There are a few things to understand with NRAS approved properties; there are some great advantages as well as some minor disadvantages.
Finance- there are very few lenders who treat them as acceptable security, so loan options are limited. That doesn't mean its impossible though. t just means your choices are more limited. This is simply because of the 10 year "leaseback" agreement under which the NRAS operates, which lenders view as effectively the same / similar to pooled management agreements attached to serviced apartments and holiday units etc. There are only a small number of lenders who will lend against them, and usually only to about 70% LVR at best. Thats not necessarily a problem if you have lots of equity elsewhere that you can draw on to make up the 30% plus costs. It would exclude many people without that equity though, so NRAS is best suited to investors with good equity and lower gearing. High gearing investors would be better off looking at other property types where lenders will still advance 90%LVR.
Rental Income and property management costs - the properties MUST be managed by a Govt nominated organisation in each state. Expect to pay approximately 10-12% property management costs though, and you cant choose to manage the property yourself or through a cheaper real estate agent. You receive 75% of market rental plus an annual tax free concession ( currently $8800 I believe).
The housing estate/ghetto effect- NRAS properties are built in the same estates as any other new stock, and cannot exceed more than 10% ratio in any development. This means that you can have ten identical houses on a street, and only one of them will be NRAS approved. This ensures there is no ghetto effect.
Bottom Line- Its impossible to speculate about capital gain, but at least holding costs can be determined more accurately, so lets compare a brand new 400K NRAS approved property located near a brand new 400K non NRAS approved property. (they could be the same floor plan on the same sized lot, on the same street)
NRAS rental income (assume 5.5% yield) - 22K x 75% - $16,500
NRAS cashback tax free $8800
NRAS management fees - $16500 x 12% - $1980 annually
Total INCOME $23,320 ( $8800 of which is tax free)
Non NRAS rental ( assuming 5.5% yield) - $22K
Non NRAS management fees - ( assuming 6.6% management fee) $1452
Total INCOME $20,548 all taxable
You decide if that's worth looking into or not.