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Home / How super works / Contributing to super / Downsizer super contributions: Rules and eligibility

Downsizer super contributions: Rules and eligibility

Janine Mace

Owning your own home is part of the Aussie dream, but it’s also a key part of any good retirement plan. With Australia facing a housing shortage and rising rents, having a place to call your own can make the difference between a happy retirement and one that’s much tougher and insecure.

But your home can also play an important role in helping to boost your income in retirement.

If you’re thinking about a smaller or better located home for your retirement years, selling your family home could be a great way to release some of the equity you have built over the years to give your super a big last-minute boost.

The government’s willing to give you a hand as well, by offering some attractive incentives. It sees helping older people to ‘right size’ their home for retirement as one way to free up larger homes for young families looking to enter the housing market.

Learn more about your home and retirement planning.

What are downsizer contributions?

Put simply, the intention of the downsizer contribution rules is to allow older Aussies to sell their current home and use the proceeds to purchase a smaller one, then contribute the difference into their super account.

New rules starting 1 January 2023 have lowered the minimum eligibility age to allow people aged 55 and over to access downsizer contributions. Originally the minimum age was 65, but this has progressively been lowered to age 55.

The lower age limit (55 years) is based on your age when you make the contribution and there is no upper age limit. Normally, once you reach age 75 the super rules prevent you from making voluntary contributions, so a downsizer contribution presents a rare opportunity to top up your super.

Learn about contributing in your late 60s and early 70s.

There is no work test requirement to make a downsizer contribution. In fact, there is no requirement for you to have ever been in paid employment. However, you can’t claim a tax deduction for a downsizer contribution.

Learn about tax-deductible super contributions.

Downsizer webinar

Learn about downsizer super contributions in detail in our webinar, including how the eligibility rules work, plus timing, Centrelink and strategy considerations.

View webinar

Super tip

The costs involved in selling a family home can be substantial. Sales commissions, moving costs and high stamp duty and land taxes if you purchase another home all mount up, so think carefully before deciding to downsize.

Remember, selling a large home and downsizing to a smaller property does not always release much excess capital (particularly in a capital city), so do some careful calculations on how much you will have left to contribute to super prior to selling.

What are the contribution limits?

Under the downsizer rules, you are allowed to contribute up to $300,000 ($600,000 for a couple) from the sale proceeds of your eligible family home.

The contribution limit is the lesser of $300,000 and the gross actual sale proceeds. This means if you gift your home to a family member and the sale proceeds are $0, you will not be able to make a contribution.

Any debt or remaining mortgage on the property does not impact the amount you are permitted to contribute into your super account.

To sweeten the deal for potential downsizers, eligible downsizer contributions are exempt from many of the normal contribution caps and rules limiting what you can put into your super account. Contributions made using the downsizing rules do not count towards either your annual concessional (before-tax) or non-concessional (after-tax) contributions cap.

Downsizer contributions can be made in addition to any concessional and non-concessional super contributions you make, without needing to worry about exceeding your annual cap amounts.

Learn about exceeding your contributions caps.

Need to know: Downsizer contributions are not subject to the normal 15% contributions tax when they enter your super account.

Is my home eligible?

About the author

Janine Mace
Janine has over 25 years’ experience writing about superannuation, including a decade as Managing Editor of the ASFA’s highly respected industry magazine, SuperFunds. She has worked with a range of super funds and leading institutional investment managers. Her work has appeared in the Australian Financial Review personal finance section and she has been a regular contributor to Money Management and Financial Planning magazines.
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Responses

  1. Lindsay Sherriff Avatar
    Lindsay Sherriff

    Why is it not $300k per person total on any number of sales. e. g. If a couple’s home is worth less than $300k can that money be contributed to Super by one of them and later in life the other make a similar contribution from a subsequent home sale 10 or more yrs later? If not this is yet another govt scheme advantaging the property rich over those less fortunate, widening the wealth gap further.

  2. Mala Avatar
    Mala

    This article is great and has brought a little known aspect of tax free contribution to my notice.

  3. Joanne Avatar
    Joanne

    I am outraged that one house can be used by couples to contribute $600,000 to super, but solos ( single home owners) can only contribute $300,000. This policy discriminates against solos and places them at a significant relative disadvantage in retirement.

  4. JOHN BROWNING Avatar
    JOHN BROWNING

    so…which is true??!?

  5. Russell Avatar
    Russell

    Contributions after-tax are normally debited to the Tax-free Component of your Super account. Since the Downsize Contributions are “like” an NCC, can we be certain that they get debited to Tax-free Component of the Super account? What have super funds been instructed on this?
    This is very important since the real-estate asset of the family home is now essentially tax free for non-dependent children after your death. It would be mighty tricky of the government to find a way to apply an 18% “death tax” via this mechanism.

  6. tom Avatar
    tom

    If you are retired and on a part-pension this is yet another ScoMo scam. The article doesn’t address what may be a vital issue: if you are a part-pensioner under the old rules and put additional funds into your super will Centrelink then re-assess you under the new rules? This means the capital you have in an account based pension will be deemed and any income you take will also be counted. This double-counting is called by pollies “the fairer way”.

    1. Jason Avatar
      Jason

      No this won’t occur. Any existing pensions will only be deemed if they are stopped and a brand new pension is restarted. Adding the contribution proceeds to super and starting a new pension will not cause the entire pension balance to be deemed. If you have an existing pension running and you stop it and add these funds to that account then yes it’s a new pension and these funds will be deemed so be very careful. The solution may be to have either mulitple pensions going or if the income test is not an issue it may be worth it.

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