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With the negative gearing and CGT changes now law, the property industry is racing to devise workarounds to keep investor interest alive. As a genuinely independent, asset-class-agnostic firm with no bias toward property, Stuart puts six of the most likely strategies under the microscope, because to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The starting point: under the new rules, the after-tax internal rate of return on established property falls from around 11% to 8.4%. Can any lever claw that back? Stuart works through chasing a higher rental yield (and why starting gross yield is what matters), gearing less to reach neutral (which, counterintuitively, drags returns lower), and using a company structure to preserve deductions (a Part IVA minefield). He examines new-build dwellings that retain the old concessions, small-scale development, and high-yield specialised property like NDIS and co-living.

His verdict is refreshingly blunt: none of these currently stack up, and commercial property looks overpriced too. The real lesson? When someone promotes a clever workaround, check whether they have a vested interest, and remember property was never the only game in town.

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?

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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 at pivotal moments. "John," 55 and five years cancer-free, has $800k from selling an investment property and a detailed plan for a downsizer contribution, an experiences fund, helping both daughters into homes and one big question: will his super comfortably fund $100k a year in retirement? Stuart stress-tests the numbers and the strategy.

"Chris," 44, lays out a layered plan involving an SMSF property, an investment property and a granny flat, and asks whether it's solid or whether he should be more aggressive now. "Brenton," a high-income earner still driving two ten-year-old Toyotas, poses a refreshingly human dilemma: what financial principles should guide spending on a depreciating-but-essential asset like a car—and how much splurging is genuinely defensible after years of sacrifice?

Finally, "Bob," 38 with strong surplus cash flow, asks three sharp questions many listeners share: should new assets go into his name, his wife's, or a family trust given their income gap? Hold or sell an interstate Queensland property after a strong run? And at his age, gear into undervalued Melbourne property, debt-recycle into ETFs, or simply kill the mortgage first?

Practical, numbers-driven answers throughout.

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.

Rule 7 in Investopoly was direct: only invest in investment-grade property. Eight years on, the core of that still holds, but Stuart has sharpened the method and genuinely changed his mind about one part of it.

In this episode, he explains why Wealth by Design reframes the rule from "invest in investment-grade property" to something more demanding: own property with enduring, scarce and growing demand. It's a shift from a label to a test—what makes an asset something people will always want, and keep wanting, decades from now.

Stuart is candid about the one 2018 position he's since reversed: the old line that it's "never a bad time to buy." He now believes price and cycle matter more than he once allowed, and explains why. He introduces the idea of buying for the future buyer rather than today's, choosing property whose appeal will still be scarce and sought-after when you eventually sell.

He closes with a simple forced-hold test you can run on any property this week, a quick way to pressure-test whether what you own or are about to buy truly has demand that endures.

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.