Depreciation on a property built in 1996

On a 1996 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2035–36. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $2,957 a year in New South Wales, $2,869 in Victoria and $2,460 in Queensland, with 10 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 1996.

No: a 1996 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 10 income years left, 2026–27 to 2035–36, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 1996, every one of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices has passed its effective life, the last ending in 2025–26. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 1996 house was 21 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 1996 house is generally not deductible (the 2017 rules set out who it reaches and the exceptions).

2.5% a year over 40 years, for construction begun after 15 September 1987: counting from 30 June 1996, the 1996–97 to 2035–36 income years. Construction begun on any day of 1996 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 30 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 1996, our national series puts new houses at $531 per m² of floor area, 66% up over the ten years from 1986's $319, and the average new house, about 200 m², cost about $106,000 to build. At 1996's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $104,147 at the national rate, against $103,055 in 1995 and $104,002 in 1997. In 1996 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $68,603, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $144,137. Where the 1996 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 1996's rates, about $104,147 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.