Buying commercial property in your SMSF, the lending side done properly.

The one property purchase where super rules work for you

Rockwall Finance arranges SMSF loans for commercial property in Perth and across Australia, with a particular focus on business owners buying the premises their own business operates from. We are credit specialists on the lending side of these deals; whether buying property in super suits your circumstances is a decision you make with your financial adviser and accountant, and the structures only work when all three of us are pulling in the same direction. This guide covers the part we own: how the borrowing actually works.

Commercial property holds a special position in superannuation rules. An SMSF can generally buy business real property and lease it to a related party, including your own company, as long as the arrangement runs on commercial terms with a market rent. Your business pays rent it would have paid a landlord anyway. The rent lands in your fund. That is the engine of the strategy, and the borrowing is what makes it reachable before the fund could buy the property outright.

The 2026 rule change, and why this strategy still stands

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026 and applies to limited recourse borrowing arrangements entered into on or after 10 August 2026. The change was written around commercial property, not against it: the amendment requires that real property acquired under a new arrangement be business real property at the time the arrangement is entered into, which is exactly what this page covers. Buying commercial premises through your fund remains available. If anything, the change has concentrated lender and adviser attention on the commercial side, which is where the strategy always had its strongest footing. Rockwall arranges SMSF lending for commercial property only.

How the borrowing works: the LRBA

A super fund cannot simply take out a mortgage. The only permitted structure is a limited recourse borrowing arrangement: the property sits in a separate holding trust while the loan exists, and the lender's recourse if things fail is limited to that property, never the rest of your retirement savings. In practice the structure involves your fund, the holding trust, the lender, and usually personal guarantees from the members. The order of operations matters enormously. The holding trust and purchaser structure needs to be confirmed with your solicitor before you sign or exchange, the names on the contract must be exactly right, and lenders will not bend on structural errors. Deals fail on paperwork here more than on credit.

The numbers lenders work with

• Loan to value: commonly 65 to 75 percent for commercial property, with the balance funded from the fund's own money. Below that ceiling the deal is a conversation; above it, most lenders will not start one.
• Liquidity buffer: a cash reserve typically in the range of 5 to 10 percent of the property value, retained in the fund after the deposit is paid. This is the requirement that most often stops an otherwise sound application: a fund that spends its last dollar on the deposit fails, even where the rent covers the loan comfortably.
• Fund balance: specialist lenders commonly look for a minimum fund balance around $200,000 to $300,000 before they will consider an application. The right lender for a large established fund is rarely the right one for a newer fund.
• Servicing: assessed on the rent the property will earn plus the contributions flowing into the fund. Lenders increasingly weight the property's ability to service the debt from rent alone, rather than leaning on employer contributions to close the gap. How that test is calculated, and why it runs at a buffered rate rather than the actual one, is covered in our guide to commercial loan DSCR.
• Property types: standard commercial, industrial and office stock is widely accepted; specialised assets narrow the field, because the lender is thinking about who else would buy it.

Indicative market ranges, not a lender quote. Sources: Everstone Finance and YML Finance, checked 9 August 2026. Policy differs widely between specialist lenders and moves without notice, which is precisely why the lender is chosen before the application, not after.

Why most banks have stepped back, and where the market is now

Most major banks withdrew from SMSF lending years ago. The market now belongs to specialist and non bank lenders whose policies differ widely on fund balance minimums, liquidity rules, acceptable properties and pricing. This is a genuine policy maze, and it is the reason these loans are overwhelmingly broker arranged: the work is matching your fund, your property and your timeline to the lender whose policy actually fits. We run that comparison before anything is signed, and we coordinate with your accountant so the structure and the loan land together.

Where this connects to the rest of your position

For most of our clients the SMSF premises purchase is one move inside a bigger picture: a business that is growing, equipment on finance, sometimes an acquisition in play. The premises decision interacts with all of it, lease terms affect business value, rent affects serviceability on both sides, and the timing has to respect the fund's liquidity. Because we work across commercial finance, commercial property finance and business acquisitions, we structure the SMSF loan as part of the whole position rather than a transaction in isolation.

Frequently asked questions