Weekly Property Mega Thread

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Welcome to the /r/AusFinance weekly Property Mega Thread.

This post will be republished at 02:00AEST every Friday morning.

Click here to see all previous weekly threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/search/?q=%22weekly%20property%20mega%20thread%22&restrict_sr=1&sort=new

What happens here?

Please use this thread for general property-related discussions, such as:

• First Homeowner concerns
• Getting started
• Will house pricing keep going up?
• Thought about [this property]?
• That half burned-down inner city unit that sold for $2.4m. Don't forget your shocked Pikachu face.

The goal is to have a safe space for some of the most common posts, while supporting more original and interesting content in their own posts.Single posts about property may be removed and directed to this thread.

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I’m not sure if this is the correct subreddit to post in. But I’ve seen a see through debit/credit card that was partially see through. I just want to know if it’s anz. It looks really cool and would like to know which bank it is ca

I recently got accepted into my apprenticeship and full time work for this trade post apprenticeship pays around 100-120k annually in Sydney. I wanted to know if anyone had suggested banks or credit card plans for this income range and for further context I want to put a down payment on a ~700k-1mil property once I finish my apprenticeship. Any suggestions would help greatly thanks.

We currently have enough money in the offset account that we don’t pay interest anymore (so interest rate rise doesn’t really affect us). I feel like we’re not really maximizing earning capabilities? Debt recycling seems to have little return so we’re not sure if it’s worth the risk. I’ve heard of ETFs but had not really researched more into it. Early 50s and I’m not sure how we can build wealth and hopefully retire early. Any insights?

SHOW YOURSELF.

I just lost $94.50?

I have two asx etfs in commsec and plan to keep adding roughly a$1,000 a month. I'm looking at moomoo for future buys, but i'm not convinced changing brokers means I need to move the existing holdings too.

Keeping the old etfs where they are and sending new money elsewhere would let me try another platform without making the whole portfolio a transfer project. Moving everything would be tidier but transfer fees and records matter as well as brokerage.

If you've changed brokers with an existing etf portfolio, did you transfer the holdings or just start making new buys in the new account?

I’m in uni working towards becoming one. I don’t have a clear idea of what the salary typically looks like, and i’m not sure if it’s worth the stress.

Terrible. I've used them for years but surely that is their end?

How is this stuff not encrypted? This is what has been accessed:

Name and/or username

Contact information(address, email address and phone number)

Date of Birth

Occupation

Answer to secret question

Information about select transfer(s) with OFX Information about select recipient(s) paid through OFX

Information relating to some of your communications or interactions with OFX IP address and/or device information

Long time lurker here and have noticed how people were calling the recent rate hikes as the end of the world(ok maybe not verbatim!), yet here I am on the Gold Coast on a Thursday and restaurants can't seem to catch a break, pretty much every fastfood/casual dine/fine dine place I've passed thru in the last 10 days were running on 70%+ occupancy. This doesn't make sense, everyday I'm seeing fellow aussies posting how their mortgage payments are eating into their budgets yet consumer spending hasn't decreased meaningfully. I get that we are in a K- shaped economy and people on the higher end of the K will spend but I don't think that every second person here at Goldy is in that tax bracket.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

I'm looking for some honest opinions on what to do with my finances and whether investing in property is the right move for me at this stage of my life. 

I'm 27, live in Wollongong NSW, work full-time earning $73k a year (before tax), have no debt and currently live at home rent-free. I have approximately $247k in savings, $5k in shares and can save around $750 a week while my living expenses are relatively low. 

I'm very aware that this is a good position to be in, and I want to make the most of it. However, I'm conscious that just because I can borrow money and buy an investment property doesn't necessarily mean I should. 

The options I'm currently considering: 

1. Buy an investment property 

I've been looking at properties around $650k (Geelong), with a loan of approximately $500k. I'd be contributing $450–$500 a week out of my own pocket after rental income and property expenses. 

The idea would be to hold it, build equity and potentially sell it to help fund my own home down the track. Or keep it if I can sustain the repayments. 

My hesitation is whether I'd be limiting my options if I wanted to move out, travel or buy my own home in the next 3–5 years. Although down the track could mean moving out with a partner, which seems a little easier, and also potentially increasing my income. 

1. Buy an apartment locally around Wollongong 

I've also considered buying something closer to home, potentially around $600k. Initially, it could be an investment, but I would have the option of moving into it myself in a few years if that suited my circumstances. 

I like the flexibility of this option, although I'm unsure whether an apartment is the right investment for my longer-term goals, particularly when considering strata fees and the potential for capital growth.  

1. Hold off on property and invest my money elsewhere 

I could keep a substantial cash buffer, continue saving and potentially invest my money in ETFs or other investments instead. 

This would give me more flexibility and avoid taking on a large mortgage, but I feel like I’m missing an opportunity by not using my current living situation to get into the property market earlier. 

My goal:

My long-term goal isn't to accumulate as many properties as possible or become wealthy purely for the sake of it. 

I'd like to own a home with enough land where I can grow some food, establish a garden and build a simple, meaningful life. I'd like to do that with minimal or manageable debt, while still having the freedom to travel, enjoy my late twenties and eventually build a family. 

I'm not opposed to taking calculated risks or contributing money towards an investment. I just don't want to overextend myself now and find that, in five years, I'm stuck with a large mortgage and struggling to buy the home I actually want to live in. 
 
Does buying an investment property make sense if my goal is to own my own home with minimal debt? 

I’m finding it hard to make any final decisions because I don’t have people around me to talk to for advice. I'd appreciate some outsider perspectives. 

Appreciate any thoughts! 

I'm a 24M living at home with my family. I currently pay 75 per week for board and live about a 40 minute drive away from Monash University where I recently graduated. I don't really mind doing this drive daily as I enjoy listening to music and I'd guess it adds about another $70 per week in fuel expenses at recent prices. On top of that I pay for my own food, phone bills etc.

I've had a somewhat unsuccessful gap year (intending to gain some professional experience, nothing really worked out) and will go back for my final year of study to complete my honours year in economics, with intentions to definitely be out and seeking a full time job by 2028.

My income isn't anything amazing right now, as a base earning about 5-600 a week, although through various methods I've managed to average an income of more than 1000 a week so could reasonably maintain an income of nearly $56k next year as a student if I keep this up. One consideration though is that fulltime honours will be intense. One way I've been trying to prepare has been doing a lot of early research into my ideal honours thesis project, to hopefully reduce total workload next year or just mean better quality output for less effort.

Now to the situation: I'm considering moving out next year and finding a 2 bedroom place with my older brother, ideally for less than 300 each per week each and somewhere closer to Melbourne cbd. He's really keen on this idea and I think we'd both really enjoy living together fulltime again.

The reason for moving is that my younger brother is planning to move out next year so I'll be the only one home with my dad and step mum. Part of this decision is because the vibes with my step mum has been really off recently. I already try to do a lot to accomodate her but I've gotten to the point recently where I think sticking around might be pissing her off, especially with my younger brother gone (her son) who has been my main friend while living at the house, I fear that the vibes could just continue to be pretty crap. For reference, the vibes have been pretty off for what feels like most of this year so far. It's not terrible, but not all that pleasant to come home to every day.

My question is, would this be a smart decision? Perhaps obviously not financially but for the sake of life enjoyability? Or would biting the bullet for a bit longer in order to continue enjoying the great financial flexibility be the wiser option. Keen to hear people's thoughts!

I applied today for early release of super under hardship. They said take 5 days to process, then 2-3 days depending on my bank for funds to go into account. Then about 2 hours later I got a text message that said it was approved and processed and should be in my account in 2-3 business days (again depending on my bank).

Does anyone here bank specifically with suncorp that has had super released early, that can give me a rough time frame of if it actually took this long? I applied under hardship because both my fridge and washing machine decided to die in the same week so am kinda desperate right now, living out of an esky currently.

Hi guys, my wife and I just bought our first apartment in July with an $880k loan. With the size of the loan the recent rate rise has stretched up and another forecasted is worrying. Would it be worth talking to lenders and see if anyone can do better than what we have at the moment?
I saw someone comment this recently so thought I’d ask. Thanks in advance for any advice

I have an 'Annual Tax Statement' and a 'CGT Statement' from betashares direct for the year ended 30 June 2026. The two documents list completely different numbers against the tax code 18H (total current year capital gains) and 18A (net capital gain), and the CGT statement lists capital losses. How do I know what number to give the ATO?

Also, there's some capitals gains listed as discounted on the tax statement even though I've owned the units for less than a year. What's going on there?

I spoke at an event and the biller is asking for my public liability insurance. It seems like the insurance is more than I am being paid.

Are there any cheap public liability insurances for one off, individuals giving a presentation at an event...

Searching has been a nightmare, any help would be appreciated.

Hey I'm new here in Australia and I'm looking for the best option for me to buy stocks (mainly US and other overseas markets). I'm not a lot into trading at the moment but will be looking to make more trades in the future. So for now mainly just holding. And I also don't buy a lot either, maybe a few grands a month. What are your recommendations?

it's made very clear by the vanguards, ishares, betashares, vanecks, etc that there are management fees for their ETFs.

it is an expense for income generation...so it's tax deductible...right?

Has anybody submitted this management fee in their tax return?

Where do i find it, I've never seen this on any statement.

I am currently with Up for personal banking and I love it, recently set up a Westpac Business One account for my Sole Trader business and I'm not a fan so far.

I don't like that when I take transactions on Saturday's and Sunday's, the transaction shows as the settlement date on the following Monday (but I can get over this), what I am mainly looking for is a bank account that will show the transaction timestamp (for incoming PayIDs), in my nature of business at market stalls it's very handy for me to be able to cross check my transactions using their timestamps on the day.

This seems like such a simple thing and I have no idea why this would be left out of a banking app.

Can anyone who uses a NAB business account or any other business accounts confirm if they have this feature?

I have recently met an Australian man that said he made his large fortune by investing in an Australian company ( open cast mining ) . When I asked the man the name of the company he invested in , he just said that I would not know the name. I have a feeling that what the man is telling me , may just be BS . I know the mans full name , but I'm not sure where I can search on line for information on a possible Australian company ( using the mans full name ) . Any suggestions as to where I could search Australian company records , that may show the investors names / shareholders .

I'm a first year Bachelor of Commerce student right now, and I'm running into issues where I'm learning financial theory, but I'm missing a lot of real-world context when it comes to discussions. Part of this is that, because of the Adelaide Uni merger and some poor scheduling, I've been forced to take program electives for second-year students. I feel like I'm lacking baseline understanding of finance and investing, and am sort of playing catch-up. Especially when there are discussions about real-world companies and situations, and I feel I should know more than I do.

Was wondering how people here keep up-to-date with financial news, and how they keep it entertaining? If there are shows, podcasts, or books you'd recommend, or enjoy?

Resources for independently learning financial theory would be even moreso appreciated, but I don't think those are quite as popular, lol.

Hello. Im 52 F who loves her job so plans to work until 65. I have about 28K in various ETFs and want to buy a more Asia focused ETF. Which one(s) are good for a 10year plus investor. Ive looked at ASIA and AIA but I’m sure there are others.

EDIT: Bankwest worked. Thank you!

My Bank Australia and Zip Pay were both rejected. I have a feeling the answer is "You're screwed, sorry" but I still wanna get a zero fee credit card purely that I can use to buy R18+ games on Steam.

No intention of using it. Just want the cheapest, easiest credit card I can get that will let me prove to Steam I'm over 18.

Cheers.

I review developer tools obsessively as a hobby, which means my personal finance setup gets the same treatment. Over the years I've tried YNAB, Buckets, Actual, Firefly III self-hosted on a VPS, and lately a plain spreadsheet again. The irony isn't lost on me for someone who reconciles client ledgers professionally. There's always a moment around month three where the friction wins and I revert to checking account balances nervously.

What I actually need is something that handles dual income gracefully. PAYG salary plus lumpy freelance invoices means most envelope budgeting assumes a predictability my cash flow doesn't have. Some months I want to allocate a surplus aggressively toward tax reserves or voluntary super. Other months I'm drawing from reserves and the software treats it like failure.

I've landed on a hybrid for now. Business account runs through PocketSmith for forecasting, personal stays in a spreadsheet, and I reconcile them manually fortnightly on Sunday mornings with coffee. It's not elegant but it's honest.

Curious whether others with irregular income have found a system that actually stuck past the novelty phase, or if the answer is simply accepting more manual intervention than the app stores promise.

Hi guys, unsure how to word this title properly. Hopefully you guys understand what I mean and don't flame me in the comments, my brain is all shot from everything going on this week as I'm sure a lot of y'all can relate.

---SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE CAR ISSUES---
I'm 19F, living with my mother, it's just us two girls on a property (farm) and we have/had this cute little Hyundai Accent (it lasted us about 4ish years? My stepdad loved it when he was alive).
Yesterday we wanted to dip into a local store (local for us is 20, 30, or 45 mins away depending on which town, we chose the 45min drive due to it having better shops!) and we were about 10ish minutes away from Northam before mum noticed the car was running hot, long story short, the radiator cap was missing (it wasn't when we left so maybe it flew off during road-works?) when we got out to check on it, some lovely dudes pulled over and tried to help us by pouring water into it when it was running and oil began to spit out of it and it looks all shit... when I'm on my phone I can attach a photo of the radiator if anyone wants to have a look for whatever reason...

---CAR ISSUE PART DONE---

So now we're worried because that was our only working car (we have a Black Holden Colarado ute which has something wrong with the battery terminals, I have no idea with cars so... oof) and now we're sort of stranded for now until we get a mechanic to have a look at it and that's not until Monday.

My mum wants to go big or go home with a car since we're thinking of selling a large New Holland tractor, she would like a GWM car, something about a "Jolion" is what she's really after, whereas I'm not sure if we can cover those expenses (she gets $669 from my allowance and she also is on disability pension) so I just wanted to ask some people about their opinions on this?

Is it best to get a loan for this (if so how do car loans work? I'm just worried about going into debt since I don't want to live with my mum forever) or is it best to dip into savings for this? (If so, I don't have nearly enough, I got like $5.3K and my mum has $0 in savings).

Thank you guys.

---UNRELATED RAMBLES, SKIP THIS IT'S UNIMPORTANT!---

Unrelated, but if I could drive (she won't let me drive because she doesn't want me to break the car but at the same time she also doesn't want me to not drive because she's had strokes in the past and wants me not to be stranded) I'd want a hearse. I freaking love hearse's so bad, I'd love to put a coffin in one and then have a skeleton propped up in it so anyone driving behind me just about shits their pants lmao.