Growth is easy to measure and difficult to earn. Many businesses expand by widening what they sell; a rare few expand because they have built something so compelling that others are drawn to carry it forward as their own. It is this second, harder kind of growth that has come to define TDA.
Theo Mavratzakis and Daniel Farrugia, both Certified Quantity Surveyors, built one of Australia's most respected property services brands, and their partnership has shaped every milestone the company has reached. The chapter now being written is the most ambitious yet: TDA is now Australia's first tax depreciation franchise, a vision honed by two founders and entrusted to operators across the country, each one determined to make it their own.
It is one thing to build a business. It is another to build something that takes root in towns and cities beyond where its founders stand, and flourishes there in the hands of local people who believe in it. That is what sits at the centre of TDA Franchising, and the reason this next chapter matters.
The product was never the hard part
TDA began with a single service and has grown into a one-stop destination for property investors yet ask either founder what changed along the way and neither point to the service menu: depreciation schedules and independent valuations are still the product, prepared by certified experts.
The harder work was making sure the people who needed that product understood its value before they ever picked up the phone. That is a different discipline, and not one you can practise from behind a desk: it happens at industry events, in conversation, the moment an investor realises they have been leaving money on the table for years.
Anyone who works in this industry knows the pattern: where the TDA name appears, you will usually find Theo and Daniel, or a room of people asking where they are. Theo makes the case for depreciation; Daniel shows you the numbers. Across a country of investors who could use the same guidance, the question became how to extend the reach of what they had built.
TDA Franchising was not a growth strategy drawn up on a spreadsheet. It answered a specific question: how do you put that same expertise in front of an investor in Perth or Townsville, delivered by someone who belongs to that community?
The answer was local, and deliberately so. Rather than directing expertise outward from head office, the model places a franchisee inside the community they serve, someone who knows the local market, attends the local events, and becomes the recognisable face of TDA in a region of their own. That builds the kind of familiarity TDA was founded on and carries it into conversations a national brand cannot reach from a distance.
Preparing the model to be handed over took the same commitment that built it, including travelling to Las Vegas for the International Franchise Association Annual Convention to sit among franchisors who had already worked through the same challenges, and to study how the best networks in the world operate at scale.
Handing over a business you built by hand is harder than it looks, and for years the value of TDA appeared to sit in Theo and Daniel being in the room. Franchising surfaced a more useful truth: the real measure of any franchise is not the logo and not the founders' reputation, but whether the model holds regardless of who is running it.
Why now
The negative gearing changes from the May 2026 Federal Budget are now law. Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, with the changes taking effect from 1 July 2027. Many investors have gone quiet on depreciation since the Budget announcement, assuming it's been swept up in the reform.
It hasn't. Depreciation is separate, and the changes are narrower than the coverage suggests: commercial property, new builds, grandfathered contracts and super funds all sit outside them. That distinction is easily lost in a headline, and it's exactly the kind of clarity a local franchise network can provide, market by market. Independent valuations have become more relevant at the same time, driven by capital gains and SMSF considerations that sit apart from negative gearing altogether.
So, if you are wondering whether this is an odd moment to step forward, the answer is straightforward. When a market gets complicated, people look for specialists, and a complex market is no headwind for a business built on explaining complexity clearly. It is the reason the phone rings.
Pressed on where the network goes next, the founders' answer is a TDA franchise in every Australian territory, supported by a head office that keeps strengthening the systems underneath. Success, as they measure it, is not franchise count; it is how many investors and property professionals understand what TDA does and why it matters.
One discipline has held since the first year: never put a number in front of a prospective franchisee that the business cannot stand behind. That is easily said and harder to maintain as a network grows.
If you are a property professional looking to build something of your own, or weighing up your first franchise, what TDA offers is a model already tested in the market, a territory you can make your own, and two founders who are still in the room. The work of explaining depreciation to Australian investors is a long way from finished, and there is a place in it for you.
Visit tdaqs.com.au/franchising to find out more.
General information only and is not tax, financial or legal advice.
