Depreciation on a property built in 2002

On a 2002 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2041–42. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $3,873 a year in New South Wales, $3,890 in Victoria and $2,971 in Queensland, with 16 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 2002.

No: a 2002 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 16 income years left, 2026–27 to 2041–42, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 2002, 177 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 4 end from 2026–27 to 2031–32. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 2002 house was 15 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 2002 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 2002, the 2002–03 to 2041–42 income years. Construction begun on any day of 2002 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 24 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 2002, our national series puts new houses at $671 per m² of floor area, 46% up over the ten years from 1992's $460, and the average new house, about 221 m², cost about $148,000 to build. At 2002's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $135,865 at the national rate, against $131,699 in 2001 and $142,698 in 2003. In 2002 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $89,115, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $181,350. Where the 2002 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 2002's rates, about $135,865 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.