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Quarantining negative gearing doesn't just reduce a tax benefit; it can blow a hole in an investor's cash flow. Take a property with a $30,000 annual shortfall: previously, offsetting that loss might have clawed back $12,000–$14,000 in tax, bringing the real cost to around $16,000–$18,000. Now that loss must be carried forward, potentially for 10 to 20 years, leaving the investor to fund the full $30,000 upfront. For many, that makes established property simply unaffordable.
In this episode, Stuart explores a financing structure to bridge that gap, borrowing the negative gearing benefit you no longer receive upfront, and repaying it when the deferred deduction is eventually realised. The goal is to align your cash outlay with the timing of the tax benefit, rather than paying years ahead of it. Crucially, it also frees investors to focus on asset quality rather than chasing yield in inferior locations.
He's characteristically balanced: this isn't a case for property over shares (which remain more effective), the numbers involve real trade-offs (a higher return but roughly 15% less wealth in dollar terms), and it demands equity, discipline and the right temperament. Get personalised tax and credit advice before acting.
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Over the years we've written hundreds of articles. These three bring our best thinking together on the topics that matter most right now: choosing a super fund, debt recycling, and navigating the new tax changes.
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My new book, Wealth by Design, is out now:
Buy online or in bookstores. The ebook is available now, audiobook coming soon.
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Important
This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.

Four listeners bring sharp, forward-looking questions. "Tony" wonders whether super recontribution strategies, used to cut the taxable component and reduce death benefit tax, could be the next target for a budgetary hatchet, and asks for Stuart's view without giving the government any ideas.
An anonymous listener, 37, mortgage-free on a rural Victorian property with $300k in cash, feels he's at a genuine crossroads: use a buyer's agent to acquire an inner-Melbourne house and hold, or aggressively invest into ETFs and super toward a $120k perpetual income? Stuart weighs the two paths. Tom, 36, with seven properties and a fast-growing portfolio, asks whether to keep buying with his available equity, whether his ETF choices stack up, whether to sell some property to build shares, and whether to diversify his property-only SMSF into something like VGS.
Finally, Alf poses an intriguing technical question: can you recycle equity from a grandfathered, pre-Budget investment property to buy new assets, and still negatively gear the newly drawn interest, since the underlying property isn't subject to the new rules?
Practical thinking on structure and sequencing throughout, with the usual reminder these are general discussions, not personal advice.
Our most popular free guides:
Over the years we've written hundreds of articles. These three bring our best thinking together on the topics that matter most right now: choosing a super fund, debt recycling, and navigating the new tax changes.
Download them here
My new book, Wealth by Design, is out now:
Buy online or in bookstores. The ebook is available now, audiobook coming soon.
Got a question for the podcast?
Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au
Interested in working with our team?
Discover how we can work together
Subscribe to my weekly blog:
Stay connected here
Important
This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.

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Melbourne has tested investors' patience like nowhere else. Its median house price has grown just 1.8% a year since early 2017, below inflation, meaning that, in real terms, property is cheaper today than it was almost a decade ago. Naturally, investors want someone to blame. But in this episode, Stuart argues the usual suspects are largely wrong.
Victoria's land tax regime, tenancy reforms and ballooning state debt get cited endlessly, and Stuart doesn't dismiss them. Still, he shows why the links to prices are weaker than they appear (in one case, buying another Brisbane property triggered a higher land tax bill than going to Melbourne). 
The real driver, he contends, is what came before: an almost uninterrupted 20-year boom from 1997 to 2016, unmatched by any capital city in 45 years of data. The longer the boom, the longer the correction needed to work off the gap.
Using a declining long-run growth benchmark, Stuart's analysis puts Melbourne houses around 21% below trend and apartments 29%, the clear outlier while Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth run well ahead. With replacement costs now exceeding market values, he makes the case Melbourne may be intrinsically undervalued, and explains how to think about whether to hold or sell.
Our most popular free guides:
Over the years we've written hundreds of articles. These three bring our best thinking together on the topics that matter most right now: choosing a super fund, debt recycling, and navigating the new tax changes.
Download them here
My new book, Wealth by Design, is out now:
Buy online or in bookstores. The ebook is available now, audiobook coming soon.
Got a question for the podcast?
Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au
Interested in working with our team?
Discover how we can work together
Subscribe to my weekly blog:
Stay connected here
Important
This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.

Six listeners grapple with how the new tax landscape reshapes their thinking. Nick, six years into regular ETF investing, asks whether to keep his current setup or start fresh for cleaner record-keeping, and whether a trust is now worth considering mid-journey. Matthew and Michael both probe the fine print: does the "property in a company" strategy become more attractive under a 30% minimum CGT rate, and does debt recycling for an IP deposit still preserve deductible interest?
Michelle explores buying a one-bedroom apartment as tenants in common with her 25-year-old daughter, using gifted shares as a deposit, plus whether capital gains can be directed into super. Danny lays out an ambitious Canberra-based portfolio and asks the big question: can he realistically achieve a $2.5M Perth home and a $200k perpetual retirement income within ten years without dismantling what he's built?
Finally, Daniel wants the rules around accessing super at 60 while continuing to work, what "retirement" actually requires, how brief a pause counts, whether a younger working spouse matters, and where transition-to-retirement fits.
Structural nuance throughout, with the usual reminder these are general discussions, not personal advice.
Our most popular free guides:
Over the years we've written hundreds of articles. These three bring our best thinking together on the topics that matter most right now: choosing a super fund, debt recycling, and navigating the new tax changes.
Download them here
My new book, Wealth by Design, is out now:
Buy online or in bookstores. The ebook is available now, audiobook coming soon.
Got a question for the podcast?
Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au
Interested in working with our team?
Discover how we can work together
Subscribe to my weekly blog:
Stay connected here
Important
This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.

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It's been fascinating to watch how differently asset classes have performed lately, share markets delivering strong double-digit returns while unlisted commercial property trusts and residential property in Melbourne and Sydney have struggled.
But this episode isn't about which asset class wins. It's about something quietly more important: liquidity, and the optionality it buys you.
Liquidity is how quickly and cheaply you can turn an asset into cash without disruption, and crucially, it's not about whether you expect to need cash, but whether you can access it if your circumstances, your view, or the risks change. 
Campbell makes the balanced case for both sides. Liquid, listed assets let you invest gradually, rebalance with new capital, manage concentration, and control your tax timing, but they also make it dangerously easy to act on emotion. 
Illiquid assets can protect you from your own worst instincts and give you control over the asset itself, but you don't really know what they're worth until you sell, and "liquid" unlisted funds can freeze redemptions exactly when it matters.
The real insight? The right level of liquidity shifts across your lifetime, and knowing when illiquidity stops working for you is the key.
Our most popular free guides:
Over the years we've written hundreds of articles. These three bring our best thinking together on the topics that matter most right now: choosing a super fund, debt recycling, and navigating the new tax changes.
Download them here
My new book, Wealth by Design, is out now:
Buy online or in bookstores. The ebook is available now, audiobook coming soon.
Got a question for the podcast?
Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au
Interested in working with our team?
Discover how we can work together
Subscribe to my weekly blog:
Stay connected here
Important
This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.