Living/Working Overseas (In Singapore?) while investing in Australia.

[yo yo ma]

One of the best books you can buy as an expat is "The Aussie Expat - The Luckiest Person on Earth" written by Steve Douglas. It answered many of our questions.

This is the website www.smats.net

Thanks for the link NSW... I have just spent the past few days going over the site and it is really an essential read for every Australian working overseas. I have seen Paul Clitheroe advertising the website on the Australia Network.

You see the contents page of the book on the Amazon site- $US20 + postage
Also sold at SMATS- $S38 delivered or
Aussie Property for $US25 delivered.

I have posted more info, including a link to a podcast, on this thread.

 

[daniellee]

Bump!

I found this interesting thread and was wondering if the situation has changes since 2008.

My wife (Australian) and I will be relocating to Singapore for a period of time (potentially for a number of years). We have two properties in a Family Trust and will continue to invest in Australia.

My understanding is that Aussie banks (and their Singapore based branches) will lend based on foreign incomes up to 70-80% LVR. Is it correct to say we should be able to continue to obtain AUD loans to purchase Aust IPs using our Family Trust, with the only difference is that we wil be based in Singapore and earning in Singapore dollars?

My interest here is more on being able to continue to purchase our properties through our Trust, and keeping all the accounting and related tax issued (such as interest deductions) within the Trust.

Can anyone advise? Thanks.

Regards,

Daniel Lee

 

[starter]

You can get higher LVR as well, I've gotten a couple at 90% with no big issue. This depends on the lender though and their policy on overseas income, but most are pretty good about it. Commercial loans are a big more difficult though and expect a higher rate than if you're in Aus.

My advise would be that things just take longer though, so factor that into your timeframe.

 

[Aaron_C]

Australian PRs or Citizens who work overseas are no problem, even up to 95% LVR. The key thing is the residency status and the currency which it is earned in. Stick to major currencies like USD, GBP etc.

 

[daniellee]

Hi Starter and Aaron_C,

Thanks for the info. Like I said, our approach is to keep investing via the Family Trust so all the rental income, associated accounting and taxation stays within.

The important thing is the the loan needs to be under the appropriate entity, which is the Trust.Also, we will also be able to use Forex and investing with an AUD or SGD loan.

Found out through my wife's work that the ATO has listed forex rates that it will accept on a monthly basis, so even if we take up a SGD loan, we just have to provide the ATO accepted Forex rate to our accountant to convert the SGD interest back to AUD when processing the yearly tax file.

Of course if I have misunderstood this, then someone please let me know.

Once again, thanks.

Regards.

Daniel