Can I claim travel expenses to inspect my investment property?

For the great majority of individual residential property investors, no. Current Australian tax law treats the cost of travelling to inspect, maintain or collect rent from a residential rental property as one of a small set of expenses that no longer count as a deductible rental expense, for an investor who isn’t carrying on a business of letting residential property. The ATO’s own guidance to residential landlords lists this travel restriction among the ordinary expense-deductibility limits that narrow what can be claimed, before any net rental result is even worked out.

As at July 2026, the restriction sits in section 26-31 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Housing Tax Integrity) Act 2017 (Act No. 126 of 2017, royal assent 30 November 2017) and applying to a loss or outgoing incurred on or after 1 July 2017. It doesn’t stop the deduction if the travel is necessarily incurred in carrying on a business (including a business of letting residential property) — and it also doesn’t stop it if, at any time in the income year, you’re a corporate tax entity, a superannuation fund other than a self-managed super fund, a managed investment trust, a public unit trust, or a unit trust or partnership whose members are all entities of one of those kinds. The ATO’s own guidance groups these into a single “excluded entity” test.

Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting.

It’s easy to blur two separate questions here: “is my rental result negative?” and “can I claim whatever I spent getting to the property?” They’re answered separately, and that separation is the point of this guide.

What travel does this cover?

This is about the ordinary reasons an investor visits their own property — a periodic inspection, checking on maintenance, meeting a tradesperson on site, or collecting rent in person. It’s the cost of your own travel (fares, fuel, car expenses, accommodation) for those purposes that’s affected.

It’s a separate question from what you pay a property manager, tradesperson or agent to do on your behalf. Those are their own expense categories, with their own rules, and aren’t covered by this guide.

How does this fit with negative gearing?

Negative gearing describes what happens when your deductible rental expenses, including loan interest, are more than your rental income. The ATO’s own definition, as at July 2026 (current law, 2026-27 income year): “the tax result of negatively gearing a property is that a net rental loss arises.” Under current law, you can generally claim the full amount of allowable rental expenses against your rental and other income, carrying any excess forward if your other income isn’t enough to absorb it — with no general dollar cap.

That current-law treatment is about how a loss is used once one exists. It’s a separate question from what’s allowed into the expense side of the calculation in the first place — and that’s where limits like the travel restriction sit. A disallowed travel cost isn’t “capped” as part of a bigger loss; it simply never becomes a deductible expense in the first place.

Question	Current position (as at July 2026)
How much of a net rental loss can I offset against other income?	No general dollar cap under current law for the 2026-27 income year
Is my travel to inspect the property one of the expenses counted in that loss?	Generally no, for the ordinary residential investor — an expense-deductibility limit, not a loss cap

Separately, an enacted reform changes how a net rental loss can be used from the 2027-28 income year: new section 26-155 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 quarantines residential rental deductions that exceed residential rental income, so the excess is no longer offsettable against other income (it remains usable against residential capital gains, or carried forward against future residential rental income). Interests acquired before 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026 are grandfathered under the old treatment. This is a prospective change to how a loss is used — it doesn’t alter what expenses are allowed into the calculation, which is the travel-expense question this guide covers, and it isn’t yet in effect as at July 2026.

Is depreciation on second-hand fixtures and fittings restricted too?

Travel isn’t the only expense category narrowed for residential property investors. A comparable, but legally distinct, restriction applies to depreciation on second-hand plant and equipment: section 40-27 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Housing Tax Integrity) Act 2017 (Act No. 126 of 2017, royal assent 30 November 2017), applying for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2017 to assets acquired at or after 7:30pm AEST on 9 May 2017.

In practice, it further reduces (often to nil, for an ordinary passive landlord) the depreciation deduction for a second-hand depreciating asset — think ovens, carpets, air-conditioners — bought with an already-established rental property. That restriction carries its own exceptions: a corporate tax entity, a superannuation fund that isn’t self-managed, a managed investment trust, a public unit trust, and certain genuinely-new-premises supplies are excluded from it. As at July 2026, the entity-type exceptions do carry across to the travel-expense restriction above in essentially the same terms — both restrictions were inserted by the same 2017 Act, and each carries an identical “excluded entity” test (corporate tax entity, non-SMSF super fund, managed investment trust, public unit trust, or a qualifying unit trust or partnership). What doesn’t carry across is the further, narrower carve-out for second-hand assets bought as part of a newly built property (the “genuinely new residential premises” rule) — that one is specific to the depreciation restriction and has no counterpart in the travel provision.

Division 43 capital works deductions for the building itself (currently 2.5% per year over 40 years, for qualifying construction) sit outside both of these restrictions and aren’t affected by either one.

Does it matter how I hold the investment property?

It can. An Australian investment property can be held directly by an individual, through a company, through a discretionary or family trust, or through a self-managed super fund (SMSF) — and each carries materially different tax and asset-protection consequences in principle. No government source ranks these structures against each other, and this guide doesn’t either; which structure suits a given investor is a question for a registered tax agent or licensed financial adviser, not a default answer.

An SMSF adds superannuation-specific rules on top of the ordinary tax questions — among them the sole purpose test and in-house asset limits. Superannuation rules are complex and penalties for breaches are significant — seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making SMSF decisions. Moneysmart’s property investment hub is a reasonable starting point for the general landscape across structures.

What this means before you lodge a return

Two things are worth taking away. First, don’t assume an older claiming practice still applies — expense-deductibility rules for residential rental properties have been narrowed more than once, and this guide only reflects what’s stated here as at July 2026. Second, whatever you do claim, keep the records to support it; exactly what evidence the ATO expects for a given expense is a question for your tax agent, not something to guess at from a general guide.

Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting.

For how this fits into the wider running-cost picture of holding a rental property, see our guide to cash flow positive vs negatively geared property. For the fundamentals of property investing in Australia, see our guide to what property investment involves.