Depreciation on a property built in 1998

On a 1998 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2037–38. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $3,026 a year in New South Wales, $2,923 in Victoria and $2,445 in Queensland, with 12 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 1998.

No: a 1998 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 12 income years left, 2026–27 to 2037–38, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 1998, 179 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 2 end from 2027–28 to 2027–28. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 1998 house was 19 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 1998 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 1998, the 1998–99 to 2037–38 income years. Construction begun on any day of 1998 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 28 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 1998, our national series puts new houses at $537 per m² of floor area, 48% up over the ten years from 1988's $364, and the average new house, about 214 m², cost about $115,000 to build. At 1998's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $105,580 at the national rate, against $104,002 in 1997 and $109,689 in 1999. In 1998 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $70,127, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $152,610. Where the 1998 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 1998's rates, about $105,580 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.