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SMSF commercial loan

Commercial inside super — structured, not patched.

Limited recourse borrowing arrangement, bare trust, business real property — the structure the ATO, your accountant, and your lender want to see. The lender shortlist is short. We know it cold.

Reviewed · Adam King — 30 years in finance, Sunshine Coast

SMSF commercial is the cleanest super-property structure

If you run a business and own the premises through a self-managed super fund, the structure is genuinely powerful. The business pays market rent to the fund, which is deductible to the business and concessionally taxed inside super. The fund builds an asset that's quarantined from the business's commercial risk. And when the trading entity eventually winds down, the property sits inside the fund, generating retirement income. The lender market for SMSF commercial is narrow. The major banks pulled out years ago. The active list now is a small set of specialist non-banks, plus a couple of business-specialist banks on bigger commercial. Each has its own LVR ceiling, its own minimum fund balance, and its own appetite for asset class. SMSF rates run around 1% higher than a standard residential loan, give or take, and are indicative — we sit across all the active lenders and re-price regularly. The structure is exacting. This is Limited Recourse borrowing through your Super: the asset is held by a bare trust; the SMSF holds the beneficial interest; the loan is limited in recourse to the asset alone. If it's business real property — premises used wholly and exclusively in a business — the SMSF can acquire it from a related party, which is one of the few in-house-asset exemptions the law allows. That makes it the canonical structure for a business owner buying their own premises and parking the asset in super. The job is to set the structure up so it works for the lender, the accountant, the lawyer, and the ATO simultaneously. We coordinate the bare trust set-up, the investment strategy documentation, and the lender's bare-trust review. Most SMSF commercial files take 6–10 weeks from scoping call to settlement.

When SMSF commercial is the right structure

  • You run a business and you (or related entities) own or lease your trading premises — buying it into super lets the rent flow tax-effectively.
  • Your SMSF is at a sensible starting balance — advisers usually suggest around $150K–$200K to begin, with most lenders wanting more once the deposit, costs, and a contingency buffer are covered (commonly $200K–$300K, more on larger commercial files).
  • The asset is business real property — commercial property used wholly and exclusively in a business — which unlocks related-party acquisition.
  • You want long-term retirement income from a tangible asset rather than equities or managed funds.
  • You want the loan left alone, not re-tested every year. The majors typically run annual reviews where you re-prove borrowing power; we prefer lenders that skip reviews and write longer terms (up to 30 years) to keep repayments lower.
  • You're prepared for a slower, more documented process — 6–10 weeks settlement is typical, sometimes longer.

Indicative SMSF commercial terms

  • vs standard resi

    ~1% premium

    indicative, give or take

  • to get started

    $150–200K+

    lender liquidity range, not a fixed floor

  • scoping to settlement

    6–10 wks

    for clean files

Take it to a broker

Coordinate the accountant, the lawyer, the lender — once.

We run the file alongside your accountant and lawyer from the first call so the bare trust, the investment strategy, and the loan land on the same day.

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Fund, structure, lender — mapped in twenty minutes.

We'll tell you whether the deal works at your fund balance and which lender will write it.

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General information only — not personal credit advice. Rates and figures shown are indicative and subject to confirmation against current lender pricing and policy.