We are not licensed to tell you whether to buy property through your super. That is a conversation for a licensed financial adviser. What we can do — once your adviser and your accountant have signed off on the strategy — is find the property, check that it is eligible, and negotiate it. — Joey Don
Read this first: PremiumRea holds no Australian Financial Services Licence and no Australian Credit Licence. We do not advise on superannuation, self-managed super funds, borrowing arrangements or any financial product, and nothing on this page takes account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Whether an SMSF suits you, whether your fund should hold direct property, and how any of it should be structured are questions for a licensed financial adviser and a registered tax agent — start with ASIC's free, independent guidance at moneysmart.gov.au. This page assumes those decisions have already been made properly, and explains only the part we are actually qualified to do: sourcing, screening and negotiating the property itself.
Superannuation law constrains what a fund can buy in ways that change the acquisition brief before we look at a single listing. The single acquirable asset rule under s 67A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 is the big one: where the fund is borrowing, the arrangement must relate to a single acquirable asset. A property spanning two separate titles is not one asset. That is a property-selection question, and it is squarely our job to catch it before a contract is signed.
Related-party occupancy is prohibited for residential property. That is not a preference or a risk to be managed — it removes an entire category of property from consideration for a fund that wanted the flexibility. Again: a brief constraint, not advice.
While a limited recourse borrowing arrangement is on foot, the fund cannot change the character of the asset. In practice that rules out granny-flat additions, subdivision and structural renovation — the three value-add strategies that make up most of our work. A fund buying direct property is generally looking at move-in-ready stock, and it should be priced accordingly.
Source: ATO — restrictions on SMSF investments, and ATO ruling SMSFR 2012/1 on the single acquirable asset rule. We are not a registered tax agent; where the ruling's application to your fund is arguable, that is a question for yours.
Eligibility screening before offer. Title search for multiple lots, a check that the property is genuinely a single acquirable asset, confirmation that nothing in the plan of subdivision or the owners corporation structure complicates it, and a read of the Section 32 statement for anything that would obstruct the fund's stated purpose.
The same due diligence we run on every purchase: planning overlays, easements, covenants, flood and bushfire exposure, building and pest, comparable sales analysis, and a negotiation strategy.
Coordination with the professionals you have already engaged. Your accountant, your adviser and your solicitor own the fund-side work — the trust deed, the holding trust, the compliance sign-off. We work to their instructions on structure and we do not substitute our judgement for theirs. If you have not yet engaged them, engage them before you engage us.
What we do not do: recommend or introduce lenders, comment on your fund's borrowing capacity, opine on whether your balance is sufficient, or model the fund's tax position. We are not licensed for any of it, and a buyer's agent who offers to do it for you should give you pause.
The fee for an acquisition where the purchaser is a fund is $18,500 + GST, against $15,800 + GST for a standard investment acquisition. The difference reflects the additional title and eligibility work described above and the longer coordination chain — not any financial or structuring advice, which we do not provide.
We take no referral fee, commission or other benefit from any accountant, solicitor, broker or lender, on this or any other engagement. Where you ask us for names we will give you people we have worked with, and we earn nothing either way.
No. We hold no Australian Financial Services Licence and we are not permitted to advise on superannuation, SMSFs or any financial product. That decision belongs to a licensed financial adviser, with a registered tax agent on the tax questions. ASIC's Moneysmart service publishes free, independent guidance on SMSFs and is a good place to start. Once the decision has been made on proper advice, we can act as your buyer's agent on the property itself.
There is no legislated minimum SMSF balance. Any specific dollar threshold you see quoted — including one that appeared on this page until August 2026 — is somebody's rule of thumb, not a rule, and we have withdrawn ours because recommending a course of action keyed to your superannuation balance is financial advice we are not licensed to give. ASIC and the ATO have both published concerns about low-balance funds on cost-efficiency grounds; take that to a licensed adviser who can assess your actual circumstances.
We cannot and do not. PremiumRea holds no Australian Credit Licence and is not a credit assistance provider, so we do not name, rank, compare or steer you toward lenders. Lender participation in this segment changes, and a licensed mortgage broker is the person to ask. We have removed content from this page that previously counted and characterised the lender market.
Where a fund borrows under a limited recourse borrowing arrangement, s 67A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 requires the arrangement to relate to a single acquirable asset. A property held across two separate titles is generally not a single asset. This is a property-selection question we screen for before an offer is made. The ATO sets out its view in ruling SMSFR 2012/1; how it applies to your fund is a question for your accountant.
Not while a limited recourse borrowing arrangement is on foot — those works would change the character of the acquirable asset. This is the constraint that most changes the acquisition brief, because it removes the value-add strategies that make up the majority of our other work. It is the reason a fund purchase is usually a move-in-ready property. Confirm the position for your specific circumstances with your accountant.
Residential property held by a fund cannot be rented to a related party. This is a hard constraint on what the fund can buy and how it can be used, and it is one we check for at the brief stage. Your accountant or adviser will confirm how the related-party rules apply to your situation.
30 minutes, free, no obligation. Joey personally takes the first call.
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