Is there a case for revising this advice on the grounds that you mention?
I will update the Key Post later, but let's tease it out here and see can we construct a set of "depression-era" circumstances where it might make sense to buy a property through a company?
I have been badly advised over the years and I now have €800k cash in the company. I want to buy a property for €1.5m
I buy the property in the company - €800k cash and €700k bank loan.
The business starts to lose serious money - say €200k a year and there is no hope for the future.
The price of the property drops by 50%.
I now have a serious cash-flow problem - I can't pay my creditors.
I put the company into liquidation and the liquidator sells the property.
I will end up with nothing.
So in a sense, I have lost my €800k tax efficiently. I have not worked out all the implications of this, but it could possibly work out better in these exagerrated circumstances for the person to buy a property through a company.
Here is a more likely scenario.
You buy a property for €1.5m through a healthy profitable company.
In ten years' time, the property is worth €3m but the market has changed and the company is losing money.
You struggle on for years with a loss-making company because it is asset-backed.
Eventually you lose the lot.
If you had bought the company personally, the losses would be far more obvious earlier on and you would close down the loss making business. You would end up owning the property personally. Sure you might have difficulty getting a tenant, but that's the way property investment works.