For self-managed super funds
SMSF property management in Brisbane.
A property your super fund owns is managed to a different standard than one you own yourself. The rent has to be arm's length and provable, nobody related can go near it, and every year the fund has to put a market value on it. We run the tenancy so all of that holds - and the accountants and advisers who use the paperwork are in the same building.
What actually changes
Same property. Different rules.
Most of what makes an SMSF-owned rental different happens in the tenancy, which is the part a buyer's agent or an adviser never touches. This is the part we own.
Market rent, evidenced
Rent going into a fund has to be arm's length, and that is a thing you prove rather than assert. Every new tenancy and every renewal comes with the comparable rentals the figure was set from, dated and kept on file, so the number in the fund's accounts has something behind it.
Nobody related moves in
Residential property owned by a fund cannot be used by a member or a relative. Not for a weekend, not at full market rent. We run the tenancy at arm's length end to end, so the question never arises and there is a paper trail showing it did not.
Repairs and improvements kept apart
Where the property was bought with borrowed money the distinction matters: borrowed funds can restore the asset, they cannot improve it. We flag work that reads as an improvement before it is ordered rather than after, and put it to your accountant.
An end-of-year pack your auditor can use
Income and expenses reconciled, the lease, the rent evidence, invoices split repair from capital, and a current market appraisal. One file, sent when the fund needs it, instead of a scramble in September.
The right entity on the paperwork
Where a limited recourse borrowing arrangement is in place the legal title sits with a bare trustee, not the fund. Getting that name right on the management agreement and the tenancy is basic, and it is the sort of basic that agencies who have not done this before get wrong.
48-hour response
Every owner and tenant enquiry answered within 48 hours, and emergencies handled the same day. Not a hold queue, not a ticket number - an answer.
Your annual SMSF property valuation, included.
Every year the fund has to report its assets at market value, and property is the one nobody has a number for. It is the reason trustees end up buying a PDF.
Desktop SMSF valuation reports sell for somewhere between $85 and $245, produced by someone who has never seen the property, from the same sales data anybody can pull. For a property we manage, we already know the building, the tenancy and what comparable places actually leased for - not what they were advertised at.
So we prepare a written market and rental appraisal for every SMSF property we manage, once a year, at no charge, with the comparable sales and rentals it was built from. It goes in the end-of-year pack with everything else the fund needs.
An appraisal is not a formal sworn valuation. For most funds, in most years, documented comparable evidence is what is needed - but if your auditor asks for a certified valuation for a particular reason, we will say so and help you get one rather than pretend an appraisal covers it.
What lands in the end-of-year pack
- Income and expenses for the year, reconciled
- The current lease and any renewals signed during the year
- The comparable rentals each rent figure was set from, dated
- Invoices split between repairs and capital improvements
- A written market and rental appraisal as at 30 June
- Routine inspection reports with photographs
Sent to you and, if you want, straight to your accountant. If that accountant is LINK Advisors, it is already where it needs to be.
Why this is different here
Most agencies manage the property and stop.
An SMSF-owned rental touches four jobs: the strategy, the lending, the accounting and the tenancy. Almost every property manager in Brisbane does the last one and hands you a phone number for the rest. We are the only one where the other three are the same group.
The strategy and the advice
LINK Wealth
Licensed financial advisers with a substantial SMSF practice, including business owners who buy their own premises through their fund. If the question is whether the fund should hold property, or what happens to it at retirement, it goes here.
SMSF advice →The accounting and the tax
LINK Advisors
Chartered accountants who handle the fund's financial statements, the annual return and the repair-versus-improvement calls we flag from the property. They are the ones the end-of-year pack is built for.
Accounting →The lending
LINK Advance
SMSF lending is a specialist corner with a shrinking lender panel and its own rules. If the fund is buying with a limited recourse borrowing arrangement, this is the desk that structures it.
SMSF lending →You do not have to use any of them. Plenty of the SMSF properties we manage have an accountant and an adviser the owner has used for years, and that is completely fine - we will send the pack wherever it needs to go. The difference is what happens when something falls between the four jobs, which is exactly where it usually goes wrong.
The questions trustees actually ask.
Can I live in a property my SMSF owns?
No. Residential property held by a self-managed super fund cannot be lived in or rented by you, any other member, or a relative - and paying full market rent does not make it allowable. The fund exists to provide retirement benefits, and using the asset now is the clearest way to breach that. Business real property is the exception: a fund can lease commercial premises to a member's own business at market rate, which is a different arrangement with its own rules.
Can I live in it once I retire?
Not while the fund owns it. The restriction follows the asset, not your age. Some trustees transfer the property out of the fund to themselves in retirement, which is a transaction with tax, stamp duty and timing consequences and is a question for your accountant and adviser well before you get there - not something to assume.
What happens if a relative stays in it?
It puts the fund at risk of being treated as non-complying, which is the most expensive outcome in superannuation - the ATO can also apply administrative penalties to trustees personally. It is not a grey area worth testing. If somebody is asking, the answer is no, and the reason we manage these tenancies at arm's length from the first advertisement is so the question is never live.
Can my SMSF property be listed on Airbnb?
Short-stay letting is not automatically a breach, but it raises the two things auditors look hardest at: whether any member or relative has used the property, and whether the income is genuinely arm's length. It also changes the management job substantially. Talk to your accountant before switching a fund-owned property to short-stay, and talk to us about whether it makes sense for the property itself.
Do I need a property valuation for my SMSF every year?
The fund's assets have to be reported at market value in its financial statements each year, so yes, the trustees need a defensible figure annually. For property that usually means evidence of comparable sales and rentals rather than a formal valuation every single year, though your auditor may ask for a formal one in particular circumstances. For properties we manage we prepare a written market and rental appraisal each year at no charge, and send it with the end-of-year pack.
Who signs the management agreement - me or the fund?
Whoever holds legal title. Where the fund bought outright that is the trustee of the fund; where there is a limited recourse borrowing arrangement the title sits with the bare trustee of the holding trust, and that entity goes on the agreement and the tenancy paperwork. Send us the trust deed and the bare trust deed and we will get it right rather than guess.
Can the fund pay for a renovation?
It depends on where the money comes from and what the work actually is. A fund using its own cash has more room than a fund that borrowed to buy the property, where borrowed money can repair and maintain the asset but cannot improve it - and the line between the two is narrower than most owners expect. Replacing a failed kitchen like for like reads differently to adding a second bathroom. We flag anything on that line before the work is ordered and refer it to your accountant.
Do you charge more to manage an SMSF property?
No. Our published schedule is the same whatever entity owns the property - 7.7% to 8.8% including GST - and the extra record-keeping an SMSF-owned property needs is part of the service rather than a surcharge. The fees page lists everything, including what we do not charge for.
Do you give SMSF advice?
No, and you should be wary of a property manager who says otherwise. We manage the property. Whether a fund should hold property at all, how it should be structured, what the tax outcome is and how it is borrowed against are questions for a licensed adviser and your accountant - and those people are in the same group, one introduction away, which is the whole point.
Tell us what the fund owns.
A conversation, an appraisal and a straight answer on whether we are the right manager for it. No cost, and no obligation either way.
About this page. LINK Living manages property. We are not licensed to give financial or taxation advice, and nothing here is advice about your fund or your circumstances. Superannuation rules are detailed and they change - what is written above is general information to help you ask your adviser, accountant and auditor better questions, not a substitute for asking them. Where a decision affects the fund, get it in writing from someone licensed to give it.