Real estate agent car deductions are among the most valuable tax claims available to property professionals in Australia. Between open homes, property inspections, client meetings, and auctions, agents spend a significant portion of their working week behind the wheel. The ATO recognises this — and provides clear rules for claiming those kilometres.
For the 2025–26 financial year, the cents per kilometre rate is 88 cents/km (capped at 5,000 km), or you can use the logbook method to claim your actual business-use percentage with no kilometre cap. This guide covers what you can claim, what you cannot, and how to keep ATO-compliant records.
Deductible car trips for real estate agents
You can claim car expenses when you travel between two work locations during the day. For real estate agents, deductible trips typically include:
- Office to open home — driving from the agency to conduct an inspection or open for inspection
- Open home to open home — travelling between back-to-back inspections
- Office to auction — attending an auction at a property listing
- Client meeting at a property — visiting a vendor’s home for a listing presentation or market appraisal
- Office to training — driving to a CPD seminar or real estate conference at a different venue
- Between branch offices — if your agency has multiple locations and you work across them on the same day
Every one of these trips generates deductible kilometres. An active sales agent can easily accumulate 15,000–25,000 business kilometres per year.
Home-to-work travel: the commuting rule
The ATO does not allow you to claim travel from home to your regular workplace. For most agents, this means the drive from home to the office each morning is private — not deductible.
Exception: home office as your base. If you have a genuine home office that serves as your primary base of operations (not just a desk where you answer emails), travel from your home office to a property inspection may be deductible. The ATO scrutinises this claim, so you need evidence that your home is your principal place of business.
Exception: first appointment of the day. If you drive directly from home to an open home or client meeting (without stopping at the office first), the trip from home to that first work appointment is generally not deductible — it is treated as commuting. However, the trip from that first appointment to the next work location is deductible.
Cents per km vs logbook method
Cents per kilometre (88c/km in 2025–26)
- Claim up to 5,000 business kilometres
- Maximum deduction: $4,400
- No logbook required
- Covers all car costs — fuel, insurance, rego, depreciation, servicing
This method is simple but limiting. Most active real estate agents drive well beyond 5,000 business km per year. If you do 20,000 business km, you still only claim 5,000 under this method.
Logbook method
- Maintain a 12-week logbook (valid for five years)
- Claim the business percentage of actual expenses — no km cap
- Requires receipts for fuel, insurance, registration, servicing, depreciation
- Better for agents with high business-use percentages and newer vehicles
For most real estate agents, the logbook method delivers a significantly larger deduction. If your business-use percentage is 70% and your total car costs are $18,000, your deduction is $12,600 — triple the cents-per-km maximum.
For step-by-step logbook instructions, see ATO Logbook Requirements.
Parking and tolls
Parking at open homes and inspections is deductible. If you pay for parking at a property you are inspecting, a client meeting venue, or an auction location, claim the expense.
Parking at your regular office is not deductible. The ATO treats this as a private commuting cost, regardless of whether your employer charges you or the car park is paid.
Tolls incurred during work travel are deductible. If you use a toll road to travel between properties or between the office and an inspection, claim the toll. Keep your e-tag statements as evidence.
Tolls on your regular commute are not deductible.
Phone and car-related tech
Real estate agents who use their mobile phone for navigation, client calls, and property apps can claim the business percentage of their phone costs. If you use a dashboard-mounted phone holder, a hands-free kit, or a GPS device exclusively for work travel, these are deductible.
Tripbook runs in the background on your iPhone, automatically tracking every trip with GPS. There is no need to remember to start or stop a tracker — it detects your driving and logs the route, distance, and time. At the end of the week, classify each trip as business or personal with a swipe.
Record-keeping for real estate agents
The ATO expects you to substantiate your claims. For car expenses, keep:
- Logbook — 12 continuous weeks recording date, odometer start/end, destination, and purpose
- Receipts — fuel, servicing, insurance, rego, tyres, and car wash
- Toll statements — e-tag or toll account summaries
- Parking receipts — for work-related parking only
- Calendar or CRM records — showing property inspections, open homes, and client meetings on specific dates
Your logbook is valid for five years, but you should start a new one if your travel patterns change — for example, if you change agencies, move house, or shift from sales to property management.
Depreciation and the car cost limit
If you own your vehicle and use the logbook method, you can claim depreciation. The ATO car cost limit for 2025–26 is $69,674 — meaning you can only depreciate up to this amount, even if your car cost more.
The ATO’s effective life for a car is eight years. You can use the diminishing value method (larger claims in earlier years) or the prime cost method (equal claims each year).
For details on vehicle depreciation, see Motor Vehicle Depreciation ATO.
Maximise your real estate agent car deductions
Start a logbook today if you do not already have one. Most real estate agents significantly under-claim because they use the cents-per-km method when the logbook method would double or triple their deduction.
Download Tripbook to automate your kilometre tracking. Every trip between properties, open homes, and client meetings is captured with GPS accuracy — giving you an ATO-compliant record without the manual effort.
