Depreciation on a property built in 2001

On a 2001 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2040–41. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $3,777 a year in New South Wales, $3,746 in Victoria and $2,902 in Queensland, with 15 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 2001.

No: a 2001 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 15 income years left, 2026–27 to 2040–41, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 2001, 179 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 2 end from 2030–31 to 2030–31. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 2001 house was 16 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 2001 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 2001, the 2001–02 to 2040–41 income years. Construction begun on any day of 2001 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 25 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 2001, our national series puts new houses at $633 per m² of floor area, 39% up over the ten years from 1991's $457, and the average new house, about 228 m², cost about $144,000 to build. At 2001's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $131,699 at the national rate, against $118,634 in 2000 and $135,865 in 2002. In 2001 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $87,056, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $175,581. Where the 2001 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 2001's rates, about $131,699 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.