The SMH article is an excellent review of the current issues of property in SMSFs, quoting many industry participants.
In part it reports:
Graham Hand, editor of non-profit financial education website cuffelinks.com.au, attended a ''packed'' seminar held in the offices of a real estate company. The main speaker gave an example where $140,000 of super could be used to buy a property worth $500,000. The speaker said that if the property was sold for $1 million in 10 years' time, and assuming the seller's age at 55, there would be no capital gains tax as the seller would be in the pension phase.
But the pitch neglected to mention some important details. The superannuation preservation age is between 55 and 60, depending on the birth date. The speaker did not explain, for example, that a 45-year-old would have to wait 15 years, not 10 years, to be in the pension phase.
Hand questions whether it is appropriate to borrow a large amount of money to invest in a single, illiquid asset worth more than the SMSF itself. In the pension phase, a certain minimum percentage has to be drawn each year. There could be a problem meeting the minimum draw-down if the property is without a tenant, he says.
Residential property in self-managed super is becoming part of ''every real estate agents' kit bag'', Hand says. ''An industry that has never taken a backward step is seizing an opportunity.''
The original Cuffelinks article is linked here.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/property-spruikers-scent-big-opportunity-in-super-20130830-2swcq.html#ixzz2dUTdlbOX