Pland Property

Directions Website Contact the business

Pland Property > Fresh perspective for property investors
> Property news, resources, blog
> Building your property investing team
> Smarter property investing

"About $100 a week out of pocket" gets quoted a lot. The useful question is what's inside it. Swipe for a checklist to t...
23/10/2026

"About $100 a week out of pocket" gets quoted a lot. The useful question is what's inside it. Swipe for a checklist to take to your accountant and broker.

General information only, not tax advice.

The order does most of the work before you pick up a brush.Property works the same way. Most people start with the prope...
22/10/2026

The order does most of the work before you pick up a brush.

Property works the same way. Most people start with the property and try to fit the finance around it. We start with the plan, structure the finance to suit it, and only then look for the property. Same goals, same budget; the order is what makes it fit.

Equity can feel like money that's just sitting there. Here's how it actually works, with rounded numbers.Figures are an ...
20/10/2026

Equity can feel like money that's just sitting there. Here's how it actually works, with rounded numbers.

Figures are an example only. Lender rules and valuations vary.

A quick thread through the last two weeks: a rate rise that a strategy-first structure is built to absorb rather than re...
15/10/2026

A quick thread through the last two weeks: a rate rise that a strategy-first structure is built to absorb rather than react to.

A growing number of clients planning fifteen years out rather than "someday," working alongside their accountant rather than in isolation from them.

And more commercial and SMSF enquiries, met with the same process as everything else. Strategy before product, regardless of what the product turns out to be.

None of it changes the sequence. It's just more situations it's been tested against.

If any of this sounds like where you're at, a Property Investment Strategy session is the place to start.

More commercial and SMSF enquiries lately hasn't changed how any of this works here. The strategy step still comes first...
13/10/2026

More commercial and SMSF enquiries lately hasn't changed how any of this works here. The strategy step still comes first, whether the outcome ends up being a standard home loan, an SMSF-held commercial purchase, or something else entirely.

It would be easy to let a trend dictate the conversation by leading with "have you thought about commercial" because enquiries are up. That's product-first thinking.

The question is still the same one it's always been: what does the finance need to achieve, do the numbers work, involve your accountant to run these, and what structure gets it there.

A shift worth noting: SMSF investment for commercial property enquiries have picked up. This follows recent changes bann...
11/10/2026

A shift worth noting: SMSF investment for commercial property enquiries have picked up. This follows recent changes banning SMSF from entering into new Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangements to purchase residential property.

I'm seeing is more clients asking about commercial as an SMSF-held option now that residential isn't on the table the way it was.

What I'd flag before anyone gets too far down that road: commercial lending isn't residential lending with a different label. The serviceability tests, the loan-to-value ratios lenders will offer, and the loan terms available are all different, and they need to be understood before the strategy step, not discovered after.

Even for investing via a SMSF, the order of operations does not change. The strategy gets worked out before the structure gets chosen, not after someone's already decided commercial is the answer.

A client in their early 40s came in wanting to know if an investment property made sense as part of their longer-term re...
11/10/2026

A client in their early 40s came in wanting to know if an investment property made sense as part of their longer-term retirement plans.

That's not a question I answer, it was one for them and their accountant.

What I did was sit alongside both of them while the cash flow got modelled against two goals at once: keep paying extra off their own home, ahead of schedule, while still getting into an investment property without one goal eating into the other.

A pattern worth naming: more of the people I'm talking to lately are in their early to mid 40s, with equity in their hom...
08/10/2026

A pattern worth naming: more of the people I'm talking to lately are in their early to mid 40s, with equity in their home but not actively investing yet, and retirement has just become visible enough on the horizon to change how they think about the next decade.

The conversation isn't "should I buy an investment property" - that's a question for them, their financial advisor and their accountant, not me. What I'm doing is the finance and structuring piece once that decision is being modelled: sequencing a purchase so it doesn't compromise serviceability for the next one, and coordinating with their accountant on the numbers rather than working in isolation from them.

It's the same order of operations as always. The horizon has just moved from "someday" to "roughly fifteen years," which changes what a sound structure actually needs to do.

Lenders have passed on the latest rate rise. I'm not going to do the post where I tell you what that means for your repa...
06/10/2026

Lenders have passed on the latest rate rise. I'm not going to do the post where I tell you what that means for your repayments.

What's worth saying instead: a structure built with strategy-first is tested by moments like this, not broken by them.

Every borrowing capacity we work out is tested against a buffer rate above what you're actually paying, specifically so a rise like this one doesn't change the plan.

The part of this job that doesn't get talked about enough: recommending a client not to buy.When a purchase does go ahea...
05/10/2026

The part of this job that doesn't get talked about enough: recommending a client not to buy.

When a purchase does go ahead, it can be led by a vetted buyer's advocate from our partner network - or you can represent yourself, with the confidence of a clear plan and the research already done behind your next move.

But just as often, the right call is to wait. To walk away from a property that doesn't fit the numbers, or doesn't fit the plan, even if it fits the budget.

That's a harder thing to say than "approved." It's also the only version of this worth trusting.

Address

Geelong, VIC

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Pland Property posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Pland Property:

Shortcuts

Sponsored

Share

Category