Have you considered buying property with your Superannuation?

There are more and more people taking advantage of the fact you can buy property using your existing superannuation. It is not for everyone – but for me it just makes sense. If you have a reasonable understanding of the property market – or have some trusted advisors that do, then it is certainly worth considering.

The first step in seeing whether this option will suit both your circumstances and your long-term financial goals. You will need to see a Financial Planner authorized to give advice around setting up Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF) to help determine this. You can combine your super with your partners, but realistically to buy residential property using your existing super you will need combined super of at least $150,000.

It is a bit of rigmarole to set up a SMSF, but if you have a good accountant who is familiar with SMSF’s then the ongoing work is fairly minimal.   The main benefits in buying property through a SMSF using your existing super is as follows:

1. The rent and usual super contributions your employer makes are often enough to pay off the mortgage principal & interest.
2. When you reach retirement age – you can sell the property and not incur ANY capital gains tax (this is likely to save you hundreds of thousands of dollars).
3. You can buy both residential and commercial property (there are some restrictions) – if you are a business owner one great idea would be to buy the building your business operates out of – as you’re paying rent anyway!
4. Whatever you do inside the SMSF will not affect your borrowing capacity outside the fund (i.e. your personal situation).

Banks have struggled to get their head around this type of lending and the governments are looking at restricting it a bit – but even if there are any legislation changes in the future (which they’ve talked about for years but nothing has really changed as yet) – it is highly unlikely to effect those that already have SMSF’s set up.

As this is quite a specialized area and not all banks, mortgage brokers, financial advisors or accountants are really experienced with them, it’s important to get the right advice. Having run a number of seminars over the years on this topic, and having set up my own SMSF, I am fortunate to have some great connections in this arena – so if you would like to be pointed in the right direction then please feel free to call me on 0408 585 319 or email me at tamara.lloyd@raywhite.com and I’d be happy to help.