Frequently asked
Questions worth asking before you commit to land.
Nobody arrives at this knowing all of it, including the people who’ve done it before. If your question isn’t here, ask me. I’d rather answer it now than have you nodding along in a meeting hoping to work it out later.
Is now a good time to buy?
I don’t time markets or manufacture urgency. That isn’t advice I give, and anyone pressuring you to “buy now” is usually paid to. Over a ten-year hold, the right asset bought well on rigorous due diligence matters far more than trying to pick the perfect month. You decide when you’re ready; my job is to make sure that when you move, the what and the how are right, and to say “not yet”, or “not this one”, without hesitation if they’re not.
Are you a buyers agency?
Not a typical one. Where a standard buyers agency finds an established property and negotiates the price, I work to a deeper, more specialised brief: I source the right lot for a qualifying dual-occupancy new build, run the full due diligence (planning pathway, s, site costs, feasibility and builder vetting), negotiate and secure it, then coordinate your professionals and the build through to handover. That is independent acquisition advisory from the first numbers to the keys. Dual occupancy is the specialty, but the same discipline runs across single-dwelling house-and-land, knock-down rebuilds and subdivision-ready acquisitions, and if you only need one piece, having a single block vetted is a door in too. The one thing I don’t do is physically project-manage the construction. That stays with your licensed builder, while I track it, report on it in plain language, and prepare every response you need to hold it to account.
How are you paid?
By you, and only you. One fixed, fully disclosed fee, agreed in writing before we start. I take no commissions, rebates, kickbacks or referral fees from any builder, developer, broker or agent. This isn’t a line on a website you have to take on trust. It is a binding term of the engagement agreement you sign, which makes it enforceable rather than aspirational. Breach it and you can end the engagement on the spot.
Do you give financial, tax or legal advice?
No, and the distinction is deliberate. The property is my lane. I hold a Queensland real estate licence, and the acquisition itself is what it licenses me to advise on: what to pursue, what to reject, what it should cost, and how the deal is structured and run. Finance, tax and law belong with the professionals licensed for them, and you’re never assembling or managing that team alone. I work alongside your broker, accountant and solicitor, or help you find and vet the right ones, briefing each and bringing their written confirmations into one clear picture. The result is that every piece of advice you act on comes from someone licensed to give it.
I bought my home before 12 May 2026. If I turn it into a rental, do I keep ?
Under the current law, yes. Homes held at 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026 are grandfathered, so converting a home you already owned at that time into a rental keeps the old negative gearing treatment. Homes bought after that time fall under the new rules from 1 July 2027, and your accountant confirms how the law applies to your exact position before you rely on it.
I don’t have an accountant or broker. Is that a problem?
No, it’s common, and building that team is part of the work. I’ll connect you with independent professionals I’ve vetted, chosen on the quality of their work alone. You engage them directly, their advice stays theirs, and the team outlasts our engagement.
Can you help if I’m not nearby?
This is the whole reason MC Acquisitions exists. Buying at a distance, whether you’re interstate or just not near the property, usually means trusting people you’ve never met on a market you can’t see, taking time off to travel, and still missing what locals know on instinct. I become your eyes, feet and judgement on the ground. I stand on the lot, read the street, meet the builders, and ask the local agents, planners and property managers the questions that only get answered in person. You get full information and the final say; I carry the legwork, the driving and the scrutiny, so the distance stops being your risk and becomes my job.
What areas do you cover?
Markets right across Queensland. I grew up across the Gold Coast, spent three years in far north Queensland, and have worked my way down the coast since — Townsville, Mackay, and now Bundaberg. Regional Queensland is not new ground for me. I am not tied to one patch and I have no estate, builder or region to steer you toward. Where you are looking is part of the brief rather than an afterthought. If you are buying somewhere to live, or you need to be near family, work or schools, we start from that, not from a map I would rather you looked at. Where the location is genuinely open, I go where the numbers and your brief lead, and I am on the ground for it wherever that is. Because every council area runs its own planning scheme, mapping, overlays and s, each location is researched from its own current source documents through the same structured process. The aim is always the right acquisition for you, rather than the one that happens to be closest to me.
What kind of property do you focus on?
New-build dual occupancy, on vacant land, by knock-down rebuild, or by retaining an existing dwelling and building a second alongside it, on accepted or code-assessable lots with a clean approval record. Whether any given configuration meets the tax definition of a qualifying new build is a separate question, it is not yet settled, and it is your accountant's to answer on your circumstances. Where a lot is large enough, subdivision-ready acquisition is part of the same work. That’s the specialty; the same land-and-build discipline also covers single-dwelling house-and-land and subdivision-ready buys, and smaller pieces like having a single block vetted. Complex overlay or heritage lots sit outside standard scope.
Is a dual occupancy the same as a granny flat?
No, and the difference is worth knowing. A dual occupancy is two complete, independent homes on one block, each with its own entrance, its own services and its own full-sized living space. A granny flat, called a secondary dwelling in Queensland planning schemes, is subordinate to the main house. It stays on the one lot with it and it can never hold its own title.
The distinction is a legal one, not a matter of size or style. Under the Planning Regulation 2017, a house together with a secondary dwelling is defined as a single dwelling house. Two co-equal dwellings is a separate defined use: dual occupancy. They are two different things in the eyes of the scheme, which is why they are assessed differently and charged differently, and why building one when you assumed the other is an expensive discovery to make late. One point often misunderstood: since a 2022 amendment the secondary dwelling no longer has to be occupied by someone connected to the main household, so it can be tenanted independently. That changed who may live there. It did not change what it is, and it did not make it separately saleable.
Whether a dual occupancy can ever be split into two titles is decided at the design stage, and only where the lot, the planning scheme, a Reconfiguring a Lot approval under the Planning Act 2016 and a registered survey all allow it. Built the wrong way, that option is gone permanently.
To be clear about my part in it: I don’t build anything. Your licensed builder does, on their licence. My job is making sure the lot, the design, the approval and the survey are set up for the outcome you want before the slab goes down.
The distinction is a legal one, not a matter of size or style. Under the Planning Regulation 2017, a house together with a secondary dwelling is defined as a single dwelling house. Two co-equal dwellings is a separate defined use: dual occupancy. They are two different things in the eyes of the scheme, which is why they are assessed differently and charged differently, and why building one when you assumed the other is an expensive discovery to make late. One point often misunderstood: since a 2022 amendment the secondary dwelling no longer has to be occupied by someone connected to the main household, so it can be tenanted independently. That changed who may live there. It did not change what it is, and it did not make it separately saleable.
Whether a dual occupancy can ever be split into two titles is decided at the design stage, and only where the lot, the planning scheme, a Reconfiguring a Lot approval under the Planning Act 2016 and a registered survey all allow it. Built the wrong way, that option is gone permanently.
To be clear about my part in it: I don’t build anything. Your licensed builder does, on their licence. My job is making sure the lot, the design, the approval and the survey are set up for the outcome you want before the slab goes down.
Is a dual occupancy the same as a dual key?
No, and this is the one people get sold. Dual key is a single dwelling divided into two lockable halves. Two tenancies, one building, one title, and it can never be split. A dual occupancy is two complete independent homes, and depending on how it is designed, approved and surveyed, it may be capable of two titles.
Both are legitimate strategies. They are not the same asset and they do not exit the same way. If a seller or a builder uses the two terms interchangeably, that on its own tells you something worth knowing.
Both are legitimate strategies. They are not the same asset and they do not exit the same way. If a seller or a builder uses the two terms interchangeably, that on its own tells you something worth knowing.
What happens if a lot doesn’t stack up?
Then it never reaches you. Most of what I assess is ruled out long before you ever see it, which is the point: the few lots that do reach you have already earned their place. If something falls over deep in due diligence, that isn’t a dead end. It’s my job to go straight back to the market and find the next one. A “no” from me never leaves you at square one. It leaves you with me, still searching, and one more data point on what we’re looking for.
How do I know the build won’t go wrong?
This is where most of the risk in a new build lives, so it’s where I concentrate. Before you commit, I read the build contract the way liability accrues, covering provisional sums, exclusions and variation clauses, and ensure the dual-occupancy details that prove ruinous in their absence (separate metering and services, fire and sound separation, ) are specified up front rather than discovered later. Through the build, your own licensed inspector, engaged by you directly, verifies every milestone; I check each claim and variation against the contract and that report, and prepare your response, so every decision stays yours and every one of them is informed. My review is practical and commercial rather than a legal opinion, so I’ll always require a Queensland-admitted solicitor, engaged by you and briefed by me, to check the contract before you sign. You never carry the builder, the contract and the detail on your own.