Question 1

What is the HOLD System?

Accepted Answer

The HOLD System is a four-part property ownership framework developed by Mark Kilroy. It helps owners protect their capacity to keep a property through changing cash flow, costs, markets and life circumstances.

Question 2

What does HOLD stand for?

Accepted Answer

HOLD stands for Hold, Optimise, Leverage and Defend. Holding costs, liquidity, demand, finance, depreciation, insurance and decision timing sit beneath those four pillars as practical considerations.

Question 3

Why does the HOLD framework matter for housing supply?

Accepted Answer

Most housing policy focuses on acquisition: first-home buyer grants, stamp duty concessions and planning reform. But the rental market is supplied by investors who must continue to hold the asset, often for decades. When holding costs outpace rents and incomes, those owners exit, dwellings come out of the rental pool, and supply contracts even when no new policy has been passed.

Question 4

Who developed the HOLD System?

Accepted Answer

The HOLD System was developed by Mark Kilroy, a Chartered Quantity Surveyor (MRICS) and Registered Tax Agent with more than 25 years of experience in construction cost analysis and tax depreciation. It synthesises pattern recognition from approximately 4,000 depreciation reports per year completed by his firm Koste across every Australian property category.

The HOLD System

Australia does not have a
rental problem

What we are told

What actually happens

No one measures HOLD

Hold

Optimise

Leverage

Defend

The Holding Gap is where investors are tested

Rental supply exits before
new supply arrives

Tenants feel the shortage

You cannot build fast enough
to replace exits

HOLD is under pressure

Ignoring HOLD makes shortages worse

Protect HOLD first

Cash flow keeps housing alive

I see the exit before the shortage

Fix HOLD. Fix housing.