You’ve done it! You’ve secured your PPOR (principal place of residence) after a long fought and arduous process that involved securing finance, carefully sifting through the properties available in your area of choice and all the bits and bobs associated with purchasing a home. But what happens when your hard work into your PPOR sees it become a funding base for your forever home?
When the PPOR shoe drops
You’ve bought your first home and put hard work, blood, sweat, tears and maybe even a few beers into getting it up to scratch. Your principal goal is to turn this property around and use it to fund your forever home.
But once this ‘unique’ piece of residence stops becoming your principal place of residence and starts becoming your investment (that being – once you move out and either tenants move in or you prepare to sell it) you can be hit with a significant amount of taxes as well as all manner of other hurdles.
How do we minimise costs when we move away from our PPOR?
You are definitely going to be hit with higher taxes once you change your PPOR. The most salient advice that can be given here is to work closely with your real estate representation to gain their world of knowledge and to look for ways and means to avoid paying more than you should.
Consider this scenario – you’ve turned your first home into a rental property and moved forward into throwing yourself into your ‘forever home’. There are a plethora of taxes and legal mumbo jumbo to wade through when it comes to this particular scenario. Your property representation and mortgage broker will be able to help you muddle your way out of this mess.
You have rates to consider as well as water charges (depending on where you live) in addition to the general upkeep involved in owning a rental property. Working closely with professionals will help iron out some of these wrinkles and put you in good stead when it comes to hanging onto the vast majority of your cash as your investment begins to pay off.
What if it all goes wrong?
No investment is guaranteed. When you move away from your PPOR into your forever home, you’re opening yourself up to a world of uncertainty. Will your tenants pay? Will your investment fail? Will you be able to sustain yourselves if things fall apart? These are questions to consider as there is no certainty that you will be able to negotiate this tricky time.
Our overall Queensland Property Experts tip? Talk to the professionals!
