Dangers lurking in the bank of mum and dad - …...2016/02/06 · If so, it’s time to take a...
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WEALTH THE AUSTRALIAN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2016 theaustralian.com.au/wealth 35 V0 - AUSE01Z01MA Dangers lurking in the bank of mum and dad Average house prices in Australia fell by 0.5 per cent in the Decem- ber quarter with Sydney suffering the largest decline of 3.1 per cent. So what does this mean for parents who have, or are thinking about guaranteeing their children’s home loans? With a peaking property market and deteriorating housing affordability, Ramon Mitchell, Director of Acquisitions at Per- formance Property Advisory, has noticed an increasing trend of parents helping their children enter the property market via fam- ily guarantees. “We’re particularly noticing an increase in younger, first-home buyers who are making the most of this to get on to the increasingly difficult to reach first rung of the property ladder” says Mitchell. Under normal lending circum- stances, where a borrower does not have enough savings to meet a 20 per cent deposit plus stamp duty, the bank will either decline the loan or impose Lenders Mort- gage Insurance, which can cost thousands of dollars. Sydney mortgage broker Elaine Lam ex- plains “a family guarantee can be a useful tool that allows borrowers to finance property with little or no deposit, where their parents are willing to assist by providing a limited security guarantee secured against their home, an investment property or another financial assets such as a term deposit”. But the procedure can be a risky strategy as it allows borrow- ers to buy property with no cash and no evidence of genuine sav- ings, as long as the bank is satisfied the borrower can meet the on- going loan repayments, says Lam. In the event the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank will come after the parents for any losses and costs that the bank incurs. The benefit of a family guaran- tee lie solely with the borrower, not the guarantor, says Joseph Alam, head of retail business at finance broker Lendfin. “It can take upwards of 10 years to save for a deposit in some areas of Austra- lia and during this time the prop- erty market is likely to have lifted substantially, meaning the bor- rower keeps chasing ever shifting goalposts”. Mitchell has also witnessed the use of family guarantees to help children “buy into aspirational suburbs and avoid having to buy at a lower price then sell and upgrade a few years later, triggering a round of real estate agent fees, stamp duty and legal costs”. Sydney couple Daniel and Alyssa James recently bought a house-and-land package in Syd- ney’s northwest with the help of a family guarantee from Alyssa’s parent. The couple noted that “the family guarantee meant that we A parental guarantee is one way to get in the market but it comes with its own set of risks JAMES GERRARD PROPERTY could upgrade homes sooner and allow us to be closer to Sydney then we currently are”. For parents who already have a guarantee in place, Alam suggests a few pointers: ● The property is revalued every two years. If there is enough equity, the bank will release the parents from any liability of the original loan. ● If there isn’t enough equity to release the parents, Alam advises the parents and children have a frank talk on how long the guaran- tee is to remain in place and agree on an increased loan repayment schedule so that the children can reduce the debt to the point where the parents can exit the guarantee arrangement with the bank. ● For parents looking to pro- vide a family guarantee to their children for a property purchase, Lam advises that each party understand their obligations under the contract, and in particu- lar, the parents should seek legal advice on the repercussions if the children’s marriage dissolves. North Shore Property Sales principal Trevor Chan recom- mends “that an agreement should be drawn up between the parents and children to handle any poten- tial situations that could arise in the future to avoid future dis- putes”. Alam of Lendfin adds that “parents should speak with their children about the large responsi- bilities involved and ask how sta- ble their employment situation is.” Not all banks allow parental guarantees, while others have strict rules. Lam recommends that prospective borrowers thinking about a family guarantee first seek advice from a mortgage broker to find out their options and then discuss the potential scenarios with their parents. James Gerrard is the principal and director of independently owned Sydney financial planning firm FinancialAdvisor.com.au DANIEL WILKINS A parental guarantee can be a risky strategy as it allows borrowers to buy property with no cash and no evidence of genuine savings Energy market fears feed into bonds, equities It has become clear over this sum- mer that markets desire clarity and some degree of certainty sur- rounding the future of the global economy. Traditionally, when it becomes apparent that events are more sig- nificant than a shorter-term cor- rection, the key conversation among professionals in Austra- lia’s ultra-high-net-worth wealth advisory sector quickly shifts to fixed-income investing, seen by most as the prudent and defensive place to turn. This time around, though, the global investor appears to be caught on the horns of a dilemma because both Australian and international fixed-income fav- ourites, such as government or corporate bonds, are both expens- ive and unduly volatile. And there is little point turning to a volatile asset class that presents risks equivalent to those found in equi- ties (which also undeniably offer lower longer-term returns). Since August 2015’s so-called “Rates Riot”, when markets revolted against the idea of a US interest rate “lift-off” and also reports of Chinese, Saudi and Rus- sian Sovereign Wealth Funds sell- ing large parcels of US 10-year Treasury holdings to support cur- rencies pegged to either the US dollar or energy prices have raised eyebrows even in quarters such as the International Monetary Fund. When it comes to global en- ergy, Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s Pet- roleum Resources Minister last month at Davos astutely remind- ed us that, “Everyone emphasises price but (oil) price is really not the issue, it is the future of the oil in- dustry that is the issue … It is a whole lot more than price”. And he was right. As bond markets in effect re- flect the industry’s broad compo- sition, what these statements mean for fixed income and specifi- cally bond investors focusing on energy markets is determining which players will ultimately win and what are their probabilities of succeeding. The historically high levels of volatility are also reflect- ing a concern about this predica- ment, as after all, it is typically the role of equity not bond markets to separate the wheat from the chaff. Also remembering that fixed- income investments are tradition- ally seen as a shelter during vol- atile times, it has become unsettling to many to now accept that this asset class, in particular, is the actual eye of the global storm. As the graph highlights, the changes to energy markets seen since the “Oil Wars” began in late 2014 have immediately and di- rectly affected US (and other) high yielding fixed-income markets. But they have also by exten- sion, transmitted to interbank cre- dit markets, which now has the result of shifting the corporate creditworthiness of large Austra- lian mining and energy business- es, such as BHP and Origin. Despite these concerns, Deut- sche Bank (Australia) this week extended their buy recommen- dation on both Origin and BHP Hybrids based on these compan- ies’ underlying credit fundamen- tals and valuation. What the “credit crunch” of 2008 taught Australian local in- vestors is that it is always import- ant to keep a close eye on volatile credit markets and ensure that those levels of volatility do not in- fect the equity portion of related businesses, in this instance a com- pany such as BHP. Larkin Group is an ultra high net wealth adviser focusing on high- yielding global investments. www.larkingroup.com.au STIRLING LARKIN GLOBAL INVESTOR when Chinese equity markets peaked and then fell, Australian Government Bonds have led a global fixed-income rally that has left benchmark yields at danger- ous levels. This, in part, reflects the three well justified concerns of global investors at this time: ●Attention on Chinese, US, eurozone and Australian interest rate disparities ●Global Energy price patterns ●Questions surrounding the depth of liquidity in the most im- portant fixed income benchmark, the US 10-year Treasury Bill mar- ket. Diverging interest rate policies are not unprecedented but the combination of all three is. What’s more, with so much continued un- certainty UHNW global investors have been reappraising core, in- vestment grade and also high yielding bond investments. Even though the US 10-year Treasury Bill market is the deepest of all international mar- kets across any asset class, news Colour of money: blue chips end in the red As we begin 2016 you may be hop- ing for a better year than last year. If so, it’s time to take a hard, long look at your portfolio. Probability suggests that it is full of blue chips like the big banks, Telstra, Woolworths and perhaps BHP and Rio Tinto. As an aside, of course you’ve never sold them be- cause you’d have ‘‘to pay tax’’. Now take a look at the return they achieved for you last year. It wasn’t very impressive was it? After all, the ASX finished the last calendar year virtually un- changed. But step back a little further and you will find that the returns from many of these companies have been modest at best, even over a longer period. Look at Telstra: its share price today is lower than where it was 15 years ago. How about Woolworth? Well, the hare price is lower than where it was eight years ago. Not to mention BHP and NAB, where the share prices are lower than many, many years ago. What if the problem isn’t any- thing but the very stocks you con- sider blue chips themselves? May I suggest that conven- tional or traditional blue-chip companies — those big stalwarts that have been around forever and are believed to have reliable dividends — aren’t blue-chip companies at all. Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily understandable business where earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher five, 10 and 20 years from now. If you put togeth- er a portfolio of companies where aggregate earnings march upward over the years, then so also will the portfolio’s market value. Back in 2014 the income re- cession — investors’ cash was earning zilch in term deposits — forced investors to chase higher- yielding dividend shares. Their ef- forts appeared to be self- reinforcing, as the buying of those who followed in 2015 rewarded early adopters. Unsurprisingly, with share pri- ces elevated but unsupported by ‘‘aggregate earnings marching up- wards’’, they eventually collapsed, causing investors to lose valuable retirement buying power. All of this can be avoided if in- vestors understand how a com- pany increases in value. Over the long run, the share price will follow the underlying or intrinsic value of a company, so in- stead of trying to predict prices, you can turn your attention away from the so called ‘‘stockmarket’’ and simply spend your time iden- tifying businesses that will in- 10 years, it may still trade for quad- ruple the amount deposited ($240m) and the buyer who paid $40m would be satisfied with their return. We can replace the bank ac- count analogy with a company and by renaming the money in the account ‘‘equity’’ and the interest rate ‘‘return on equity’’ we have the ingredients for a true blue- chip company. A true blue-chip is a company able to retain a large portion of its profits and redeploy those re- tained profits at a very high rate of return. True blue chips aren’t always big; in fact often they’re small and mid-cap companies. So now take another look at each of the stocks in your portfolio and find out what percentage of their earnings they have paid out to you as dividends. If the percentage is very high, it might mean you’ve enjoyed some satisfying income but that income has been at the expense of future earnings growth. Importantly, it’s earnings growth that will drive the market value of your portfolio. If thus far you have been chas- ing dividend yields from tra- ditional blue chips thinking your wealth will be protected, 2016 may just be the year to start afresh with a ‘‘rational’’ approach. Roger Montgomery is founder and chief investment officer of the Montgomery Fund. www.montinvest.com ROGER MONTGOMERY crease in value. Think of a special bank account with $10 million de- posited and ready to earn its owner 20 per cent per annum in interest forever. Assume this obviously special bank account retains all of its in- terest and is allowed to compound for a decade or more. If we auctioned it today, I sus- pect that 20 per cent interest would be too mouth-watering to ignore and frenzied bidding may see the $10m account sell for dou- ble, triple or even quadruple the amount of money deposited. If it sold for $40m, or four times the equity at the time of purchase, would the buyer have purchased a blue-chip investment? In 10 year’s time, the account will have over $60m deposited and it would still be earning 20 per cent. A great deal of value has been created simply by the passing of time and the ability of the bank ac- count to retain its earnings and re- deploy them at a high rate of return. If we auction the account after Turn your attention away from the stockmarket and identify businesses that will increase in value Reader Ofer from Military History Tours & Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures OUR OTHER ANZAC DAY 2016 VIENNA TO THE VATICAN April 21 to 30, 2016 Join Military History Tours in April 2016 as we lead a tour to Northern France for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux and tours of the Western Front for those wishing to visit graves, tour battlefelds or just pay their respects. We invite you to join us in April 2016 to pay homage to those that fought and died in the service of their country. For more information call 1300 364 671 or visit www.militaryhistorytours.com.au Join our Special Guest Host Tim Fischer AC, former Ambassador to the Vatican, as he accompanies both tours. Optional add on through our friends at Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures May 1 to 18, 2016 Venture from Vienna to the Austrian Alps, onto the dramatic peaks of the Dolomites and Northern Italy, home to spectacular mountain railways. Relax in Tuscany and Rome where a long stay at our favourite hotel allows for numerous day trips and excursions in and around the eternal city. For more information call 1300 733 323 or visit www.railwayadventures.com Military History Tours and Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures are the tour organisers. Neither News Limited, nor any of its subsidiaries nor any of their newspapers have any involvement in the tours, and have no liability of any kind to any person in relation to the tours.
Transcript of Dangers lurking in the bank of mum and dad - …...2016/02/06 · If so, it’s time to take a...
WEALTH THE AUSTRALIAN,SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2016
theaustralian.com.au/wealth 35V0 - AUSE01Z01MA
Dangers lurking in the bank of mum and dad
Average house prices in Australiafell by 0.5 per cent in the Decem-ber quarter with Sydney sufferingthe largest decline of 3.1 per cent.So what does this mean for parentswho have, or are thinking aboutguaranteeing their children’shome loans?
With a peaking propertymarket and deteriorating housingaffordability, Ramon Mitchell,Director of Acquisitions at Per-formance Property Advisory, hasnoticed an increasing trend ofparents helping their childrenenter the property market via fam-ily guarantees. “We’re particularlynoticing an increase in younger,first-home buyers who are makingthe most of this to get on to theincreasingly difficult to reach firstrung of the property ladder” saysMitchell.
Under normal lending circum-stances, where a borrower doesnot have enough savings to meet a20 per cent deposit plus stampduty, the bank will either declinethe loan or impose Lenders Mort-
gage Insurance, which can costthousands of dollars. Sydneymortgage broker Elaine Lam ex-plains “a family guarantee can be auseful tool that allows borrowersto finance property with little or nodeposit, where their parents arewilling to assist by providing alimited security guarantee securedagainst their home, an investmentproperty or another financialassets such as a term deposit”.
But the procedure can be arisky strategy as it allows borrow-ers to buy property with no cashand no evidence of genuine sav-ings, as long as the bank is satisfiedthe borrower can meet the on-going loan repayments, says Lam.In the event the borrower defaultson the loan, the bank will comeafter the parents for any losses andcosts that the bank incurs.
The benefit of a family guaran-tee lie solely with the borrower,not the guarantor, says JosephAlam, head of retail business atfinance broker Lendfin. “It cantake upwards of 10 years to save fora deposit in some areas of Austra-lia and during this time the prop-erty market is likely to have liftedsubstantially, meaning the bor-rower keeps chasing ever shiftinggoalposts”.
Mitchell has also witnessed the
use of family guarantees to helpchildren “buy into aspirationalsuburbs and avoid having to buy ata lower price then sell and upgradea few years later, triggering around of real estate agent fees,stamp duty and legal costs”.
Sydney couple Daniel andAlyssa James recently bought ahouse-and-land package in Syd-ney’s northwest with the help of afamily guarantee from Alyssa’sparent. The couple noted that “thefamily guarantee meant that we
A parental guarantee is one way to get in the market but it comes with its own set of risks
JAMES GERRARD PROPERTY
could upgrade homes sooner andallow us to be closer to Sydneythen we currently are”.
For parents who already have aguarantee in place, Alam suggestsa few pointers:
● The property is revaluedevery two years. If there is enoughequity, the bank will release theparents from any liability of theoriginal loan.
● If there isn’t enough equity torelease the parents, Alam advisesthe parents and children have a
frank talk on how long the guaran-tee is to remain in place and agreeon an increased loan repaymentschedule so that the children canreduce the debt to the point wherethe parents can exit the guaranteearrangement with the bank.
● For parents looking to pro-vide a family guarantee to theirchildren for a property purchase,Lam advises that each partyunderstand their obligationsunder the contract, and in particu-lar, the parents should seek legal
advice on the repercussions if thechildren’s marriage dissolves.
North Shore Property Salesprincipal Trevor Chan recom-mends “that an agreement shouldbe drawn up between the parentsand children to handle any poten-tial situations that could arise inthe future to avoid future dis-putes”. Alam of Lendfin adds that“parents should speak with theirchildren about the large responsi-bilities involved and ask how sta-ble their employment situation is.”
Not all banks allow parentalguarantees, while others havestrict rules. Lam recommends thatprospective borrowers thinkingabout a family guarantee first seekadvice from a mortgage broker tofind out their options and thendiscuss the potential scenarioswith their parents.
James Gerrard is the principal and director of independently owned Sydney financial planning firm FinancialAdvisor.com.au
DANIEL WILKINS
A parental guarantee can be a risky strategy as it allows borrowers to buy property with no cash and no evidence of genuine savings
Energy market fears feed into bonds, equities
It has become clear over this sum-mer that markets desire clarityand some degree of certainty sur-rounding the future of the globaleconomy.
Traditionally, when it becomesapparent that events are more sig-nificant than a shorter-term cor-rection, the key conversationamong professionals in Austra-lia’s ultra-high-net-worth wealthadvisory sector quickly shifts tofixed-income investing, seen bymost as the prudent and defensiveplace to turn.
This time around, though, theglobal investor appears to becaught on the horns of a dilemmabecause both Australian andinternational fixed-income fav-ourites, such as government orcorporate bonds, are both expens-ive and unduly volatile. And thereis little point turning to a volatileasset class that presents risksequivalent to those found in equi-ties (which also undeniably offerlower longer-term returns).
Since August 2015’s so-called“Rates Riot”, when marketsrevolted against the idea of a USinterest rate “lift-off” and also
reports of Chinese, Saudi and Rus-sian Sovereign Wealth Funds sell-ing large parcels of US 10-yearTreasury holdings to support cur-rencies pegged to either the USdollar or energy prices have raisedeyebrows even in quarters such asthe International Monetary Fund.
When it comes to global en-ergy, Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s Pet-roleum Resources Minister lastmonth at Davos astutely remind-ed us that, “Everyone emphasisesprice but (oil) price is really not theissue, it is the future of the oil in-dustry that is the issue … It is awhole lot more than price”.
And he was right. As bond markets in effect re-
flect the industry’s broad compo-sition, what these statementsmean for fixed income and specifi-cally bond investors focusing onenergy markets is determiningwhich players will ultimately winand what are their probabilities ofsucceeding. The historically highlevels of volatility are also reflect-ing a concern about this predica-
ment, as after all, it is typically therole of equity not bond markets toseparate the wheat from the chaff.
Also remembering that fixed-income investments are tradition-ally seen as a shelter during vol-atile times, it has becomeunsettling to many to now acceptthat this asset class, in particular, isthe actual eye of the global storm.
As the graph highlights, thechanges to energy markets seensince the “Oil Wars” began in late2014 have immediately and di-rectly affected US (and other) highyielding fixed-income markets.
But they have also by exten-sion, transmitted to interbank cre-dit markets, which now has theresult of shifting the corporatecreditworthiness of large Austra-lian mining and energy business-es, such as BHP and Origin.
Despite these concerns, Deut-sche Bank (Australia) this weekextended their buy recommen-dation on both Origin and BHPHybrids based on these compan-ies’ underlying credit fundamen-tals and valuation.
What the “credit crunch” of2008 taught Australian local in-vestors is that it is always import-ant to keep a close eye on volatilecredit markets and ensure thatthose levels of volatility do not in-fect the equity portion of relatedbusinesses, in this instance a com-pany such as BHP.
Larkin Group is an ultra high net wealth adviser focusing on high- yielding global investments. www.larkingroup.com.au
STIRLING LARKINGLOBAL INVESTOR
when Chinese equity marketspeaked and then fell, AustralianGovernment Bonds have led aglobal fixed-income rally that hasleft benchmark yields at danger-ous levels. This, in part, reflects thethree well justified concerns ofglobal investors at this time:
●Attention on Chinese, US,eurozone and Australian interestrate disparities
●Global Energy price patterns●Questions surrounding the
depth of liquidity in the most im-portant fixed income benchmark,the US 10-year Treasury Bill mar-ket.
Diverging interest rate policiesare not unprecedented but thecombination of all three is. What’smore, with so much continued un-certainty UHNW global investorshave been reappraising core, in-vestment grade and also highyielding bond investments.
Even though the US 10-yearTreasury Bill market is thedeepest of all international mar-kets across any asset class, news
Colour of money: blue chips end in the red
As we begin 2016 you may be hop-ing for a better year than last year.
If so, it’s time to take a hard,long look at your portfolio.
Probability suggests that it isfull of blue chips like the big banks,Telstra, Woolworths and perhapsBHP and Rio Tinto. As an aside, ofcourse you’ve never sold them be-cause you’d have ‘‘to pay tax’’.
Now take a look at the returnthey achieved for you last year. Itwasn’t very impressive was it?After all, the ASX finished the lastcalendar year virtually un-changed.
But step back a little furtherand you will find that the returnsfrom many of these companieshave been modest at best, evenover a longer period.
Look at Telstra: its share pricetoday is lower than where it was 15years ago.
How about Woolworth? Well,the hare price is lower than whereit was eight years ago.
Not to mention BHP and NAB,where the share prices are lowerthan many, many years ago.
What if the problem isn’t any-thing but the very stocks you con-sider blue chips themselves?
May I suggest that conven-tional or traditional blue-chipcompanies — those big stalwartsthat have been around foreverand are believed to have reliabledividends — aren’t blue-chipcompanies at all.
Your goal as an investor shouldsimply be to purchase, at a rationalprice, a part interest in an easilyunderstandable business whereearnings are virtually certain to bematerially higher five, 10 and 20years from now. If you put togeth-er a portfolio of companies whereaggregate earnings march upwardover the years, then so also will theportfolio’s market value.
Back in 2014 the income re-cession — investors’ cash wasearning zilch in term deposits —forced investors to chase higher-yielding dividend shares. Their ef-forts appeared to be self-reinforcing, as the buying of thosewho followed in 2015 rewardedearly adopters.
Unsurprisingly, with share pri-ces elevated but unsupported by‘‘aggregate earnings marching up-wards’’, they eventually collapsed,causing investors to lose valuableretirement buying power.
All of this can be avoided if in-vestors understand how a com-pany increases in value.
Over the long run, the shareprice will follow the underlying orintrinsic value of a company, so in-stead of trying to predict prices,you can turn your attention awayfrom the so called ‘‘stockmarket’’and simply spend your time iden-tifying businesses that will in-
10 years, it may still trade for quad-ruple the amount deposited($240m) and the buyer who paid$40m would be satisfied with theirreturn.
We can replace the bank ac-count analogy with a companyand by renaming the money in theaccount ‘‘equity’’ and the interestrate ‘‘return on equity’’ we havethe ingredients for a true blue-chip company.
A true blue-chip is a companyable to retain a large portion of itsprofits and redeploy those re-tained profits at a very high rate ofreturn.
True blue chips aren’t alwaysbig; in fact often they’re small andmid-cap companies.
So now take another look ateach of the stocks in your portfolioand find out what percentage oftheir earnings they have paid outto you as dividends.
If the percentage is very high, itmight mean you’ve enjoyed somesatisfying income but that incomehas been at the expense of futureearnings growth.
Importantly, it’s earningsgrowth that will drive the marketvalue of your portfolio.
If thus far you have been chas-ing dividend yields from tra-ditional blue chips thinking yourwealth will be protected, 2016 mayjust be the year to start afresh witha ‘‘rational’’ approach.
Roger Montgomery is founder and chief investment officer of the Montgomery Fund. www.montinvest.com
ROGER MONTGOMERYcrease in value. Think of a specialbank account with $10 million de-posited and ready to earn itsowner 20 per cent per annum ininterest forever.
Assume this obviously specialbank account retains all of its in-terest and is allowed to compoundfor a decade or more.
If we auctioned it today, I sus-pect that 20 per cent interestwould be too mouth-watering toignore and frenzied bidding maysee the $10m account sell for dou-ble, triple or even quadruple the
amount of money deposited. If itsold for $40m, or four times theequity at the time of purchase,would the buyer have purchased ablue-chip investment?
In 10 year’s time, the accountwill have over $60m depositedand it would still be earning 20 percent.
A great deal of value has beencreated simply by the passing oftime and the ability of the bank ac-count to retain its earnings and re-deploy them at a high rate ofreturn.
If we auction the account after
Turn your attention away from the stockmarket and identify businessesthat will increasein value
Reader Ofer from Military History Tours & Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures
OUR OTHER ANZAC DAY 2016
VIENNA TO THE VATICAN
April 21 to 30, 2016
Join Military History Tours in April 2016 as we lead a tour to Northern France for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux and tours of the Western Front for those wishing to visit graves, tour battlefelds or just pay their respects.
We invite you to join us in April 2016 to pay homage to those that fought and died in the service of their country.
For more information call 1300 364 671 or visit www.militaryhistorytours.com.au
Join our Special Guest Host Tim Fischer AC, former Ambassador to the Vatican, as he accompanies both tours.
Optional add on through our friends at Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures
May 1 to 18, 2016
Venture from Vienna to the Austrian Alps, onto the dramatic peaks of the Dolomites and Northern Italy, home to spectacular mountain railways. Relax in Tuscany and Rome where a long stay at our favourite hotel allows for numerous day trips and excursions in and around the eternal city.
For more information call 1300 733 323 or visit www.railwayadventures.com
Military History Tours and Scott McGregor’s Railway Adventures are the tour organisers. Neither News Limited, nor any of its subsidiaries nor any of their newspapers have any involvement in the tours, and have no liability of any kind to any person in relation to the tours.
