House and Land Investment Packages on the Sunshine Coast

What Happens in the Gap Between Signing and Keys

A package is two contracts. Land first, then a build. Our Queensland page covers how the land settles and how progress payments run at state level, so this page starts where that one stops.

Most pages answering this query were written by the company selling the house. The houses may well be fine. What you won't find on those pages is an answer to the timing questions an investor has about warranty and tax.

Three clocks start in that gap. Different regulators, same problem. Every one of them is already running before you own a dwelling.

• The warranty clock. QBCC cover can start at the contract date, not at handover.
• The tax clock. Negative gearing for residential property is being limited to new builds from 1 July 2027 (ATO).
• The deduction clock. Capital works can't be claimed until construction is finished (ATO).

Your Warranty Cover Can Start Before the Slab Is Poured

The QBCC states that work is covered for 6 years 6 months from the date, whichever is earlier: you pay the premium, you agree to a contract, work starts.

Read that again. Cover can begin at contract. So on a long build, part of your structural cover can run down while the house is still going up, and nobody hands you a warning about it at handover.

There is some relief in the fine print. QBCC says the period of cover may be extended where the work takes longer than 6 months to complete. QBCC says may be. It doesn't say is. Don't plan around it.

The claim windows are tighter than most buyers expect.

• Structural defects: you have to first become aware of the defect within 6 years 6 months after the cover commencement day, and make the claim within 3 months after the day you first become aware of it.
• Non-structural defects: aware within 6 months after the day the work is substantially complete, claim within 7 months after that day.
• Non-completion where work started: the contract has to end within 2 years after the day work starts, and the claim has to be lodged within 3 months after the contract ends.
• Non-completion where work never started: within 2 years after the day the contract was entered into.
• QBCC's own time-limits page carries a last reviewed date of 23 Sep 2021. Check it against QBCC before you rely on any of these figures.

The 2027 Negative Gearing Change, and the Part That Isn't Settled

Negative gearing for residential property investments will be limited to new builds, applying from 1 July 2027. The ATO's page on the reform says 'These measures are now law.' The provision is Schedule 2 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, Act No. 49, which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026.

If you already hold property, the ATO says properties held at announcement, 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026, are exempt from the changes, and that 'The impact of these changes on existing investments will be limited.'

House and land sits in the category the law is narrowing toward, because negative gearing is being limited to new builds. That much comes straight from the ATO.

Now the part a builder's sales page tends to skip. What actually counts as a new build hasn't been defined yet. Treasury's Capital Gains Tax and Negative Gearing Tranche 2 legislation consultation was open as at August 2026. Until that lands, nobody can tell you a particular package or estate will qualify under the 2027 rules. FAA won't tell you that either, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

What the Build Can Be Deducted Against, and What the Land Can't

Capital works run at 2.5% a year for a building intended to be used for residential purposes or to produce income, where construction started on or after 16 September 1987. The ATO puts the arithmetic plainly: 'Two point 5 per cent means that you can claim deductions for 40 years.'

Timing catches people out. The ATO says 'You can start claiming capital works deductions only when construction of the relevant capital works is completed.' Nothing during the build.

The land side gives you nothing at all. The ATO says 'The land itself can't be written off and its cost isn't deductible.' You're signing two contracts. One is deductible across 40 years. The other one never is, and that split matters more on a package than on an established purchase.

Four details that decide how much of this you actually get.

• Second-hand assets: the ATO says 'In most cases you can't claim a deduction for second-hand depreciating assets after 1 July 2017.'
• Brand-new assets: decline in value can be claimed on depreciating assets that come with a brand-new property bought at or after 7:30pm AEST 9 May 2017, where nobody lived in it when you acquired it, or, if someone lived in it after it was built, you acquired it within 6 months of it being built.
• Evidence: construction costs need receipts or a report from an appropriately qualified person such as a quantity surveyor. The ATO says the purchase price of the building and land, the insured cost and the replacement cost can't be used as the construction cost.
• Capital gains: capital works expenses form part of the cost base of the property, so a capital works deduction has to be accounted for when you work out a capital gain or loss.

What Transfer Duty Costs You as an Investor

Queensland Revenue Office transfer duty rates, current as at 25 June 2026.

• Not more than $5,000: nil.
• Over $5,000 up to $75,000: $1.50 for each $100 over $5,000.
• $75,000 to $540,000: $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100 over $75,000.
• $540,000 to $1,000,000: $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100 over $540,000.
• More than $1,000,000: $38,025 plus $5.75 for each $100 over $1,000,000.

The Sunshine Coast Land Pipeline, With Dates Attached

Economic Development Queensland declared the Halls Creek Priority Development Area by regulation on 17 July 2026. It covers 1,231ha of land at Coochin Creek within the Sunshine Coast region, and it forms part of a Potential Future Growth Area identified in the South East Queensland Regional Plan.

EDQ says Halls Creek is envisaged to ultimately support the delivery of up to 12,000 new homes, subject to infrastructure, accommodating around 30,000 people, with up to 48ha of employment generating land and over 633 hectares of open and recreation space and environment protection areas. Envisaged and subject to infrastructure are EDQ's own words. Those are planning figures for what could be delivered.

Nearer term, EDQ says an early release area at Halls Creek is planned to deliver approximately 1,000 new homes, supporting housing supply in the short term. An Interim Land Use Plan has governed development applications there since 17 July 2026 while the Development Scheme is prepared, and public notification of the proposed scheme is anticipated to begin in September 2026.

South of that sits Caloundra South. EDQ records the PDA at 2,323.5ha, declared 28 October 2010, and says that once developed it will provide approximately 20,000 dwellings and create 15,000 jobs, with EDQ assessing every development application in it. Sunshine Coast Council describes the same PDA at approximately 2,360 hectares of greenfield land, intended to be developed over 30 to 40 years, accommodating up to 50,000 residents in 20,000 dwellings. The hectare figures differ because the two bodies publish different numbers. We've left them attributed to their own source rather than blending them.

Roads and boundaries have moved with it. Council says the first two stages of the Bells Creek arterial are complete, providing a connection from Caloundra Road to Baringa and Nirimba, and that it will ultimately connect to the Bruce Highway at Roys Road as a state-controlled road delivered under a separate infrastructure agreement with the Department of Transport and Main Roads. On 14 June 2019 the state altered the boundaries of the localities of Bells Creek and Meridan Plains and created a number of new localities within and adjacent to the PDA.

On population, Sunshine Coast Council reports 346,648 residents at June 2021 and projects up to 200,000 additional people over the 25 years to 2046, reaching over 540,000 residents. Council states those figures were last updated in May 2024 and are based on Queensland Government population projections, and notes that the next update was planned for 2025 and hasn't appeared. Treat them as 2024-vintage projections.

Maroochydore City Centre is a declared Priority Development Area as well, described as creating a new central business district for the Sunshine Coast, supporting economic development and building much needed infrastructure. FAA's office sits inside it.

What none of that tells you is what a property will be worth or rent for. Planned dwellings and projected residents are planned and projected. They aren't a forecast of price, rent, vacancy or yield, and we won't present them as one.

What FAA Can Say About Doing This Here, and What It Can't

FAA Property Pty Ltd holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading real estate licence 4220395, type Real Estate Agent, expiring 5 June 2027. That licence permits acting for buyers. The Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) s26 covers buying and negotiating for a client, and Queensland has no separate buyer's-agent licence class.

FAA has one office. Suite 3-7, Level 5, Tower 2, 55 Plaza Parade, Maroochydore QLD 4558, phone (07) 5327 3469. It's on the Sunshine Coast, which is why both claims hold here and don't hold in the same way anywhere else. FAA sources new-build, house-and-land and off-market investment property across South East Queensland, and manages residential investment property across the Sunshine Coast from that office.

The managed rent roll as at 5 August 2026 includes Maroochydore, Buderim, Sippy Downs and Nirimba. Nirimba is one of the localities the state created around the Caloundra South PDA in 2019, and FAA both manages and sells there.

One limit worth stating out loud. FAA's public for-sale feed doesn't advertise house and land packages. Package options come through the sourcing side, which is why the request button on this page goes to the Queensland packages page rather than a listing grid.

FAA Property earns a commission from builders and developers when a property purchase proceeds. The strategy session itself costs you nothing. Because we're paid by the supply side, you should weigh our recommendations with that in mind.