“Even though these lenders technically have the same credit licensing requirements, it is a concern given that not all of them specialise in limited recourse borrowing arrangements,” said Ms Steed.

“I can certainly envisage that we might get back to a scenario that we were in very early on with LRBAs whereby you have a contract and on the front cover it says limited recourse borrowing arrangement but when you turn to page three, it’s clearly not a limited recourse loan.”

When the government first allowed SMSF to borrow back in 2007, initially even the big banks didn’t fully understand all of the ins and outs of LRBAs, she said.

“It took a little while for particularly the sales staff to understand what it was they were helping people with,” she said.

Where a loan for an SMSF is not properly structured as an LRBA, this can result in the SMSF breaching legislative provisions, she warned.

Many SMSFs are unable to obtain an LRBA from a commercial lender at all, she said, given the reduced pool of lenders and tighter lending policies.

“It’s more important than ever to make sure that your clients have got their ducks in a row in relation to loan agreement before they actually go and purchase the property,” she warned.

“If you’ve got clients who call you up on a Monday morning to tell you they’ve bought a property at an auction on the weekend and they need to set up an LRBA – well that’s just not going to happen.”