Investment Property Cost Analysis: A Worked Example on a Real Queensland House

The property in this example: 18 Annalise Cct, Nirimba, at $980,000

Most cost analysis articles cost a made up house. This one costs a house FAA has listed for sale right now. 18 Annalise Cct, Nirimba, presented at $980,000. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage with internal access, a 375m2 block, built in 2019, currently vacant, with a 5,000 litre water tank. Kayla Dale is the listing agent. All of that comes off our own listing page, read on 5 August 2026.

Read this as an illustrative worked example. It isn't a client result, and no client's figures are in it. FAA Property manages residential investment property across the Sunshine Coast, including Nirimba, from our Maroochydore office, so the local costs below are ones we deal with.

Stock moves. On 5 August 2026 FAA had four properties on the for sale feed and ten on the rentals feed. 18 Annalise Cct may already be under contract by the time you read this. The figures carry that date for a reason.

Here's what we assumed, stated up front so you can change any of it.

• Purchase price of $980,000, the presented price on the live listing as at 5 August 2026.
• A 20% deposit, which we assumed. That makes the loan $784,000.
• An interest only loan, so the interest maths stays visible on the page.
• An Australian resident individual buying it. Not a foreign acquirer, not a company, not a trust.
• Total Queensland land holdings under the $600,000 land tax threshold at 30 June.
• Nothing here is a valuation, a rental appraisal or a forecast.

Buying it: $37,125 in Queensland transfer duty, arithmetic shown

Transfer duty is the largest single cost on settlement day after the deposit, and it's the one you can work out exactly. The Queensland Revenue Office publishes the rate table. For a dutiable value between $540,001 and $1,000,000, duty is $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100, or part of $100, over $540,000. That page was last updated 25 June 2026.

So for $980,000 the working goes like this.

• $980,000 minus $540,000 leaves $440,000.
• $440,000 is 4,400 lots of $100.
• 4,400 times $4.50 is $19,800.
• $19,800 plus the $17,325 base is $37,125.

Two things that move the duty number, and one fee we wouldn't guess

Buy under $540,000 and you drop into the band below, where duty is $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100, or part of $100, over $75,000. Under $5,000 there's no duty at all. Both figures come from the same Queensland Revenue Office rate table read on 5 August 2026.

Buy as a foreign person, company or trust and Queensland adds 8% additional foreign acquirer duty on residential land. On this purchase that's a second, larger number sitting behind the first one.

Titles Queensland charges a lodgement fee on the transfer and another on registering the mortgage, and updates both on 1 July each year. We haven't put a dollar figure on that line. Their published fee schedule wouldn't extract cleanly when we checked on 5 August 2026, and a third party calculator isn't a source. Use the Titles Queensland fee calculator instead of a number we can't stand behind.

Holding it for a year: the costs we could source

Now the yearly bills. Every figure below names where it came from and when.

Loan interest is the big one. The RBA publishes actual average rates by loan size in Statistical Table F6. For new investment housing loans with a value at commitment between $600,000 and $1,000,000, the average in May 2026 was 6.5%. A $784,000 loan sits inside that band, which makes it the closest published rate to this purchase. Interest only at 6.5% on $784,000 is $50,960 for the year.

Repayment type and deposit size both move that. Same table, same month. New investment loans at interest only averaged 6.5% against 6.3% for principal and interest. Loans under 81% LVR averaged 6.4% against 6.7% at 81% or above. Run the same $784,000 at 6.3% and the interest is $49,392. At 6.7% it's $52,528. Those are assumptions about the rate you'd be offered, and rates move.

One rate to ignore: the RBA cash rate. It sat at 4.35% after the 17 June 2026 meeting, following a 0.25 point rise on 6 May 2026. It isn't a mortgage rate.

Sunshine Coast Council's 2026-27 separate levies are fixed amounts on a rateable property regardless of land value. Environment Levy $82. Transport Levy $44. Arts and Heritage Levy $20. That's $146 for the year, from the council rates page last updated 28 July 2026. Rate notices come out twice a year, in January for 1 January to 30 June and in July for 1 July to 31 December. The Differential General Rate sits on top of those levies and we've left it blank. The next section says why.

Land tax runs on the taxable value of the land, set by the Valuer General, not on what you paid. That's why a $980,000 house can sit under the threshold. An individual is liable when their total Queensland freehold land is worth $600,000 or more at 30 June, and in the $600,000 to $999,999 band the tax is $500 plus 1 cent for each $1 over $600,000. Our example assumes total holdings below that, so this line reads nil. Re-check the bands before you rely on them. The land tax page carried an older update date than every other Queensland source we read on 5 August 2026.

Water splits in two. FAA's rental listings state that tenants are responsible for water usage, along with electricity and gas. The owner still carries the fixed service charge, and we couldn't retrieve a current figure for it, so that line stays empty as well.

On the income side, the closest reference we have is an FAA managed rental in the same suburb. 1/28 Sally Cres, Nirimba, advertised at $700 a week, with an inspection listed for 5 August 2026. Master with a walk in robe and ensuite, two more bedrooms, two bathrooms and a double lock up garage. $700 a week is $36,400 a year gross.

Say this plainly. $700 is what a different, smaller house in Nirimba is advertised at. It's not an appraisal of 18 Annalise Cct, and nobody should read a yield off it.

The lines we left blank, and the reason beside each one

This is the part nobody else publishes. A cost model with visible holes in it is more useful than one that fills the holes with a percentage of rent. These lines are blank because we don't have a source we'd stand behind, and each one carries its reason.

Thirteen blanks. Every one of them is a real cost or a real possibility, and most of them are one phone call away from being a number. That gap is the difference between a cost analysis and a cost estimate.

• Property management fee. FAA's fee schedule isn't published in the material used to build this page. Ask for a quote on it rather than take a percentage out of an article.
• Council Differential General Rate. It's the rateable value times the category's cents in the dollar rate, with a minimum charge if the result comes in lower, and the category for a house you don't live in is different from the owner occupier category. Council's 2026-27 Revenue Statement wouldn't extract cleanly on two attempts, so the rate stays unverified. Worth knowing: council must use the Queensland Government land valuations taking effect 1 July 2026 when it sets those rates, and a rise in land value doesn't lift rates by the same percentage.
• Titles Queensland lodgement fees on the transfer and on the mortgage. Fee schedule wouldn't extract. Use their calculator.
• State Emergency Management Levy. Council collects it for the Queensland Fire Department under the Fire Services Act 1990 and it applies to every Queensland property. We didn't read the amount, so it isn't here.
• Landlord insurance. No source.
• Building and pest inspection. No source.
• Conveyancing and solicitor fees. No source.
• Lender application and valuation fees. No source.
• Repairs and maintenance allowance. No source, and a percentage guess here is the exact thing this page argues against.
• Vacancy allowance. No source, and we won't publish a vacancy figure we can't cite.
• Land tax on this particular lot. We didn't obtain a Valuer General site value for it.
• Body corporate levies. The listing describes a house on its own 375m2 lot and mentions no body corporate. Absence from a listing isn't proof there's none.
• Water access charge. We couldn't retrieve a current fixed charge for the owner.

What the ATO treats as an immediate deduction

Costs and deductions are two different questions, and this page only answers the first one. What follows is what the ATO says the rules are. It isn't what your tax position would be. FAA Property gives no tax advice.

The ATO's list of immediately deductible rental expenses, last updated 21 May 2026, includes advertising for tenants, body corporate administrative fund fees and charges, council rates, water charges, land tax, cleaning, gardening and lawn mowing, pest control, insurance for building, contents, public liability and loss of rent, interest expenses, pre paid expenses, property agent's fees and commission, repairs and maintenance, and legal expenses.

A few rules catch people out.

• Capital works run at generally 2.5% or 4% a year, spread over 40 or 25 years, on a rental built after 17 July 1985 once construction is fully complete. Deductions can't add up to more than the construction cost. This house was built in 2019.
• Depreciating assets you didn't buy new, like carpet and appliances that came with the house, can't be claimed for decline in value. Brand new assets you buy for the property can be. The ATO's own worked example spells that out.
• Land tax is deducted in the income year the liability relates to, not the year you pay it. Pay arrears and you amend the earlier return.
• Borrowing expenses over $100 spread over the life of the loan or five years, whichever is shorter. Solicitor's fees for preparing the loan documents are a borrowing expense. Solicitor's fees for the purchase itself are capital and go into the CGT cost base.
• A special body corporate levy raised to fund a particular capital improvement isn't immediately deductible. Regular administration and general sinking fund payments are.

A 2019 house meets the 1 July 2027 negative gearing limit

This one matters for the example property specifically, because it was built in 2019 and it's an established home.

From 1 July 2027, negative gearing on residential property is limited to new builds. That's Schedule 2 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026. The acquisition trigger is 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026. Property held at that moment is exempt. Current year deductibility is unchanged. The ATO states the measures are now law, on a page last updated 29 June 2026.

What counts as a new build isn't settled yet. Treasury consultation closes 21 August 2026. Anyone giving you a firm answer on that today is ahead of the legislation, and we're not going to.

There's a capital gains change in the same package. From 1 July 2027 the 50% CGT discount for individuals, trusts and partnerships is replaced with cost base indexation and a 30% minimum tax rate on capital gains, applying only to gains that accrue after that date. That's the ATO's description of the rule, read on 5 August 2026. We're not applying it to your position and we're not modelling an exit from it.

The full explanation sits on our negative gearing page.

How FAA gets paid on a purchase

Worth knowing before you weigh anything above.

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.

FAA isn't a buyer's agent. A buyer's agent acts exclusively for the buyer and is paid by the buyer. FAA sources investment property, plans the strategy around it and manages it long term, and is paid by builders and developers on purchase. If you want someone who acts only for you with no supply side income, engage a licensed buyer's agent.

What FAA is: a licensed Queensland real estate agency, OFT licence 4220395, expiring 5 June 2027. That licence permits us to act for buyers. The Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) s26 covers buying and negotiating as agent for others for reward, and Queensland has no separate buyer's agent licence class.

One office, no branches. Suite 3-7, Level 5, Tower 2, 55 Plaza Parade, Maroochydore QLD 4558. Phone (07) 5327 3469.

Want this run on a property you're actually looking at? That's what the strategy call is for. Bring the address.