Depreciation on a property built in 2005

On a 2005 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2044–45. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $4,449 a year in New South Wales, $4,393 in Victoria and $3,832 in Queensland, with 19 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 2005.

No: a 2005 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 19 income years left, 2026–27 to 2044–45, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 2005, 177 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 4 end from 2029–30 to 2034–35. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 2005 house was 12 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 2005 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 2005, the 2005–06 to 2044–45 income years. Construction begun on any day of 2005 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 21 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 2005, our national series puts new houses at $832 per m² of floor area, 57% up over the ten years from 1995's $529, and the average new house, about 238 m², cost about $198,000 to build. At 2005's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $161,464 at the national rate, against $152,165 in 2004 and $167,307 in 2006. In 2005 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $117,923, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $224,888. Where the 2005 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 2005's rates, about $161,464 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.