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Specialist lender La Trobe Financial is now offering an SMSF loan product at 5.6%.
“We are pleased to be in a position to offer such a competitive product to the SMSF market,” says Paul Wells, La Trobe Financial’s senior vice president and chief investment officer.”
The decision to launch an SMSF product was made as La Trobe recognised the ‘constantly growing market of more than 3,000 SMSFs’ being established each month in Australia.
“Our product allows SMSF borrowers to purchase a wide variety of properties such as residential, retail, commercial or rural/residential,” says Wells.
More than half a million SMSFs are now in operation, according to the latest statistics released by APRA in May 2013. The average balance of a SMSF is stampeding towards $1 million, with the ‘average’ fund balance now around $986,000.
Individuals running SMSFs control nearly a third ($492.2 billion) of the $1.58 trillion invested via Australian superannuation funds. Ten years ago, DIY super funds represented one-tenth (10%) of all superannuation money, and SMSFs are projected to grow to $2.23 trillion by 2033.
“With the recent election, both parties [are] now promising to leave superannuation alone,” says La Trobe Financial CEO, Greg O’Neill.
“Labor’s commitment for five years and the Coalitions’ for ‘no adverse changes’ for the first parliamentary term places more certainty back into the system. Moreover, SMSFs have low exposure to residential property of around 3.2% according to ATO figures recently released, which hardly constitutes a bubble.”
