Buying a property in Australia

Posted by macca36 (341 days ago)

I am Australian looking at buying an investment property in Australia. I would like to seek advice as to whether it is better to borrow money from Hong Kong or Australia. What pros and cons are there for each. Interested to hear what other people have done.

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Posted by Saikunga (341 days ago)

Where are you looking? Avoid NSW if you can...too much property tax there.

Borrowing in Aus or HK dollars??
Exchange rate is always a problem. We have one mortgage in Aussie dollars but we have Australian dollar income that pays it off - so not affected by the exhchange rate.

Have another mortgage in HKD on property in Australia - no problems with exhchange rates at the moment, the interest rate is lower than Australia, and it is a switchable loan which means if and when Australias dollar weakens, and interest rates drop we can if we want to, to change to Australian dollar mortgage payments.

Posted by jarrah (337 days ago)

Saikunga, that means your mortgage would've increased by almost 10% last friday alone. Got to be crazy to be in HKD for Aus property at the moment, long term it only has one way to go!

Posted by Saikunga (337 days ago)

We are not paying off the house in Australia with HKD - we mortgaged the place to buy in HK - with HKD, and HK interest.

Excuse my ignorance - what happened last Friday?
Did it have to do with the stockmarket stuff?? I have noticed that thankfully the Australian dollar has dropped - phew.

Posted by shovel (337 days ago)

http://www.hkfinanceholdings.com or call Paul Morton on 6056 6836 and tell him Steve suggested you call him - Paul knows his stuff and has investment property off-plan or completed available in NE Queensland at the moment.

Agree with Saikunga about NSW, although there are ways to structure yourself to avoid paying too much tax.

Posted by jarrah (337 days ago)

[Have another mortgage in HKD on property in Australia - no problems with exhchange rates at the moment, the interest rate is lower than Australia, and it is a switchable loan which means if and when Australias dollar weakens, and interest rates drop we can if we want to, to change to Australian dollar mortgage payments.]

I figured you had switched your Aussie mortgage into HKD in which case last week would have hurt. Not sure what exact setup you have but if your borrowing in currency you want that currency to weaken (ie AUD to strengthen) to reduce your debt.

In one week leading up to last friday the AUD fell 10% against the HKD, from $6.74 down to $6.12.

Posted by Saikunga (336 days ago)

We are protected against all that stuff - and VERY thankful the dollar dropped!