Self-managed super fund members are diving into property at a rate much faster than the total asset growth within both SMSFs and the wider pooled-fund sector, according to new ATO figures.
Between December 2017 and December 2020 total SMSF balances rose 11 per cent to $764.34 billion and the total in pooled super funds was up 19 per cent to $2.1 trillion.
But over the same period limited recourse lending arrangements used by SMSF owners to borrow for property jumped a massive 25 per cent to $55.4 billion.
Residential property holdings in SMSFs also jumped over the same period by 25 per cent to $41.3 billion and non-residential property was up 24 per cent.
That all means that property, and property financed by debt, is increasingly becoming the focus of SMSF investors at a time when capital city property prices are tipped to rise dramatically.
As a result, SMSF investors have grown property assets by total of $20 billion and boosted borrowings by about $15 billion.