What it does: has two parts. The top half estimates how much you might be able to borrow, based on the cash left over each month once your expenses and other debts are covered. The bottom half calculates the actual repayments on any loan amount you choose.

• Combined take-home pay — enter net (after-tax) income, not gross salary, for everyone who'll be on the loan.
• Living expenses — a realistic monthly figure for everything except rent or mortgage. Underestimating this inflates your borrowing power estimate.
• Loan interest rate / term — used for the repayment calculation, and also to work out the "assessment rate" for borrowing power (your rate plus a 3% buffer, which is how lenders actually test affordability).

Reading the result: "Indicative borrowing power" is the loan size your monthly surplus could theoretically service at the higher assessment rate — it is not a loan amount, just a ceiling estimate. The repayment calculator below it shows what a specific loan amount would actually cost you monthly, fortnightly and weekly at your real (non-buffered) rate.

What it does: calculates two standard investment metrics — gross yield (a quick, rough comparison figure) and net yield (a more honest one that deducts the real annual cost of holding the property).

• Gross yield = annual rent ÷ purchase price. Fast to calculate, commonly quoted in listings, but ignores every cost of ownership.
• Net yield = (annual rent − annual holding costs) ÷ purchase price. A far more realistic picture, since it accounts for rates, insurance, management fees, maintenance and vacancy.
• Vacancy allowance — an estimate of weeks per year the property might sit untenanted; even strong markets rarely achieve 100% occupancy every single year.

Reading the result: compare net yield across properties you're considering, not just gross yield — two properties advertised at the same gross yield can have very different net returns once real costs are factored in.

What it does: adds up every upfront cost of a purchase — not only the deposit, but stamp duty, legal fees, inspections, loan setup costs, and (optionally) a buyer's agency fee — to show the total cash you'll actually need on settlement day.

• Loan-to-value ratio (LVR) — the share of the price you're borrowing. A higher LVR means a smaller deposit but a bigger loan; it also determines whether Lenders Mortgage Insurance is likely.
• Buying entity — as with Stamp Duty, first home buyer concessions only apply to individuals.

Reading the result: "Total cash required at settlement" is the full amount you need available, not just your deposit. If the LVR shown is above 80%, the tool flags that Lenders Mortgage Insurance is likely to apply — that cost isn't included in the total, since LMI premiums vary too much by lender and loan size to estimate reliably here.

What it does: walks through the full financial picture of an investment property in three stages — what it costs to buy, what it costs to run, and what that leaves you with.

• What You're Buying / Money Needed Upfront — every one-off cost of the purchase, rolling up to the total capital you need to settle.
• Financing It — your loan setup: LVR, LMI, interest rate, and — importantly — your owning entity, which sets the tax rate used later (an individual's marginal bracket, or a flat rate for a company or SMSF).
• Running the Property — every ongoing income and expense line, grouped by category, with a bar chart showing where the money actually goes.
• Where You Land — the bottom line, in three versions: Pre Tax (IO) assumes an interest-only loan; Pre Tax (P&I) swaps that for a principal & interest loan over your chosen term; Post Tax applies your selected tax rate to the interest-only result.

How "Post Tax" works: it simply multiplies the Pre Tax (IO) figure by (1 − your tax rate). If that pre-tax figure is a loss, the tax rate reduces how much of that loss actually costs you (the negative gearing effect); if it's a profit, the tax rate reduces how much of that profit you keep. There's no separate "negative gearing" switch — the direction comes entirely from whether the number above it is positive or negative.

What it does: estimates the annual land tax bill for land you hold in a given state, using that state's actual published thresholds and rates for your ownership structure.

• Total taxable land value — not the property price. It's the unimproved (land-only) value, and it's combined across every non-exempt property you own in that state — this is the detail people most often miss. Owning three modest properties in one state can trigger land tax even though none of them look expensive alone.
• Ownership entity — trusts are taxed more harshly than individuals in several states (lower or no tax-free threshold, higher rates); this calculator uses the real trust-specific tables where a state publishes one, not just a generic markup.

Reading the result: the figure shown is an annual amount, billed yearly by the state, not a one-off cost like stamp duty. Your own home is excluded from the calculation in every state that levies land tax.

What it does: runs two scenarios side by side over the same number of years — one where you buy a property and build equity in it, and one where you keep renting and instead invest your deposit (plus whatever gap exists between renting and owning costs) in something else.

• Return if the deposit were invested elsewhere — your assumed return on the alternative investment (shares, a term deposit, another asset class). This has a big effect on the result, so it's worth testing a couple of different assumptions.
• Capital growth — how fast you expect the property's value to rise over the comparison period. Also worth stress-testing at a lower number.

Reading the result: "Buying" nets off your projected future property value against your remaining loan balance and the upfront buying costs. "Renting & investing" compounds your invested deposit (and any saved gap between renting and owning costs) at your assumed return. The verdict shows which position comes out ahead — but the honest takeaway is usually how sensitive that verdict is to the growth and return assumptions you chose.

What it does: instead of asking "what can I afford at this price," it works backwards from your available cash and approved loan to find the single highest price you could pay and still cover the deposit, stamp duty, and other settlement costs.

• Total cash available — your genuinely available funds, not including money earmarked for anything else.
• Maximum loan approved / pre-approved — ideally an actual number from your lender, not a guess. Use the Borrowing Power tab for an estimate if you don't have one yet.
• Buying entity — changes whether a first home buyer concession is available, which shifts how much of your cash goes to duty versus deposit.

Reading the result: "Your maximum bid" is the price at which every dollar of your cash and loan is fully committed — there's no slack left in that number. The breakdown shows exactly how it splits between deposit, duty, and other costs.

What it does: estimates the tax payable on the profit from selling an investment property, applying the correct discount and tax treatment for your ownership structure.

• Cost base = purchase price + buying costs + capital improvements. This is subtracted from your net sale proceeds to find the capital gain.
• Held for more than 12 months — individuals and trusts get a 50% discount on the gain if held over 12 months; this checkbox controls that. It's disabled for companies, since they never receive any discount regardless of how long the asset was held.
• Selling entity — Individual/Trust uses your marginal tax rate (progressive, based on the income you enter) with the 50% discount; Company uses a flat 25% rate with no discount at all; SMSF uses a flat 15% rate with a smaller 1/3 discount instead of 50%.
• Your ownership share — if you don't own 100% of the property, only your share of the gain is taxed to you.

Reading the result: "Estimated CGT payable" is the extra tax this sale would trigger, over and above what you'd otherwise pay on your other income for the year.

What it does: simulates your loan balance reducing month by month with your normal repayment, then compares that to what happens if you add extra repayments and/or a one-off lump sum.

• Extra amount per month — an ongoing top-up to your regular repayment. Even a modest amount compounds meaningfully over a 30-year loan.
• One-off lump sum — money applied to the loan balance right now (a bonus, an inheritance, savings) rather than spread over time.

Reading the result: "Interest saved" and "Time saved" show the combined effect of both extra strategies compared to sticking with the standard repayment schedule. The breakdown shows the new repayment amount and both total-interest figures side by side.

What it does: recalculates your loan repayment at a series of higher interest rates, so you can see in dollar terms what a rate rise would actually cost you each month — not just as an abstract percentage.

• Monthly household income (optional) — if you enter this, each scenario also shows what share of your income the repayment would represent, which is often a more meaningful gut-check than the dollar figure alone.

Reading the result: each row shows a rate increase (from +0.5% up to +3%), the resulting monthly repayment, and how much higher that is than your current repayment. This is exactly the kind of buffer lenders build into their own serviceability tests (see the Borrowing Power tab) — running it yourself shows whether you'd actually be comfortable at those levels, not just technically approved.