After-Tax Weekly Cashflow: What a Property Really Costs Each Week in 2026–27

What the weekly top-up figure actually measures

Start with cash in: the rent, trimmed by a vacancy allowance, because it is unrealistic to assume a tenant in place every week of every year. Then cash out: loan interest, property management fees, and maintenance, plus land tax where it applies. The annual shortfall or surplus, adjusted for tax, divided by 52, is the weekly figure.

The inputs matter more than the arithmetic. Plintha's defaults — an interest-only loan at 80% LVR and 6.5% p.a. over a 30-year term, property management at 8% of rent, a vacancy allowance of 3% of rent, and maintenance at 0.7% of the purchase price per year — are all overridable, and every figure in a report is tagged as computed, [ESTIMATE], or [ASSUMED] so you can see exactly which numbers are yours and which are defaults. Above 80% LVR, the model adds LMI.

Where tax enters: deductions and depreciation

The pre-tax shortfall is not the after-tax cost, because some of those outgoings reduce your taxable income where the rules allow. Land tax on an investment property is generally deductible. Stamp duty is not — it is a capital acquisition cost that goes into the CGT cost base rather than the annual return.

Depreciation is the quiet lever, because it is a deduction without a matching cash outflow. Division 43 allows capital works to be written off at 2.5% per year straight-line over 40 years for residential buildings constructed after 15 September 1987. Division 40 covers plant and equipment, but since 2017 second-hand residential plant is restricted — broadly, only new plant qualifies for subsequent owners. The building's physical age therefore changes what you can claim, which is why Plintha's depreciation modelling is age-aware rather than a flat allowance.

Property class now decides the tax effect

The 2026–27 Budget effectively split investment properties into three classes, and the class changes what a rental loss is worth week to week.

Grandfathered properties — owned or contracted before 12 May 2026 — keep the old negative gearing rules, so rental losses remain deductible against salary. New builds purchased or contracted from 12 May 2026 get the same treatment: losses are still deductible against other income. Established properties bought after 12 May 2026 are the outlier — their rental losses are quarantined, carried forward against future rental profits or the eventual capital gain, not against salary. For a quarantined property, the weekly top-up is the full pre-tax shortfall; the tax benefit is deferred, not gone, but it does nothing for this year's budget.

Plintha classifies every property it analyses as grandfathered, new build, or established post-budget, and switches the tax modelling to match.

Positive versus negative gearing after the Budget

A positively geared property earns more rent than it costs to hold; the surplus is taxable income, and the weekly cashflow is positive regardless of property class. A negatively geared property runs at a loss, and the value of that loss now depends entirely on the class: an immediate deduction against salary for grandfathered holdings and new builds, or a loss carried forward for established post-budget purchases. Negative gearing on a quarantined property is a deferral strategy, and it should be assessed as one.

Pressure-testing the weekly number

A weekly figure calculated at today's settings is a snapshot, not a promise. Plintha runs a stress test on every analysis: interest rates 2% higher, an extended vacancy, and the interest-only period expiring into principal-and-interest repayments — the scenario where the weekly top-up jumps because the loan starts amortising. Each analysis returns a verdict of Meets Criteria, Conditional, or Below Criteria with a 0–100 score, assessed through both a Yield lens and a Growth lens. The free tier includes one analysis per month with no card required.

Common questions