Leasing out your home and renting another
We are a pensioner couple considering selling our home in the city and downsizing to a home in the country.
We have identified a property that is being offered for sale with a short-term (12-18 months) lease-back agreement, allowing the current owners time to finance and build a new home on a smaller block they already own in the same district.
We would be happy with such an arrangement as the timing would also suit us, allowing us to spend more time tending to the needs of elderly parents and enjoying more child-minding time with grandchildren before they outgrow us.
To enable this we would have to rent a home in the city for 12-18 months after selling our primary residence. Our conundrum is this: will our new home in the country become an assessable asset, rather than the primary residence that it acutally is, because it is being rented, even though we would be paying an equivalent amount of rent for a short time while both parties re-establish themselves?
Yes it would be, and the net rental income will also be assessed, however you would be considered Non Homeowners, therefore asset threshold is higher and if you reatin some Pension, you will also be able to receive Rent Assistance for the property you rent.