He we go again, Bill Shorten playing around with super. Again!

Does this idiot realise that permitting super funds to borrow for housing actually provides houses for people to live in.

The next thing he will say is “where have all the investors gone”. How are we going to afford all this public housing?

Dear Rehctub,

I am not familiar with this Shorten guy or with what he said, but as I understand it, super funds (which is a bad idea to begin with, but nevertheless it exists) are meant to invest the money of their members, not to lose it. If you borrow money then you have to pay interest, so that's a loss. Why not simply buy the houses using the members' nest-egg money, then rent them out to profit the members?

Hi Yuyutsu.

I think your idea is unique, and it is better for me to rent the house out.

His announcement was targeted at self managed funds and is aimed at making houses more affordable. Apparently!

As it stands, a SM super fund can borrow money to buy an investment property and of cause claim the write offs.

The big difference is that CCt is calculated at 10% of the sell price and no credits are given for inflation. Of cause the income and profits must remain in the fund.

I have such a fund and have been investing since 2001.

Back then the fund could borrow, then the rules changed and asetts had to be either debt free, or borrowings had to be moved. Of cause this caused some panic and uncertainty.

So the rules changed agin meaning they could borrow agin, and now labor wants to reverse this once again.

This is one reason so many dont trust super and thats bad because after all, super was meant to one day replace the aged pension but that wont happen if funds can no longer borrow.

Crazy stuff.

I think a member of a super fund should be able to borrow sufficient from his super account
for a deposit on a home.
The deposit would remain fixed in the asset value of the house and the property of the super
fund and interest only could be charged and credited to the super account.
This means that the fund still has its cash value, is receiving income and the worker as able to raise
the deposit for a home, something that is beyond most people today.
It should be remembered that many workers, like my son aged 39 will never have enough super
to retire on anyway and you can bet the weekly stipend he will get will be assessed by the pension
office so his income would be just the same as if he were a full old age pensioner.
This way he has a chance to create an asset pool.

Let's see this drive the price of houses up some more and then watch it all crash and burn eventually. Then the rich will pick up all the pieces and make themselves richer. Billy boy is certainly in the rich elite of Australia, well done Bill!