From delivering property investment finance strategies to trusted property partner.

We welcome you to Portfolios. When it comes to property investment and finance you can rely on us as a great source of knowledge, real life wisdom, cutting edge information as well as a sound community base of active property people to help you grow your property portfolio.

With Portfolios - Property... Make it Happen

Headline> Are You Paying Too Much Tax?
Welcome to the end of the 09/10 Financial Year.
Paying tax is something we all need to do but none of us like to do.
Next tax time you could be adopting legitimate tax minimisation strategies reducing your tax burden whilst building a strong investment property portfolio.
Find out how…
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Before reading this article you should always seek proper, independent financial advice before making any investment decision.
With tax time looming we will all be doing our tax returns and probably realising one thing – we are paying too much tax.
Tax is not a bad thing – someone has to pay for our roads, schools and other infrastructure, but there are legitimate ways to reduce your tax by using the money for something more worthwhile like building an investment property portfolio.
We get questions all the time – how can you own a property for under $30 per week? Why so little?
Well one strategy is Negative Gearing.
<sub head> What Is Negative Gearing?
Negative gearing strategy in Australia is motivated by our tax regime, which allows deduction of ongoing losses against taxed income. This is further offset by taxing capital gains at a lower rate.
This might sound complicated but in reality it isnt.
<Sub Head> How It Works!
You purchase a property and incur costs on that property – these costs include third party expenses, loan interest and set up costs.
If the costs on the property are greater than the (rental) income generated you will technically be incurring a loss on that investment.
But the story continues…
<sub head> You Earn An Income? This Is How It works
In Australia the losses made on property are able to be weighted against your taxable income.
You will need to have a clear picture of your costs versus income to know your losses – costs include depreciation, setup costs, mortgage costs and interest, ongoing maintenance and property costs such as rates. Just like your personal income – you can claim anything that contributes to the generation of income in your property.
All Portfolios properties come to you with a clear understanding of the costs involved so you make an educated decision on the potential for negative gearing of the property before purchasing.
Your capacity to cover the loss is an important factor in determining the right deal.
<sub head> So If It Is  A Loss Why Do It?
There are a number of reasons why people consider negative gearing as an option for their property investment strategy from straight tax minimisaton through to the great investment returns to be made on the property.
Many of the Portfolios properties are expected to return in excess of 250% return on investment giving you some of the best returns in any market.
Property is a great investment, but like any investment there is risk and you should seek proper independent financial advice.
Talk to Portfolios and see how we can help you make those steps to a future in property investment.

Welcome to the end of the 09/10 Financial Year.

Paying tax is something we all need to do but none of us like to do.

Next tax time you could be adopting legitimate tax minimisation strategies reducing your tax burden whilst building a strong investment property portfolio.

Find out how…

Renovating an investment property for income gains, if done well, is one of the single most satisfying and financially rewarding things you could achieve in property investment.

In this second article we give you further insight into making property renovation a great opportunity for you.

Renovating For Profit
You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.
All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.
But what happened to making the dream a reality?
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Portfolios is proud to be associated with Cherie Barber and Stephen Tolle and the Renovating For Profit team. It is a unique community of people that buy houses, do them up and sell them – for a living. The amazing thing about this community is it is made up of ordinary Australians like you and me. There are some who wouldn’t dare put a lick of paint on a wall or pretend to be the carpet layer, tiler, sparky and plumber all in one.
In fact most of these people are simply great project managers, I will come back to that later.
Renovating property is a rewarding experience that, given the right tools, structure, strategy and financial platform, will give you a very fulfilling career or some extra income.
I personally complete 2 -3 projects per year, look after the Portfolios group businesses and along with meeting our wonderful clients that is my plan. Business will give you a lifestyle, your deals will give you your financial wealth.
(sub headline) So how can I help?
When looking into renovation project there are plenty of aspects to consider.
The main 3 are: Structure, Strategy and Finance, other fine print considerations for you could be:
1. What is your exit strategy?
Are you going to renovate and hold or renovate and sell?
Always be prepared when you have to hang onto the property that you have the capacity to hold via income or equity.
2. What is your costs and profit margin?
Understand the kind of gains you can make and manage your improvements accordingly. Knowing your numbers for buy, renovation and end sales price are critical to success.
4. What improvements/ works do you need to make?
Are you just making cosmetic changes or major structrual or even extending the property?
Firstly make sure you can make the changes you want to – check with council and look at similar properties.
Your due diligence is your chosen area will make sure you know what is desired and the end sale price for delivering that to the market.
As you make more an more deals this job will get easier because you will be able to estimate better yourself. But in the mean time surround yourself with professionals. Dont be afraid you will be helping their businesses too.
5. What is your contingency?
I see too many developers, renovators and property investors that come in with a conservative estimate on improvement works and do not consider an contingencies.
Lets face it there are many and varied factors to property projects, allow in your plan to cater for these.
6. Become A Project Manager
Project management 101 – manage your project closely – watch your progress, scope and budgets.
Timing is also critical so use a program to manage day to day activities who is where when – what needs to be completed to allow other works to take place on site. And like your contingency build buffers into your program – rain delays, holidays, slack contractors.
7.  With each deal it gets easier
When I started out – like all of us – I made mistakes but in each case I have learnt far more from them,now I have the privilege of helping people avoid the mistakes I made, saving them valuable time and money.
There are aspects of this business that you will always rely on others to solve for you but increasingly you will be able to take on aspects of the deal yourself based on your growing knowledge – you will become more astute and will see potential everywhere.
(sub headline) Financing The Deal
So the deal looks good and you have done your due diligence, what now.
Make the time to work with the Portfolios Team on your plan, whats possible, the project, structure, strategy and then we can work on finance options.
We can even show you strategies how to finance the deal using other people’s money and time.
First things first complete our Portfolio Review and we will work with you through the steps to becoming that Professional Property person.
Make It Happen – you’ll love it.
Paul Pritchett

You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.

All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.

But what happened to making the dream a reality?

Property Investment Continues To Grow – Despite Mortgage Downturn
Property investors are continuing to grow in numbers despite an overall mortgages decline across Australia on the back of successive interest rate rises.
We look at why this is the case…
Portfolios is part of Australia’s largest independent brokerage network Australian Finance Group (AFG).
Throughout March, April, and likely to continue in May, AFG confirms the emergence of a two tier mortgage market, with the proportion of investors surging as sales to owner occupiers decline.
Property investors accounted for 36.9% of all mortgages arranged in April, the highest such figure AFG has ever recorded.  This compares with 10.2% for first home buyers and 16.3% for up-graders.
The remaining mortgages in April, 36.6%, were for refinancing purposes.
(Sub Headline) Why The Confidence in the Investment Property Market?
In our opinion there are a number of reasons to be confident in the Australian property market, we offer some below and welcome your comments:
* The volatility in the share markets always serves as a reminder of the stability and strength offered through a property portfolio.
* When company profits fall dividends stop – amongst all of this property investors continue to take in rental income experience changes on an anualised basis not day by day.
* Property investors – buy and hold particularly – are long term investors – minor fluctuations in the market – and they tend to be minor in Australia – do not pose a threat to long term investors
* The Australian population continues to grow at rates outstripping the supply of housing
* Australian lenders continue to operate on the conservative side of the market meaning there is confidence in the capacity for Australians to repay their debt – unlike the scenarios witnessed in the American sub-prime market collapse. See the comment by Paul Braddick below.
* Rents are continuing to climb across most markets regional and metropolitan meaning investors can get in and hang on for longer.
(Sub Headline) Property Investors Still Making Money
Property investors are continuing to see potential in the Australian property market, particularly in key market areas such as rural mining communities, growth cities such as SE Qld and Brisbane. Major growth centres, or smaller towns receiving substantial financial and infrastructure investment are good bets.
This is not so obvious as in the resource rich state of Queensland where property prices in the mining communities are still reasonable and rentals are beginning to climb even on the back of the existing investment.
(Sub Headline) Confidence Amongst Bankers
Paul Braddick, Head of Property and Financial System Research is upbeat about the state of the housing market and is cautious when discussing the need for deleveraging of debt in the market place.
Braddick says “Economy wide debt to income ratios, gearing ratios and even debt service ratios tell us little about the underlying sustainability of household debt. The distribution of debt across the household sector, lending criteria applied and the strength of the labour markets are far more telling for debt sustainability.”
“Relative to offshore  experience, lending into the Australian household sector has remained very conservative.  This is reflected in the virtual absence of a sub-prime mortgage market and extremely low delinquency and default rates.”
Braddick’s sentiments are echoed across the banking sector.
What Next?
Braddick sums it up well:
“In the near term, Australia’s growth prospects are bright and much will depend on the RBA and government’s ability to effectively manage the expansion. Higher household debt means the RBA has considerable leverage over the household sector and their actions during the GFC should instill confidence that the present upswing in growth will be handled well”
Source AFG Mortgage Index April 2010.
Source ANZ Australian Housing Update April 21 2010

Despite Mortgage Downturn

Property investors are continuing to grow in numbers despite an overall decline in the number of mortgages across Australia on the back of successive interest rate rises.

We look at why this is the case…

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