If you invest in a NRAS dwelling, the government will pay you close to $100,000 over the next 10 years in grants and tax offsets! So how do you access this goldmine?
 
Demand for residential property across Australia is high, with the National Housing Supply Council estimating a supply deficit of 178,000 homes nationwide.
 
The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) aims to address this issue by providing more affordable rental properties to everyday Australians, using tax grants and offsets to encourage investors into the market.
 
Consequently, NRAS is not a public housing program – it’s a tax incentive to induce more private investment into housing.
 
The federal Government has committed a whopping $1 billion to the NRAS over four years, to stimulate construction of up to 50,000 high quality homes and apartments throughout Australia.
 
As an investor, you get access to $9,140 (indexed annually to CPI) in tax offsets per year, per dwelling.
 
Your approved house attracts the NRAS incentive for 10 years, so long as you continue to rent the property to eligible households at the specified rental discount. At the end of the 10 years, your property reverts to a standard property investment, subject to normal tax rules and regulations such as negative gearing.
 
To be eligible you need to rent your property to low and moderate income households at 20% below market rates. You may select any tenants for NRAS properties, as long as they do not exceed a certain income threshold (below).
 
More than 1.5 million households across Australia are eligible to rent NRAS properties, with NRAS tenants generally comprised of key workers such as childcare workers, nurses, police officers, fire fighters and paramedics. 
 
There is an income cap for tenants to be eligible, but it allows for salary increases of 25% above the entry income limit:
 
Household Type
Entry income level ($)
Upper income level to maintain eligibility ($)
Single person
42,718
53,398
Two adults
59,057
73,822
Sole parent (1 child)
59,099
73,874
Sole parent (2 children)
73,267
91,584
Couple (1 child)
73,225
91,532
Couple (2 children)
87,393
109,242
Couple (3 children)
101,561
126,952
 
For more information or to see if your eligible to become a tenant or an investor, visit www.fahcsia.gov.au or phone 1800 334 505.

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