SMSF investment: Where can I find information about SMSF borrowing?

Q: I’ve just finished reading DIY Super for Dummies and found it really helpful. What interested me was the borrowing options for SMSFs. We already own a property in our fund and are looking at an instalment arrangement for financing our next purchase. In the first edition of your book you mention a joint venture to invest in property with fund members, which is purchased through a unit trust structure. Any information you can give me, or websites with information about unit trusts would be really appreciated as I haven’t had much success myself in finding this information.

Many thanks for your email and I’m pleased that you found my book useful.

In relation to your question about joint ventures and unit trust structure, the best person to help you is an accountant who works regularly with a lot of SMSFs. Most accountants who work in this space are familiar with these arrangements.

You are correct about information sources being scarce but here’s a few you can try:

• Taxpayers Australia runs a superannuation service called Superannuation Australia. They have a DIY Superannuation manual (you can check out a preview for free), and a quarterly newsletter that generally services the financial adviser and accountants – often they have articles on this type of arrangement
• Max Newnham’s book, SMSFs: A survival guide (Wrightbooks) has a section on this issue [do not include link but keep title because we cannot control the currency of the link]
• Presumably, the following book would explain this strategy as well: How to Buy Property With Your Super Money by Tony Melvin and Ed Chan (Knowledge Centre). (I haven’t read it but their earlier book covered the strategy) [please remove link but keep title]
• How to Invest in Property through your SMSF by Martin Murden (Major Street Publishing) (I haven’t yet read this book)

If anyone recommends other resources on this topic, I would love to hear about them.

You may also find the following article useful: SMSF property: ATO ‘relaxes’ borrowing rules (what’s OK and not OK).