Downsizer Contribution to Super: Rules, Limits and How to Use It

🏡 What is the downsizer contribution?🔗

🎯 The essential: The downsizer contribution lets you move up to $300,000 per person from an eligible home sale straight into super, completely outside the usual contribution caps.

The downsizer contribution was introduced by the Australian Government to help older Australians boost their super balance when they sell the family home. If you've built up equity in your home over decades, this scheme gives you a way to redirect some of that wealth into the superannuation system at a stage of life when normal contribution rules would otherwise shut the door.

The scheme launched on 1 July 2018. The minimum eligible age was originally 65, then dropped to 60, and was lowered again to 55 from 1 January 2023, opening it up to a much wider group of Australians.

✅ Who is eligible?🔗

The full eligibility checklist:

• You're 55 or older at the time you make the contribution, not at the time of sale.
• You or your spouse owned the home for 10 years or more before the sale.
• The home qualifies for a full or partial CGT main residence exemption.
• The property is a residential building in Australia. Caravans, houseboats and mobile homes don't qualify.
• You make the contribution within 90 days of receiving the sale proceeds, from settlement date.
• You've never previously made a downsizer contribution, it's a once-only lifetime limit per person.
• You provide the NAT 75073 form (Downsizer contribution into super form) to your super fund before or at the time of contribution.

Two things worth highlighting. There's no work test required, a key advantage for Australians aged 67 and over, who'd normally need to satisfy a work test to make voluntary super contributions. And there's no upper age limit.

Once the money is in super, ordinary access rules apply, our preservation age guide walks through exactly when that is.

💰 How much can you contribute?🔗

Up to $300,000 per eligible person, but your contribution can't exceed the total gross sale proceeds. Sell for $450,000, and the maximum you can contribute combined is $450,000, not $600,000.

For couples, both spouses can each contribute up to $300,000 from the same sale, even if only one person's name was on the title. That's up to $600,000 total from a single home sale. There's no minimum contribution.

Tax on entry: downsizer contributions are made from after-tax money and aren't taxed when they enter super. They're treated as non-concessional contributions for most purposes, but they don't count toward the non-concessional cap.

🚪 The cap exemption, why this matters🔗

A standard non-concessional contribution (after-tax money you put into super yourself) is capped at $130,000 for 2026-27. Your concessional contributions (employer super, salary sacrifice, personal deductible contributions) are capped at $32,500 for 2026-27. Exceed either cap and you face excess contributions tax.

The downsizer contribution counts toward neither. You could have already used your full non-concessional cap for the year and still make a $300,000 downsizer contribution on top. It's also unaffected by the Total Super Balance restrictions that normally block non-concessional contributions once your balance is high enough, see our non-concessional contributions glossary entry for how those thresholds work.

One critical caveat: if you forget to lodge the NAT 75073 form before or at the time of contribution, your fund may treat the money as a regular non-concessional contribution instead, meaning it counts toward your non-concessional cap. The form isn't a formality.

🧮 Worked example: a couple downsizing at 67🔗

Peter and Susan are both 67. They've lived in their family home for 30 years and decide to sell for $900,000. They downsize to a $500,000 apartment, freeing up $400,000.

That $100,000 covers moving costs, new furnishings and a cash buffer.

Neither contribution counts toward the non-concessional cap. No work test applies. Both submit the NAT 75073 form to their respective super funds before contributing. And the home was in Peter's name only, but Susan is still eligible because the property was owned by her spouse for 10-plus years and she meets all the other criteria.

🏛️ The Age Pension consideration, don't overlook this🔗

Your family home is exempt from the Age Pension assets test, regardless of its value. The moment you sell and move that money into super, it becomes a counted asset. Super balances held past Age Pension age are assessed under the assets test, and Centrelink also applies deeming rules to super balances.

Our Age Pension guide covers exactly how the means tests work, and our how much super you need to retire guide covers the broader planning context.

🔓 How it interacts with your super access🔗

Once the money is in super, normal super access rules apply. The downsizer contribution doesn't give any special early access.

• Past your preservation age and retired: access the funds immediately as a lump sum or income stream.
• Age 65 or older: unconditional access regardless of employment status.
• Between preservation age and 65, still working: you may be able to access it via a Transition to Retirement income stream.

If you're weighing up how that money might eventually pay you an income, our guide to how an account-based pension works covers what happens once you convert a balance like this into retirement income.

⚠️ 3 common mistakes to avoid🔗

Thinking you need to buy a smaller home. There's no requirement to buy a smaller or cheaper home, or any home at all. What matters is that you sell an eligible home and meet the other rules.

Missing the 90-day window. The clock starts from settlement date, not exchange date. Set a calendar reminder for settlement day.

Not factoring in the Age Pension impact. Moving exempt home equity into assessable super assets can cost thousands of dollars a year in lost pension payments. Model both scenarios before deciding.

❓ Frequently asked questions🔗