onthebeach,
In my area in the deep North hosing is out of control. When the Goss crowd took over they sold off most of the the departmental accommodation. Then, only a couple of years later they were forced to rent from those whom they sold the accommodation to for peanuts. Because bureaucrats have no conscience they began paying whatever was asked because , after all, Government can afford it. We now have a situation where Government employee housing ist $865./week for one side of a duplex. Private rentals are as high as $1800/week. Needless to say that ordinary workers can not afford to rent so they're simply leaving. That makes way for contractor mates of our conscience devoid bureau rats to fly in-out at massive cost to you, the taxpayers. My gut feeling is that this situation will explode soon as it it too much out of hand. The only real winners are the bureaucrats & Qantas. Platinum frequent flyer points are like confetti here, all at your expense. When will you wake up ?

Jayb, those guys will liable to pay CGT should they sell and the rent they nominally pay each other is taxable income.

Your home is not subject to CGT, only investments.

individual,

A high price might be possible once for a house for instance where some new industry such as a mine is established, but inevitably its value will track behind inflation. No 'ifs' or 'buts' to that.

Of course there are many instances where the bottom rapidly falls out of the market when developers move in quickly to take advantage, or the world prices for ore plateau or recede and rental houses are vacant.

Those 'in the know' are the speculators who chance high returns from re-zonings. They are by definition very few in number and are far from representative of the thousands of aspirational mums and dads who 'invest' in rental housing. There are thousands who make squat and not because they don't put their hard work and scrimping and saving into it.

Go to a meeting of the local property investors, or simply drive by to see the very modest means obvious in the people there, their ten year old faded Hyundais and sombre dials. Or maybe slope into one of those 'investment' property sites, where the real estate agents and investment seminar spruikers promote false belief of 'doubling in value' every X years, but never mention such minor details as the costs of holding and maintaining the property.

'Greedy landlords making a killing out of flea pits' are like 'sexed-up drunken students' and other stereotypes peddled by lazy shock jocks and tabloids to sell an audience, one wonders where the myths ever started.

Aw come on, ordinary mums and dads, can buy positively geared property, to pay for the tin lid's education!
And if buying a positively geared house, with no deposit, that the tenants pay off, is not good enough for that (often misrepresented) purpose.
Then, we really can say, you're not just a greedy bar steward, but incredibly dumb as well!
Or alternatively, believe everyone else out there in mugsville is!
Simply put, those whose income is so great as to need protection in some sort of ONSHORE TAX HAVEN, negative gearing, family trusts etc, JUST JUST DON'T NEED ANY HELP FROM THE TAXPAYER, to pay for anything, least of all, the tin lid's education, or gold plated super!
They probably already enjoy many of the privileges of incorporation and are able to write off the Lear jets and the limousines!
Moreover, I have yet to met the self made man, you know the one born in the log cabin, hewed from the wilderness, with his on two bare hands!
Everyone else got the right breaks, inherited wealth, and were in the right place at the right time, when serendipity was bestowing favors.
An uncle, who was one of the original coco cola shareholders, married into wealth.
The fact that she had a face only a mother could love, (looked like the south end of a north bound camel) didn't trouble him.
Rich people just don't get rich by themselves, and often are able to employ people to do their critical thinking for them, so they grow richer. That doesn't bother me one iota!
Good luck to them!
But when they ask ordinary mums and dads to pitch in and pay part of a fair tax liability, that's when I get as mad as hell, and want to tell them, I'm just not going to take it anymore.
Pay your own fair share R Soul!
Come on, many entities, with annual budgets bigger than many sovereign nations; pay no company tax to anyone?
Rhrosty.

Luciferase: those guys will liable to pay CGT should they sell and the rent they nominally pay each other is taxable income.

Thanks. Another Internet myth bites the dust.

When I moved in with my present wife I rented my house out. I went to the Tax office & asked the Question. (Back in the 80's.) The Tax bloke said, "If I earned under $12500 & didn't claim expenses, it was deemed a hobby & they weren't interested."

Later I did claim because I had a run of bad Tenants & it cost me a fortune to fix the house up again. The Negative Gearing was definitely worthwhile claiming in that case.

Rhosty, "And if buying a positively geared house, with no deposit, that the tenants pay off, is not good enough for that (often misrepresented) purpose. Then, we really can say, you're not just a greedy bar steward, but incredibly dumb as well!"

The government itself with all of its resources and access to free (from other departments) legal and economic advice dumped its housing tenants onto the private market because it could not manage them itself.

In the private market there is a constant churn of small mums and dads 'investors' and not because they are making a profit.

The mums and dads rental property 'investors' were forced there by federal governments intent on returning the costs of old age, the age pension in particular, to the aged themselves.

After a lifetime of poor returns from their rental house, those aged will be surprised to find that the federal government has won on the swings and on the roundabout too. Any profit on the house is taxed and reduces their pension as well, and they are still up for the crippling regular large repairs and maintenance expenses. To top it off with a large dollop of double cream, government hasn't had to manage the impossible, namely demanding welfare housing tenants, either.

Enough of that though, with your glowing assessment of the certainty of golden windfall returns from rental housing and the ease of investing in it, you must own squillions of it, Rhosty. So what about some details on that portfolio of yours for the instruction of all of the lesser mortals? Or are you in real estate sales, where myths are spruiked by oily white shoe REAs who live on the edge, and some unfortunate rental house 'investor' learns his error through decades of sad experience?