Michael Murray Managing Director, Murray Property · 22+ years in property management across Sydney
Most people leaving Sydney decide what to do with their home somewhere between booking the flights and packing the kitchen. It gets settled in a week, usually by whichever option feels least like a decision.
That is unfortunate, because it is the most expensive choice in the whole move, worth more than the job, the schools and the shipping container combined, and almost all of the leverage disappears the moment you become a foreign resident for tax.
This is a countdown. Work backwards from your departure date.
First, the decision underneath all the others
Sell before you go, or keep it and rent it out?
Not a gut call. It turns on tax, and specifically on two separate six-year rules that sound identical and are not.
The CGT six-year rule (federal). You can move out, rent your former home at full market rent, and still treat it as your main residence for capital gains purposes for up to six years. Generous, and widely known.
The land tax absence concession (NSW). You can be absent from your home for up to six years and keep the principal place of residence exemption, but not if you rent it out commercially. The concession only survives if the property is rented for no more than six months in the year, or if the rent does not exceed what is reasonably required to cover rates and maintenance.
Read those together and the trap becomes obvious. Renting your Darlinghurst home at market rent while you work in Singapore may well preserve your CGT position and simultaneously destroy your land tax exemption. Same act, two regimes, opposite outcomes.
Once the exemption is gone, ordinary NSW land tax applies to the land value above the threshold, assessed every 31 December, for as long as you hold it.
Three details worth knowing about the land tax concession:
- It is not automatic. Once the property is producing income on the taxing date you have to apply to Revenue NSW and provide evidence, travel plans, employment contracts, that sort of thing
- You must have lived there at least six months continuously before the absence begins
- You must move back in for six months at the end of the six years, or the exemption ceases from that point. Selling before the six years is up removes that requirement
And sitting over all of it: if you sell while you are a foreign resident for tax, the main residence exemption can be lost entirely, for your whole ownership period, not just the years away. That is covered in capital gains tax for foreign residents, and it is the single largest number in this decision.
Get advice before you go. A registered tax agent who works with expats, while you are still a resident and still have options. Not in year three from a different time zone.
90 days out
Book the tax conversation. Everything above. Bring your purchase date, what you paid, whether you have ever rented it out before, and your rough return plans.
Get a rental appraisal. Even if you are leaning toward selling. You cannot compare the two options without a real number, and the number is often higher than owners expect, we can do that for you without any obligation.
Keep your Australian bank account open. You will need somewhere for rent to land, and opening one from overseas afterwards is considerably harder than keeping the one you have.
Talk to your lender. Some lenders treat non-resident borrowers differently: different rates, different servicing tests, sometimes a requirement to be notified. Better to know now than to discover it during a refinance from Dubai.
Find your tax file number. You will need it for Australian returns, and for a clearance certificate if you ever sell.
60 days out
Appoint a manager and set the terms. Not just “appoint an agent”, agree the specifics that make remote ownership work:
- A maintenance spend limit set for distance, usually $1,000 to $1,500 rather than the default $300
- A written escalation path for anything above it, naming who decides in your absence
- Preferred tradespeople nominated in the lease, so a 9pm emergency call goes to someone you chose
- Written authority for the Tribunal, including that your representative can act in your absence
- The reporting rhythm and the contact method that actually reaches you
Managing your property from overseas goes through each of these properly.
Order a depreciation schedule. A quantity surveyor’s report is far easier to arrange while you still have access to the property, and the cost is deductible. Owners who leave it until they are overseas usually never get around to it, and quietly forgo deductions every year afterwards.
Sort out compliance before you hand over the keys. Smoke alarms tested and compliant, pool certificate if you have one, water efficiency measures if you intend to charge water usage. Fixing these from Singapore is a slow, expensive way to do a simple job.
Update your strata details. New postal address, and a decision about how you will vote. Attending an GM from London is impractical; nominating a proxy is not.
30 days out
Tell everyone who bills you. Council, water, strata, and Revenue NSW if your land tax position is changing. An overseas address on file is what stops an assessment notice sitting in an empty letterbox for a year.
Sort your insurance. Landlord cover, and confirm your insurer knows you will be overseas. Policies differ on extended owner absence, vacancy periods and overseas correspondence addresses. Some have disclosure conditions that bite at claim time rather than at purchase.
Set a mail redirection, and use an Australian address for anything that must not go astray.
Nominate an Australian emergency contact. Someone who can physically get to the property if something happens that cannot wait for a flight. Most owners never need this. The ones who do, need it badly.
Photograph everything. Not instead of a professional condition report, but as your own record. Meter readings, appliance serial numbers, the state of the floors, anything you have recently repaired.
The final week
Do a proper condition report. We photograph to 500-plus images, room by room, at entry and exit. This is the document that decides bond disputes, and you will not be here to argue from memory.
Hand over the paperwork. Strata certificates, appliance manuals and warranties, smoke alarm compliance records, any recent trade invoices, spare keys, alarm codes, parking remotes, mailbox keys.
Confirm the money. The account rent goes into, and who receives the statements.
Confirm the contact plan. Your new time zone, your preferred method, and what counts as urgent enough to wake you.
Once you have landed
Lodge your Australian tax return as usual. Rental income from an Australian property is taxable here regardless of where you live, and as a foreign resident you lose the tax-free threshold, tax applies from the first dollar. Deductions still apply, and negative gearing still works. See the overseas landlord tax guide.
Apply for the land tax absence concession if you are claiming it, and diarise the six-year mark.
Check your first statement properly. Not the total, the detail. It is the easiest month to spot something set up wrong, and the hardest to fix a year later.
The four we see most often
Deciding by default. Keeping the property because selling felt like too much to organise before a move. Sometimes that is the right answer. It should still be an answer, not an omission.
Leaving the spend limit at $300. It works until the first Thursday night hot water failure, and then it does not.
Assuming the two six-year rules are the same rule. They are not, and the land tax one does not survive commercial renting.
Not counting days. If you are a permanent resident rather than a citizen, spending 165 or more days a year outside Australia can make you a foreign person for NSW surcharge land tax, a separate and much larger problem. Are you a foreign person? works through that test.
Talk to us before you go
We manage properties across Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Potts Point and Paddington for owners in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Dubai. Most of them set things up while they were still here, which is why it works.
If you are leaving in the next few months, a conversation now costs nothing and takes twenty minutes. We can tell you what the property should earn, what needs sorting before you go, and whether renting or selling makes more sense for your situation, and we will say so plainly if it is selling.
Request a rental appraisal · Talk to us about management · Get in touch
We are licensed agents, not tax agents. We will not advise on your residency or tax position, and you should be wary of any agency that does.
Frequently asked questions
Should I sell my home before I move overseas or rent it out?
It depends on your tax position, and the difference can run to six figures. Selling while you are still an Australian resident may keep the main residence exemption available. Selling later as a foreign resident can forfeit it for your entire ownership period. Get advice from a registered tax agent before you leave.
Can I keep my main residence exemption if I rent my home out?
For capital gains tax, the six-year absence rule may allow it, but only if you are an Australian resident for tax when you sell. For NSW land tax, the absence concession generally does not survive commercial renting: rent it for more than six months in a year at market rent and the exemption is usually lost.
Do I have to apply for the land tax absence concession?
Yes. It is not automatic once the property is producing income on the taxing date. You apply to Revenue NSW and may need to provide evidence of your circumstances, such as an employment contract or travel plans.
What maintenance limit should I set before I leave?
Higher than the standard $300. We suggest $1,000 to $1,500 for owners abroad so urgent repairs can proceed without waiting on a time zone, with a written escalation path above that.
How far ahead should I start organising this?
Ninety days is comfortable. Sixty is workable. Under thirty and you will be making the tax decision without advice, which is the expensive way to do it.
Can I manage the property myself from overseas?
Legally yes. Practically it rarely works, because NSW statutory deadlines run on Sydney dates regardless of where you are, pet requests approve themselves after 21 days, urgent repairs cannot wait, and rent increases need 60 days notice.
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Disclaimer
The data, figures, and market statistics referenced in this article were current at the time of publication and are sourced from third-party providers including CoreLogic/Cotality, Domain, realestate.com.au, HtAG Analytics, PropTrack, and NSW Fair Trading, among others. Property market data changes frequently, median prices, rental yields, vacancy rates, clearance rates, and days on market figures are updated regularly by their respective providers and may have changed since this article was published. Readers are encouraged to verify all figures directly with the cited sources before making any decisions.
This article is intended as general information only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or taxation advice. The information provided does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making any property investment, purchase, sale, or management decision, you should seek independent advice from a qualified financial adviser, solicitor, or property professional licensed in your state.
Murray Property is a licensed real estate agency operating in NSW. We are not financial advisers. References to rental yields, capital growth, or investment returns are based on publicly available market data and historical performance, which is not a reliable indicator of future results.
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