The Ins and Outs of Purchasing Property Through Your Pension
In the Self-Administered pension space, direct property investment has always been a popular option with our clients. Independent Trustee Company Limited currently acts as trustee for almost 4,000 self-administered pension funds. Of the wide variety of assets and investments held within these funds, direct property accounts for almost 25% of all scheme investments - with over 2,000 properties currently held within ITC schemes. Unsurprisingly, due to an increased demand for rental properties, property investment has garnered a lot of attention in recent years. Pensionproperty.ie, provides detailed information on direct property investment as well as a selection of sample properties. So, what happens when you have decided that this is the pension investment strategy for you?
To initiate the property purchase process, we will require a Propertyline Application Form to be completed in full and submitted. Within this form, details of the selected property, the appointed property manager and the solicitors appointed to handle the purchase are outlined. The Propertyline Application Form can be found here.
The process is very simple in that, once the completed Propertyline Application is received by ITC, our solicitors will work alongside your appointed solicitors to bring the purchase to a close. Due to the requirement that the Arm’s Length Rule is adhered to at all times, a property manager must be appointed to ensure that all property transactions take place on a commercial basis. Your ITC Client Portfolio Executive will make contact with the property manager, who will organise the letting of the property. Once rental income is received, it will flow back into the pension property investment sub-fund, which will grow within your pension scheme. These funds will be used to service the property and can be moved directly back into your pension pot for reinvestment, provided that there is sufficient liquidity to cover ongoing property costs and expenses.
It is important to note that the property is not personally owned by the client. It will be purchased, owned and sold by the pension scheme solely for the purpose of providing benefits at retirement. Remember to always have the correct protection insurance in place when buying a property.
We trust that this provides you with a general understanding of ITC’s property purchase process within our self-administered schemes. However, if you have any further queries in relation to the above, please do not hesitate to contact JustAsk@independent-trustee.com or Eve Nolan, our Business Development Executive at 01 603 5131.
*Please note this content is the view of the author and not of Independent Trustee Company
Independent Trustee Company Limited, part of the ITC Group, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland Please note that the provision of this product or service does not require licensing, authorisation, or registration with the Central Bank of Ireland and, as a result, it is not covered by the Central Bank’s requirements designed to protect consumers or by a statutory compensation scheme.