Rental Tax Deductions Guide
Rental Tax Deductions for Owners
This rental property tax deductions guide will help you with what you need to know, as an owner of rental property in Australia, to determine which expenses are allowable deductions and what expenses are not deductible.
Rental expenses
You can claim a deduction for certain expenses you incur for the period your property is rented or is genuinely available for rent.
However, you cannot claim expenses of a capital nature or private nature (although you may be able to claim decline in value deductions or capital works deductions for certain capital expenditure or include certain capital costs in the cost base of the property for CGT purposes).
Types of rental expenses
There are three categories of rental expenses, those for which you:
• cannot claim deductions
• can claim an immediate deduction in the income year you incur the expense
• can claim deductions over a number of income years.
Always check your supplier’s ABN
If you pay a contractor for services on your rental property, you need to check that they have an Australian business number (ABN). If they do not provide you with an ABN, you may have to withhold 47% of that payment and pay it to us. For more information, go to ato.gov.au and search for ‘withholding from suppliers’.
If you do not withhold from payments to a contractor who has not provided you with an ABN, you may not be able to claim a deduction for those expenses. For more information, go to ato.gov.au and search for ‘removing deductibility of non-compliant payments’.
Expenses for which you cannot claim deductions
Expenses for which you cannot claim deductions include:
• acquisition and disposal costs of the property
• expenses not incurred by you, such as water or electricity usage charges borne by your tenants
• expenses where your property (including your holiday home) was not genuinely available for rent
• expenses that do not relate to the rental of a property, for example:
– expenses you incur for your own use of a holiday home that you rent out for part of the year
– costs of maintaining a non-income producing property used as collateral for the investment loan
• expenses that relate to holding vacant land
• the cost of certain second-hand depreciating assets.
Other expenses you cannot claim deductions for include expenses:
• to travel to inspect a property before you buy it
• incurred in relocating assets between rental properties prior to renting
• for rental seminars about helping you find a rental property to invest in.
Travel expenses
You cannot claim a deduction for travel expenses that relate to your residential rental property unless you are:
• using the property in carrying on a business (including a business of letting rental properties), or
• an excluded entity.
Travel expenses include the costs of:
• travel to inspect, maintain or collect rent for the property
• meals and accommodation that relate to that travel.
If your travel expenses also relate to another income producing activity, you will need to apportion the expenses.
Certain second-hand depreciating assets
From 1 July 2017, you may not claim a deduction for a decline in value of certain second-hand depreciating assets against your residential rental property income unless you are using the property in carrying on a business (including a business
of letting rental properties), or you are an excluded entity.
Acquisition and disposal costs
You cannot claim a deduction for the costs of acquiring or disposing of your rental property, such as:
• purchase cost of the property
• fees on bank guarantees in lieu of deposits
• conveyancing costs
• advertising expenses
• fees of a buyer’s agent you engage to find you a suitable rental property to purchase, including where the agent recommends a property manager free of charge as an optional or supplementary service
• stamp duty on the transfer of the property (but not stamp duty on a lease of property.
However, these costs may form part of the cost base of the property for CGT purposes.
Deductions for vacant land
Deductions for expenses you incur for holding vacant land are now limited. This applies to land you held both before and from 1 July 2019.
Your land is considered vacant if, at the time you incurred the expense the land:
• did not contain a substantial and permanent structure, or
• contained a substantial and permanent structure that is residential premises, but the premises
– could not lawfully be occupied, or
– was not rented out or made available for rent.
You can still deduct vacant land holding costs if:
• the land is held by an ‘excluded entity’, that is a
– corporate tax entity
– superannuation plan (other than a self-managed superannuation fund)
– managed investment trust
– public unit trust
– unit trust or partnership of which all the members are corporate tax entities, superannuation plans, managed investment trust or public unit trust
• the land is used to carry on a business by
– you
– your affiliate or an entity of which you are an affiliate
– your spouse or child under 18 years old
– an entity connected with you
• you, an affiliate (as listed above), spouse or child, or an entity connected with you, are carrying on a business of primary production and the land is leased or hired to
another entity
• you make the land available at arm’s length to a business for use in that business
• a substantial and permanent structure was on the land but an exceptional circumstance occurred that resulted in the land becoming vacant.
Expenses for which you can claim an immediate deduction
Expenses for which you may be entitled to an immediate deduction in the income year you incur the expense include:
• advertising for tenants
• bank charges
• body corporate fees and charges*
• cleaning
• local council rates
• electricity and gas
– annual power guarantee fees
• gardening and lawn mowing
• in-house audio and video service charges
• insurance
– building
– contents
– public liability
– loss of rent
• interest on loans*
• land tax*
• lease document expenses for*
– preparation
– registration
– stamp duty
• legal expenses* (excluding acquisition costs and borrowing costs)
• mortgage discharge expenses*
• pest control
• property agent’s fees and commissions (including prior to the property being available to rent)
• quantity surveyor’s fees
• costs incurred in relocating tenants into temporary accommodation if the property is unfit to occupy for a period of time
• repairs and maintenance*
– cost of a defective building works report in connection to repairs and maintenance conducted
• secretarial and bookkeeping fees
• security patrol fees
• servicing costs, for example, servicing a water heater
• stationery and postage
• telephone calls and rental
• tax-related expenses
• travel and car expenses to the extent that they are deductible*
• water charges.
You can claim a deduction for these expenses only if you actually incur them and they are not paid by the tenant.
Expenses prior to property being genuinely available for rent
You can claim expenditure such as interest on loans, local council, water and sewerage rates, land taxes and emergency services levies you incurred during renovations to a property you intend to rent out.
However, you cannot claim deductions from the time your intention changes, for example, if you decide to use the property for private purposes.
Apportionment of rental expenses
There may be situations where not all your expenses are deductible and you need to work out the deductible portion. To do this you subtract any non-deductible expenses from the total amount you have for each category of expense; what remains is your deductible expense.
You will need to apportion your expenses if any of the following apply to you:
• your property is genuinely available for rent for only part of the year
• your property is used for private purposes for part of the year
• only part of your property is used to earn rent
• you rent your property at non-commercial rates
• your investment loan is partially used for private purposes.
Is the property genuinely available for rent?
Expenses are deductible to the extent that they are incurred for the purpose of producing rental income.
Expenses may be deductible for periods when the property is not rented out, providing the property is genuinely available for rent – that is:
• the property is advertised in ways which give it broad exposure to potential tenants, and • having regard to all the circumstances, tenants are reasonably likely to rent it.
The absence of these factors generally indicates the owner does not have a genuine intention to make income from the property and may have other purposes – such as using it or reserving it for private use.
Factors that may indicate a property is not genuinely available for rent include:
• it is advertised in ways that limit its exposure to potential tenants – for example, the property is only advertised
– at your workplace
– by word of mouth
– outside annual holiday periods when the likelihood of it being rented out is very low
• the location, condition of the property, or accessibility to the property, mean that it is unlikely tenants will seek to rent it
• you place unreasonable or stringent conditions on renting out the property that restrict the likelihood of the property being rented out such as – setting the rent above the rate of comparable properties in the area
– placing a combination of restrictions on renting out the property – such as requiring prospective tenants to provide references for short holiday stays as well as
having conditions like ‘no children’ and ‘no pets’
• you refuse to rent out the property to interested people without adequate reasons.
Property available for part-year rental
If you use your property for both private purposes and to produce rental income, you cannot claim a deduction for the portion of any expenditure that relates to your private use.
Examples of properties you may use for both private and rental purposes are holiday homes and time-share units.
In cases such as these you cannot claim a deduction for any expenditure incurred for those periods when the home or unit was not genuinely available for rent. This includes when it was used by you, your relatives or your friends for private purposes.
In some circumstances it may be easy to decide which expenditure is private in nature. For example, council rates paid for a full year could be apportioned according to the proportion of the year that:
• the property was rented out, and
• genuinely available for rent during the year.
It may not be appropriate to apportion all your expenses on the same basis. For example, expenses that relate solely to the renting of your property are fully deductible and you would not apportion them based on the time the property
was rented out. Such costs include:
• real estate agents commissions,
• costs of advertising for tenants,
• phone calls you make to a tradesperson to fix damage caused by a tenant,
• the cost of removing rubbish left by tenants.
On the other hand, no part of certain expenses that relate solely to periods when the property is not rented out are deductible. This would include the cost of phone calls you make to a tradesperson to fix damage caused when you were using the property for private purposes.
Only part of your property is used to earn rent
If only part of your property is used to earn rent, you can claim only that part of the expenses that relates to the rental income. As a general guide, apportion according to the floor-area basis that is that part of the residence solely occupied by the tenant, together with a reasonable figure for tenant access to the general living areas, including garage and outdoor areas if applicable.
Non-commercial rental
If you let a property, or part of a property, at less than normal commercial rates, there may be a limit on the deductions you can claim.
Investment loan used for private purposes
If you take out a loan to purchase a rental property, you can claim the interest charged on that loan as a deduction. However, to the extent that the loan is used or refinanced for a private purpose, you must apportion the interest expense to account for the private use.
Co-owner rents property
If you own a property:
• as tenant in common with another person,
• you do not live in the property, and
• you let your part of a property to your co-owner at a commercial rental rate then the rent received is assessable income. Accordingly, you may deduct any losses or outgoings incurred in gaining the rental income, provided the losses or outgoings are not of a capital, domestic or private nature.
Asbestos remediation
Work undertaken to an investment property in dealing with asbestos may, in some cases, be a deductible repair as described above. This depends on the nature or extent of the remediation process.
Where the expenditure is not otherwise deductible as a repair, a deduction may be available as an ‘environmental protection activity’.
Body corporate fees and charges
Strata title body corporates are constituted under the strata title legislation of the various states and territories. You may be able to claim a deduction for body corporate fees and charges you incur for your rental property.
Body corporate fees and charges may be incurred to cover the cost of day-to-day administration and maintenance or for a special purpose fund.
Regular payments you make to body corporate administration funds or general purpose sinking funds for ongoing administration and general maintenance are
considered to be payments for the provision of services by the body corporate. You can claim a deduction for these regular payments at the time you incur them.
However, if you are required by the body corporate to pay a special levy to fund a particular capital improvement, these levies are not deductible. This is the case whether that special levy is paid into a special purpose fund or as a special contribution to the general purpose sinking fund.
If the body corporate does raise a special levy to fund certain types of construction costs, you may be able to claim a capital works deduction. You can only claim a capital works deduction once the work is completed and the cost has
been charged to either:
• the special purpose fund, or
• the general purpose sinking fund, if a special contribution has been levied.
If the body corporate fees and charges you incur are for things like:
• the maintenance of common gardens
• deductible repairs and building insurance you cannot also claim a deduction for similar expenses. For example, you cannot claim a separate deduction for
common garden maintenance if that expense is already included in body corporate fees and charges.
Common property
Common property is that part of a strata plan not comprised in any proprietor’s lot. It includes stairways, lifts, passages, common garden areas, common laundries and other facilities intended for common use.
The ownership of the common property varies according to the relevant state strata title legislation. However, in all states, the income derived from the use of the common property is income of lot owners. You can claim deductions for the common property in proportion to your lot entitlement for:
• capital works
• the decline in value of depreciating assets (in some cases).
Interest on loans
If you take out a loan to purchase a rental property, you can claim the interest charged on that loan, or a portion of the interest, as a deduction. However, the property must be rented, or genuinely available for rental, in the income year
for which you claim a deduction.
You cannot claim a deduction for interest expenses you incur if:
• you start to use the property for private purposes, or
• you refinance an investment loan for private purposes or otherwise use the loan for a private purpose.
If the expenses were incurred partly for a private purpose, you must apportion the expense accordingly.
While the property is rented, or genuinely available for rent, you may also claim interest charged on loans taken out:
• to purchase depreciating assets
• for repairs
• for renovations.
Similarly, if you take out a loan to finance renovations to a property you intend to rent out, the interest on the loan will be deductible from the time you took the loan out.
However, if your intention changes, for example, you decide to use the property for private purposes and you no longer use it to produce rent or other income, you cannot claim the interest after your intention changes.
Banks and other lending institutions offer a range of financial products which can be used to acquire a rental property. Many of these products permit flexible repayment
and redraw facilities.
As a consequence, a loan might be obtained to purchase both a rental property and, for example, a private car. In cases of this type, the interest on the loan must be apportioned into deductible and non-deductible parts according to the amounts borrowed for the rental property and for private purposes.
If you have a loan account that has a fluctuating balance due to a variety of deposits and withdrawals, and it is used for both private purposes and rental property
purposes, you must keep accurate records to enable you to calculate the interest that applies to the rental property portion of the loan; that is, you must separate the interest that relates to the rental property from any interest that relates to the private use of the funds.
Some rental property owners borrow money to buy a new home and then rent out their previous home. If there is an outstanding loan on the old home and the property is used to produce income, the interest outstanding on the loan, or part of the interest, will be deductible.
However, an interest deduction cannot be claimed on the loan used to buy the new home because it is not used to produce income. This is the case whether or not the loan for the new home is secured against the former home.
More complicated investment loan interest payment arrangements also exist, such as ‘linked’ or ‘split’ loans which involve two or more loans or sub-accounts in which one is used for private purposes and the other for business purposes.
Repayments are allocated to the private account and the unpaid interest on the business account is capitalised. This is designed to allow you to pay off your home loan faster while deferring payments on your rental property loan and maximises your potential interest deduction by creating interest on interest.
This can create a tax benefit because the deduction for interest actually incurred on the investment account is greater than the amount of interest that might reasonably
be expected to have been allowable but for using the loan arrangement outlined above.
In this case we may disallow some or all of your interest deductions. You should seek advice from your recognised tax adviser or contact the ATO to discuss your situation.
Land tax
Land tax liabilities may be deductible, depending on when the land tax liability arises. The timing of when you incur a liability to pay land tax will depend on the relevant state legislation.
Your liability to pay land tax does not rely on the lodgment of a land tax return or on the taxing authority issuing a land tax assessment. In many states, the year in which the property is used for the relevant purposes determines when you are liable, even if an assessment does not issue until a later date.
When you receive land tax assessments in arrears, the amount of land tax is not deductible in the income year in which you pay the arrears. The land tax amounts are deductible in the respective income years to which the liability for the land tax relates.
If a land owner receives a land tax assessment for a year, then later in the same financial year either sells the property or starts to use it as their residence, there is no requirement to apportion the land tax deduction.
ATO consider that the land tax liability was incurred for an income producing purpose because the liability for it was founded in the property’s use for income-producing purposes.
In the event of the property being sold and there being an adjustment of the land tax, the recovered amount should be declared as rental income by the vendor.
Lease document expenses
Your share of the costs of preparing and registering a lease and the cost of stamp duty on a lease are deductible to the extent that you have used, or will use, the property to produce income. This includes any such costs associated with an assignment or surrender of a lease.
For example, freehold title cannot be obtained for properties in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). They are commonly acquired under a 99-year crown lease. Therefore, stamp duty, preparation and registration costs you incur on the lease of an ACT property are deductible to the extent that you use the property as a rental property.
Legal expenses
Some legal expenses incurred in producing your rental income are deductible. These include the costs of:
• evicting a non-paying tenant
• taking court action for loss of rental income
• defending damages claims for injuries suffered by a third party on your rental property. Most legal expenses, however, are of a capital nature and are therefore not deductible. These include costs of:
• purchasing or selling your property
• resisting land resumption
• defending your title to the property.
Non-deductible legal expenses which are capital in nature may, however, form part of the cost base of your property for capital gains tax purposes.
Mortgage discharge expenses
Mortgage discharge expenses are the costs involved in discharging a mortgage other than payments of principal and interest. These costs are deductible in the year they are incurred to the extent that you took out the mortgage as security for the repayment of money you borrowed to use to produce your rental income.
For example, if you used a property to produce rental income for half the time you held it and as a holiday home for the other half of the time, 50% of the costs of discharging the mortgage are deductible.
Mortgage discharge expenses may also include penalty interest payments. Penalty interest payments are amounts paid to a lender, such as a bank, to agree to accept early repayment of a loan, including a loan on a rental property.
The amounts are commonly calculated by reference to the number of months that interest payments would have been made had the premature repayment not been made.
Penalty interest payments on a loan relating to a rental property are deductible if:
• the loan moneys borrowed are secured by a mortgage over the property and the payment effects the discharge of the mortgage, or
• payment is made in order to rid the taxpayer of a recurring obligation to pay interest on the loan.
Property agents fees or commissions
You can claim the cost of fees such as regular management fees or commissions you pay to a property agent or real estate agent for managing, inspecting or collecting rent for a rental property on your behalf.
You are unable to claim the cost of:
• commissions or other costs paid to a real estate agent or other person for the sale or disposal of a rental property
• buyer’s agent fees paid to any entity or person you engage to find you a suitable rental property to purchase. These costs may form part of the cost base of your property for capital gains purposes.
Repairs and maintenance
Expenditure for repairs you make to the property may be deductible. However, generally the repairs must relate directly to wear and tear or other damage that occurred as a result of your renting out the property.
Repairs generally involve a replacement or renewal of a worn out or broken part, for example, replacing worn or damaged curtains, blinds or carpets between tenants. Maintenance generally involves keeping the property in a tenantable condition, for example repainting faded or damaged interior walls.
However, expenses which are capital, or of a capital nature are not deductible as repairs or maintenance. The following are examples of expenses which are capital or of a capital nature:
• replacement of an entire structure or unit of property (such as a complete fence or building, a stove, kitchen cupboards or refrigerator)
• improvements, renovations, extensions and alterations, and
• initial repairs, for example, in remedying defects, damage or deterioration that existed at the date you acquired the property.
You may be able to claim some construction expenses as capital works deductions where the expenses are capital or of a capital nature.
Expenses of a capital nature may form part of the cost base of the property for capital gains tax purposes (but not generally to the extent that capital works deductions have been or can be claimed for them).
Repairs to a rental property will generally be deductible if:
• the property continues to be rented on an ongoing basis, or
• the property remains genuinely available for rental but there is a short period when the property is unoccupied, for example, where unseasonable weather causes
cancellations of bookings or advertising is unsuccessful in attracting tenants.
Expenditure for repairs you make to the property may also be deductible where the expenditure is incurred in a year of income that the property is held for income producing purposes, even though the property has previously been held by you for private purposes, and some or all of the damage is attributable to when the property was held for private purposes.
If you no longer rent the property, the cost of repairs may still be deductible provided:
• the need for the repairs is related to the period in which
the property was used by you to produce income, and
• the property was income-producing during the income
year in which you incurred the cost of repairs.
Examples of repairs for which you can claim deductions are:
• replacing broken windows
• maintaining plumbing
• repairing electrical appliances.
Examples of improvements for which you cannot claim deductions are:
• landscaping
• insulating the house
• adding on another room.
Travel and car expenses
Travel expenses relating to a residential rental property are generally not deductible.
You may be entitled to claim a deduction for travel expenses you incur relating to your rental property if:
• you are an excluded entity, or
• you are using the property in carrying on a business (including a business of letting rental properties), or
• the property is not a residential rental property.
Travel expenses include the costs of travel to inspect, maintain or collect rent for the property. If you are entitled to claim a deduction for a travel expense relating to your rental property, claim as follows:
• You are allowed a full deduction where the sole purpose of the trip relates to the rental property. However, in other circumstances you may not be able to claim a deduction or you may be entitled to only a partial deduction.
• If you fly to inspect your rental property, stay overnight, and return home on the following day, all of the airfare and accommodation expenses would generally be allowed as a deduction provided the sole purpose of your trip was to inspect your rental property.
Apportionment of travel expenses
Where travel related to your commercial rental property or to your residential rental property used in carrying on a business of letting rental properties is combined with a holiday or other private activities, you may need to apportion the expenses.
If you travel to inspect the property and combine this with a holiday, you need to take into account the reasons for your trip. If the main purpose of your trip is to have a holiday and the inspection of the property is incidental to that main purpose, you cannot claim a deduction for the cost of the travel.
However, you may be able to claim local expenses directly related to the property inspection and a proportion of accommodation expenses.
You may also need to apportion your travel expenses if they relate to your commercial rental property or residential rental property used in carrying on a business of letting rental properties, and residential rental property not used in carrying on a business of letting rental properties.
Local government expenses
You can claim a deduction for local government rates and levies for the period your property is rented or is genuinely available for rent.
Where you fail to pay local government rates and charges for the property by the due dates and you become liable to pay interest charges under the relevant state law, you can claim the late interest charges as a tax deduction. It is not excluded by penalty provisions of the tax law.
The ATO consider the imposition of interest in these circumstances is not a pecuniary punishment for a breach of the Local Government Act but an administrative charge recognising the time value of money.
The use of a time factor in the calculation is designed to compensate the local government for the full amount of rates not having been paid by the due date. The interest payment is accordingly deductible to the taxpayer in the year in which it is incurred.
If the local council in which your rental property is located imposes an annual emergency services levy, you can claim a deduction for that amount.
An emergency service levy is a charge imposed by a local council on property owners to meet some of the costs for the provision of emergency services by the Country Fire Authority, the Metropolitan Fire Authority, the Police Force and other agencies.
It is calculated based on the value of the land and charged annually. We consider it is an ongoing expense incurred in the course of earning your rental income and is therefore a deductible expense.
Expenses deductible over several income years
There are three types of expenses you may incur for your rental property that may be claimed over several income years:
• borrowing expenses
• amounts for decline in value of depreciating assets (allowed only in certain circumstances)
• capital works deductions.
Borrowing expenses
These are expenses directly incurred in taking out a loan for the property. They include:
• loan establishment fees
• title search fees charged by your lender
• costs for preparing and filing mortgage documents
• mortgage broker fees
• stamp duty charged on the mortgage
• fees for a valuation required for loan approval
• lender’s mortgage insurance billed to the borrower.
The following are not borrowing expenses:
• insurance policy premiums on a policy that provides for your loan on the property to be paid out in the event that you die or become disabled or unemployed
• interest expenses
• stamp duty charged on the transfer of the property
• stamp duty incurred to acquire a leasehold interest in property (such as an ACT 99-year Crown lease).
If your total borrowing expenses are more than $100, the deduction is spread over five years or the term of the loan, whichever is less. If the total deductible borrowing expenses are $100 or less, they are fully deductible in the income year they are incurred.
If you repay the loan early and in less than five years, you can claim a deduction for the balance of the borrowing expenses in the year the loan is repaid in full.
If you obtained the loan part way through the income year, the deduction for the first year will be apportioned according to the number of days in the year that you had the loan.
Deduction for decline in value of depreciating assets
When you purchase a rental property, you are generally treated for tax purposes as having bought a building, plus various separate items of ‘plant’. Items of plant are
depreciating assets, such as air conditioners, stoves and other items. The purchase price accordingly needs to be allocated between the ‘building’ and various depreciating assets.
You can deduct an amount equal to the decline in value for an income year of a depreciating asset that you held for any time during the year. However, your deduction is reduced to the extent you use the asset for a purpose other than a
taxable purpose.
From 1 July 2017, your deduction is also reduced by the extent you installed or used the asset in your residential rental property to derive rental income and the asset was a second-hand depreciating asset (unless an exception applies).
Some items found in a rental property are regarded as part of the setting for the rent-producing activity and are not treated as separate assets in their own right.
If your depreciating asset is not plant, and it is fixed to, or otherwise part of, a building or structural improvement, your expenditure will generally be construction expenditure for capital works and only a capital works deduction may be available for those items.
Limit on deductions for decline in value of second-hand depreciating assets
From 1 July 2017, there are new rules for deductions for decline in value of certain second-hand depreciating assets in your residential rental property.
If you use these assets to produce rental income from your residential rental property, you cannot claim a deduction for their decline in value unless you are using the property in carrying on a business (including a business of letting rental properties), or you are an excluded entity.
Second-hand depreciating assets are depreciating assets previously installed ready for use or used:
• by another entity (except as trading stock)
• in your private residence or
• for a non-taxable purpose, unless that use was occasional (for example, staying at the property for one evening while carrying out maintenance activities would be considered an occasional use). This change generally applies to the depreciating assets that you:
• entered into a contract to acquire, or otherwise acquired, at or after 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, or
• used or had installed ready for use for any private purpose in 2016–17 or earlier income years, for which you were not entitled to a deduction for a decline in value in 2016–17 (for example, depreciating assets in a property that was your home in 2016–17 that you turned into your residential rental property in 2017–18).
There are no changes to the rules about deductions for decline in value of new depreciating assets in your residential rental property.
Similarly, there are no changes to the rules about deductions for decline in value of depreciating assets in your residential rental property that you installed or used for a taxable purpose other than the purpose of deriving rental income.
Assets in new residential rental properties
If you acquire a newly built residential property from a developer, or buy a residential property that has been substantially renovated, you can claim a deduction for a decline in value of a depreciating asset in the property (or its common area) if:
• no one was previously entitled to a deduction for the
asset, and:
• either
– no one resided in the property before you acquired it, or
– the asset was installed for use or used at this property and you acquired the property within six months of it being built or substantially renovated.
Substantial renovations of a building are renovations in which all, or substantially all, of a building is removed or is replaced.
The renovations may, but do not necessarily have to, involve the removal or replacement of foundations, external walls, interior supporting walls, floors, roof or staircases.
For more taxation information visit the ATO website.