Moving in now and selling later: how the timing works

Care is often needed before the house is ready to sell. Maybe it needs clearing out, some repairs, or just a bit of time. The good news is that your parent doesn't have to sell first.

This guide covers people entering an aged care home from 1 November 2025 who aren't on low means. (People on low means pay an accommodation contribution worked out from their means assessment, and the rules below work a little differently.)

The short version

• Your parent can move in first and sell later, or not sell at all.
• The room price is agreed in writing before moving in. How it's paid can be decided later.
• Daily payments apply until a lump sum is paid.
• When the house sells, a lump sum can be paid in full or in part, and the daily payment drops to match.
• There's no deadline to pay a lump sum.

Before moving in: agree the room price

Before your parent moves in, they and the home sign an accommodation agreement. It records the room and the agreed price. The home can't charge more than its published price, and the price can be negotiated.

What the agreement can't do is force a choice about how to pay before entry. A home can't make your parent pay a lump sum before moving in.

While the house is on the market: daily payments

Until a lump sum is paid, the room is paid for with a daily accommodation payment (DAP). It works like rent: it's paid regularly and isn't refunded.

The DAP is worked out from the agreed price and a government interest rate called the MPIR:

DAP = (agreed room price − any lump sum paid) × MPIR ÷ 365

Your parent's DAP uses the MPIR that applied when the room price was agreed. For agreements made now, that's 8.51% a year. Later changes to the MPIR don't change your parent's rate while they stay in that room. If your parent chooses to change rooms, or the home moves them for 28 days or more, the rate is set again from that date.

For people entering from 1 November 2025, DAPs are also indexed each 20 March and 20 September. Any figure for a future indexation date is an estimate until the official index number is published.

When the house sells: paying a lump sum

A refundable accommodation deposit (RAD) is the lump sum. It can be paid any time after your parent moves in, once the means assessment is finalised. If your parent chooses not to share their income and assets, it can be paid once their "means not disclosed" status is set.

• It can be the full room price, which ends the daily payment.
• It can be part of the price. The daily payment is then worked out on the unpaid part only.
• A part lump sum can be topped up later, which lowers the daily payment again.

Once a lump sum is paid, the home doesn't have to give any of it back while your parent is still living there, though it may agree to. So it's worth being sure about the amount before paying.

Retention. For people entering from 1 November 2025, the home keeps 2% of the RAD balance a year, worked out daily, for up to five years from when the lump sum is paid. The kept amount isn't refunded. The rest is refunded when your parent leaves the home or dies.

Drawing the daily payment from the lump sum. If part of the price is paid as a lump sum, your parent can ask for the daily payment to come out of it. The lump sum then shrinks, and the daily payment slowly rises.

What the wait means for fees and the pension

While the house is unsold:

• Aged care fees: the house counts up to a cap of $219,858.40, unless a protected person lives there.
• Age Pension: the house is usually not counted for two years from the day your parent entered care. See our guide to the two-year pension rule.

When the house sells:

• Aged care fees: the cap no longer applies, and the sale money counts in full. Any part paid as a RAD still counts as an asset but isn't deemed. Report the sale to Services Australia within 28 days.
• Age Pension: the sale money counts from settlement. Any part paid as a RAD isn't counted in the pension assets test. If the home was sold from 1 January 2023, the part your parent intends to use for a RAD can be left out of the pension assets test for up to 24 months after settlement while it waits to be paid. It's still deemed at the lower rate, and your parent is still treated as a homeowner during that time. Tell Services Australia how much is set aside.
• Aged care fees, money set aside for a RAD: from 31 October 2026 it counts in the means test in full, even while the pension leaves it out.

So the timing of the sale, and what the money is used for, can change both the fees and the pension.

Timing points families often check

• How the daily payments will be covered while the house is on the market, from income, savings or family help.
• The cost of waiting. Daily payments aren't refunded. A long wait adds to the total cost, which families weigh against the cost of selling in a hurry.
• The two-year pension date. Whether the sale is likely to settle before or after the house starts counting for the pension.
• How much to pay as a lump sum, and whether to keep some cash for fees and other costs.
• What happens to the money at the end. A RAD balance is refunded to your parent or their estate; daily payments are not.

See your own numbers

The Aged Care Costs calculator gives an estimate of the fees, with the home counted as it is today, and compares the ways of paying for the room, using the details you enter. It doesn't work out the effect of a gap between leaving home and moving into care, and it doesn't model rent from the former home.

Before deciding when to sell and how much to pay as a lump sum, consider talking it through with a licensed financial adviser who specialises in aged care.

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