Three Markets, One Downturn: What's Driving Falling Prices in AU, NZ & UK
Australia, New Zealand and the UK are all correcting — but for different reasons. Serviceability, deductibility flips, and Section 24 each demand a different playbook.
UK REIT Consolidation: Opportunity or Warning for Investors?
The UK listed property sector is collapsing into fewer, larger REITs. Here's what the merger wave means for trust holders weighing REITs against direct property.
Why LVR Alone Won't Tell You If a Property Is a Good Deal
LVR measures your loan, not your deal. Here's why DSCR, net yield, and a holding-period view matter more when judging a property's real value.
Your Portfolio Has Multiple Owners. Track It That Way.
Personal, joint, trust, SMSF and company holdings each carry their own LVR, DSCR, cash flow and tax position. Blending them into one number breaks every decision downstream.
Your Portfolio's Cash Position, Three Years Out
A dashboard shows where you are now. A month-by-month forecast shows the exact month your portfolio runs short — before it happens.
5 Ways to Pay Off Your Investment Mortgage Faster
Fortnightly repayments, offsets, debt recycling and lump sums — how many years each strategy shaves off a $600k investment loan, and when not to bother.
Australia's CGT Discount Is Going in 2027. Here's What Replaces It.
The 2026-27 Budget confirmed the 50% CGT discount ends for assets sold from 1 July 2027. Indexation returns — plus a 30% minimum tax. Here's how the switch changes your exit strategy.
Cash Yield vs Capital Growth: Matching Strategy to Portfolio Stage
The right yield/growth mix shifts as your portfolio matures. How to choose across accumulation, consolidation, and drawdown stages — and what the 2027 rule changes mean for each.
Managing an Investment Property in a Spreadsheet — and Where It Breaks
How to build a property spreadsheet that actually works for one property, and the precise points — structures, actuals, currency, scenarios — where it stops.
Why AI Can't Manage Your Property Portfolio
AI is great at reading documents and drafting emails, but it can't hold the authoritative record of your portfolio. Here's where it helps and where it guesses.
You Can't Undo a Bad Acquisition. Model It First.
A single-property calculator can't tell you what a fourth purchase does to your blended LVR, cash flow, and debt-to-income ratio. Scenario modelling can, before you sign.
Your Portfolio's Real Numbers Live in One Dashboard, Not Six Portals
Blended LVR, portfolio DTI and combined cash flow only exist at the aggregate level. See why a consolidated dashboard answers questions spreadsheets can't.
What we built in July
A month of making the numbers more honest — Cashflow Map, DSCR widget, real mortgage reconciliation, per-property tax countries, and a lot of things that quietly weren't working.
Negative gearing isn't one rule. It's three, and one of them just flipped twice.
Run the same $15,000 interest bill through Australia, New Zealand and the UK and you get three different after-tax outcomes. What each regime actually says right now.
DSCR: the number your lender already runs, and you probably don't
Debt Service Coverage Ratio tells you whether the income from a property actually covers the loan. How to calculate it, stress-test it, and track it alongside yield and LVR.
Your forecast said $340 a week. Your bank statement says something else.
Forecasts drift from small, specific gaps that compound quietly. Where the drift usually comes from, and how to catch it before it becomes a tax-time surprise.
80% LVR is a wall in Australia. In New Zealand it's a deposit requirement. In the UK it barely exists.
Same ratio, three completely different mechanics. What happens when LVR climbs past 80% depends entirely on which market you're in — and the rules are not interchangeable.
Yield vs Growth: Why Cash Flow and Appreciation Diverge
The properties that pay you now rarely appreciate fastest. Here's the structural reason yield and growth pull apart — and how to model the trade-off across a portfolio.
Gross yield vs net yield: the number that actually matters
Every listing advertises gross yield. Net yield — after rates, insurance, management fees and maintenance — is the number that actually tells you whether a property pays.
Common costs of buying property in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK
Purchasing property involves much more than the hammer price or your deposit. Here's every upfront and hidden cost buyers in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK actually pay.
How I used a kanban board to buy my first home
A public Trello board from 2014 that still works: three lists for the process, one for the shortlist.
How I used a kanban board to shortlist and choose a home
Four columns turned an open-ended house hunt into a decision. Here is the exact setup.
Ditch Excel: what actually breaks when your portfolio grows past two properties
The specific ways a spreadsheet portfolio fails as it scales, and what a structured model does instead.
Stamp duty across AU, NZ, and UK: what actually changes your number
Why the same purchase price produces wildly different stamp duty bills, plus a quick estimator.