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SMSF commercial property
The rules changed on 10 August. The opportunity didn’t.
New residential borrowing inside superannuation has finished. Commercial property — your practice, your warehouse, your business premises — remains fully available under the same limited recourse borrowing rules. For business owners and professionals, the strategy the legislation left standing was always the stronger one.
Subject to fund liquidity, lender criteria and eligibility. Member, SMSF Association.
30 minutes with Priyank. No application, and no lender sees anything until you say so.
What changed, and what didn’t
Most of the market has just learned what “business real property” means.
The end of residential borrowing inside super sent every generalist broker back to re-read the rules. The definition matters: not every non-residential property qualifies as business real property, and getting the test wrong inside a fund is expensive to unwind.
Meanwhile business owners keep paying rent on premises their own fund could own — with the rent flowing into their retirement instead of a landlord’s.
Already hold residential property in your SMSF?
Existing arrangements are protected. But the lender pool available for refinancing them is shrinking, and pricing on a shrinking pool moves in one direction. A structural review now costs nothing and tells you exactly where you stand.
We arrange credit. We do not advise on whether an SMSF or property strategy is right for you — that belongs with your licensed financial adviser and accountant, and we run every one of these deals alongside both. Superannuation law changes; confirm the current position with your adviser before acting.
What most people do
What usually happens to an SMSF deal.
Your accountant refers you to your bank
Most banks have withdrawn from SMSF lending or price it as an afterthought. One policy, and often no appetite at all.
A generalist broker takes it on
SMSF lending is technical enough that a broker doing one a year will meet the bare trust (the holding trust an SMSF loan legally requires), liquidity and in-house asset traps for the first time on your file.
The deal goes quiet
Bare trust errors, contribution timing, liquidity tests. SMSF deals rarely fail loudly — they stall, then decline for reasons nobody can quite explain.
You give up and keep renting
The most common outcome, and the most expensive one.
SMSF lending is a three-professional sport. Run it with fewer than three and something gets missed.
Before you commit
Agree on what a real answer has to do.
Change what the lender sees
The structure and the security — not just the letterhead on the application.
Look at everything you hold, at once
This should not be structured in isolation from the facilities you already carry.
Tell you the truth before you spend money
Including when the answer is that you should not proceed.
Put its own money behind the answer
Anyone will promise you an outcome. Fewer will refund one.
A broker who cannot do all four is an interest-rate comparison with a phone number.
What we actually are
Not an interest-rate broker. A structuring firm.
How we run them
Alongside your accountant and adviser, never around them.
The rent you already pay stops leaving. Business real property is one of the few related-party arrangements superannuation law specifically permits.
The business real property test
Applied before anything else, because it decides whether the transaction is possible at all. Not every non-residential property passes.
Fund position and liquidity
Contribution capacity, cash buffers and the liquidity tests a lender will apply — modelled before lodgement rather than discovered during it.
Coordination to settlement
Bare trust, accountant, auditor, adviser, lender and conveyancer. We hold the sequence so your professionals are not chasing each other.
Prevail Finance is a member of the SMSF Association. Priyank has arranged SMSF acquisitions including member-occupied business premises, and holds property inside his own fund.
Clients
Funds, offices and premises settled.
“At the critical point before settlement, he secured a policy exception from the lender that I’m told is granted only in the rarest of cases, turning what could have been a failed settlement into a clean, unconditional approval.”
Yash LuthraBuyer’s advocate, SMSF purchase“We recently bought our new office under SMSF… He was instrumental in coordinating with the bank and even our accountants, making everything so much easier for us.”
Aneel KhowajaDirector, Think Higher · SMSF office acquisition“SMSF transactions can be so complicated, but they handled the entire process with such expertise and precision. They didn’t just find us a loan — they took the time to explain the strategy and made sure we felt 100% comfortable at every step.”
Pragyna PatelSMSF investmentEvery quote is verbatim from a published Google review. Individual outcomes depend on the client’s circumstances, security position and lender criteria at the time.
Who it’s for
This is not for everyone. Deliberately.
We’re a fit if
- Business real property — your practice, warehouse, consulting suite or premises
- Member-occupied premises leased back to your own trading entity at market rates
- Funds with the liquidity to support the acquisition and its buffers
- Clients whose accountant and adviser are involved from the start
- Refinance reviews on existing SMSF arrangements
We’re not, and we’ll tell you in the first call
- New residential purchases inside super — that pathway closed on 10 August 2026
- Funds without adequate liquidity or contribution capacity
- Properties that do not satisfy the business real property test
- Clients unwilling to involve a licensed adviser and accountant
Turning away the wrong deal is how we stay fast on the right ones.
Straight answers
Fair questions.
Can an SMSF still borrow to buy property in 2026?
For commercial property, yes. New residential borrowing inside superannuation ended on 10 August 2026. Commercial property that satisfies the business real property definition remains available under the same limited recourse borrowing arrangement rules. Confirm the current legislative position with your adviser before acting.
What is business real property?
Broadly, land and buildings used wholly and exclusively in one or more businesses. It is the test that allows a fund to acquire property from a related party and to lease it back to a member’s own business. Not every non-residential property qualifies, and the assessment belongs with your accountant and adviser — we structure the lending around their conclusion.
Can my SMSF buy the premises my business operates from?
Where the property is business real property, yes, and your trading entity can lease it from the fund at market rates. It is one of the few arrangements superannuation law specifically permits between a fund and a related party.
How much can an SMSF borrow for commercial property?
Up to 80% LVR is achievable against business real property, subject to fund liquidity, lender criteria and eligibility. The lender pool for SMSF lending is materially smaller than for standard commercial, which is why lender selection matters more here than almost anywhere.
What happens to my existing residential SMSF loan?
Existing arrangements are protected. The practical issue is refinancing: the pool of lenders willing to take on residential SMSF loans is shrinking, and pricing on a shrinking pool tends to move one way. A structural review now tells you where you stand.
Why do SMSF loans take so long?
Because they involve more parties than any other transaction: fund, bare trust, accountant, auditor, adviser, lender and conveyancer. Most of the delay is sequencing rather than assessment, which is exactly what we manage.
Next step
Rent is someone else’s retirement plan. Your premises could be yours.
We’ll want your accountant in the conversation early. That is deliberate.
30 minutes with Priyank. No application, and no lender sees anything until you say so. You’ll know whether we can fund it — and either way, you leave with a plan.
ACLACL 509527Held directly, not leasedMemberships verifiable with each body