Costs and fees

Can a nursing home take your house?

Updated 24 August 2026

No. A nursing home cannot take your house. An aged care provider agrees a room price with you in writing before you enter care. You pay that agreed price by one of three methods, and none of them transfers your home to the provider or to the government. The house counts instead as an asset in the means assessment that sets how much you contribute towards your own care and accommodation. If you keep the family home, the means assessment includes a capped amount of $214,884.00, current as at 20 March 2026, or your house's net market value where that sits lower. If a protected person lives in the home, the home is not counted as an asset at all. Selling the house is one way to fund an aged care room, and it is never a requirement.

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What happens to your house when you move into an aged care home?

Your house stays in your name when you move into an aged care home. My Aged Care defines an aged care home, or residential aged care, as accommodation for older people who need ongoing help with everyday tasks or with health care and can no longer live independently at home. You decide what happens to the house. That decision feeds two separate tests. The residential aged care means assessment sets your contribution to care and accommodation. The Age Pension assets test treats a home you keep differently from a home you sell. The main options are:

• Keep the home and leave it un-rented. Moneysmart states that a home you keep and do not rent out is exempt from the Age Pension assets test for 2 years after you move into aged care. That page was last updated 18 August 2026, and notes that the position may differ for people who are, or once were, part of a couple.
• Rent the home out. Moneysmart lists renting out your home as a way to help cover the daily accommodation payment for your room. Rental income pays for the room while the house stays in your name. The 2 year Age Pension exemption above is stated by Moneysmart for a home you keep and do not rent out, so a rented home sits outside the terms of that exemption.
• Sell the home. Moneysmart states that a sale puts the home's value into the Age Pension assets test. A sale converts a capped, illiquid asset into money you can use to pay a refundable lump sum, and it removes the option of returning to the house.

My Aged Care counts two of these decisions as changes in circumstances: a sale of the home, and payment of an accommodation lump sum to the aged care home. Report either to Services Australia so your means assessment and fee advice letter can be updated.

How much of your home's value counts in the aged care means assessment?

My Aged Care limits the share of your home's value that enters the residential aged care means assessment to $214,884.00, the figure current at 20 March 2026. Where your house has a net market value under that limit, the lower figure is the one included. A house valued well above the limit still enters the assessment only at the capped amount. That capped amount is a figure of the means assessment itself, so it does not change with the aged care home you choose. The Elderberry directory lists 2,590 aged care homes across Australia, pulled August 2026.

Where a protected person occupies the home, no part of the home's value enters the means assessment, so the capped amount has nothing to apply to. My Aged Care and Services Australia both set that exemption on the person occupying the home, which makes occupancy the test.

Couples are assessed on a shared basis. My Aged Care includes half of a couple's combined income and assets, whoever earns the income and whichever partner's name holds the asset. Each partner counts as the owner of half the home. Half of the capped value, or half of the net market value where that is lower, goes into the assessment.

Services Australia carries out the means assessment for most people, and DVA carries it out for anyone on a DVA means tested payment. Completing the means assessment is not compulsory. Without one, My Aged Care states you may be asked to pay at the maximum contribution rate.

Who is a protected person for aged care?

A protected person is someone whose occupation of your home takes the home out of your aged care means assessment entirely. My Aged Care recognises three categories:

• Your partner or dependent child. Services Australia states it may not count your home while a partner or dependent child lives there. This is the category that applies when one partner enters residential aged care and the other stays in the family home.
• A carer who has lived with you in the home for at least 2 years and qualifies for an income support payment from the Australian Government. Both conditions apply: the carer's eligibility for a payment, and the 2 year period of shared residence.
• A close relative who has lived with you in the home for at least 5 years and qualifies for an income support payment from the Australian Government. Services Australia defines a close relative for aged care purposes as your parent, sister, brother, child or grandchild who has lived in the home with you across the past 5 years. The relative needs only to be eligible for an income support payment. Services Australia states they do not need to be receiving one.

The exemption depends on continued occupation by the protected person. If the protected person moves out of your home, Services Australia states the home may start to count.

How can you avoid selling the house to pay for an aged care room?

You avoid selling the family home by paying for the room in a way that does not need the sale proceeds. The main alternatives to a sale, which can be combined, are:

• Pay by non-refundable daily payments. My Aged Care states that the full accommodation cost does not have to be paid upfront. Three options exist: a refundable lump sum, non-refundable daily payments, or a combination of the two. A daily accommodation payment comes from the maximum permissible interest rate (MPIR), applied to your agreed room price and then divided by 365. The MPIR is updated quarterly, and the rate applying to you locks in on the date you and your provider settle the room price. Current rates are published on the Schedule of Fees and Charges by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
• Decide later, and pay a deposit in part. No provider can require you to pick a payment option before the move into an aged care home, and non-refundable daily payments apply until the day a refundable lump sum is paid. Moneysmart states that a refundable deposit can be paid at any point after entry, in full or in part. A decision about the house does not have to be made before the move.
• Apply for financial hardship assistance. My Aged Care lets you request consideration for financial hardship assistance where reasons beyond your control leave the aged care home costs unaffordable. Eligible applicants have some or all of their aged care costs paid by the Australian Government.
• Check the low-means thresholds. If your income sits below $35,521.20 and your assets below $64,500.00, then the Australian Government covers your accommodation costs in full. My Aged Care published both figures as at 23 August 2026, and indexation changes them.

None of these alternatives depends on which aged care provider you enter. The Elderberry directory lists 708 aged care providers across Australia, pulled August 2026, and the same Australian Government rules apply at each of them.

Do you have to pay a lump sum for an aged care room?

No. Whether you pay the agreed price of your room as a refundable lump sum is your own choice. Everyone entering an aged care home must agree the price of their room in writing with the provider before entry. My Aged Care states that you and the provider may negotiate a lower price by agreement. No provider may charge above the published price for a given room. How you pay the agreed price is a second decision, taken after the price itself.

A refundable lump sum, or RAD, is the lump sum form of the agreed room price. The lump sum balance comes back to you when you move out of the aged care home. My Aged Care gives the provider 14 days from the day you leave permanently to refund the lump sum. If a resident dies, the provider must return the balance of the lump sum, minus any allowable amounts deducted during the care period, within 14 days of receiving probate or letters of administration.

Two further rules govern the lump sum. Should a provider go bankrupt or insolvent and fail to return your money, the Accommodation Payment Guarantee Scheme has the Australian Government repay it. RAD retention applies to every resident whose first entry to residential aged care happens from 1 November 2025 onwards, and who pays by refundable deposit in full or in part. The provider retains an amount calculated at 2% a year of the balance. Retention stops entirely at the 5 year mark.

The aged care means assessment counts a refundable lump sum among your assets, even where a family member provided the money. The age pension means test excludes it. Room prices are agreed home by home against each home's published price, so the price you negotiate depends on which home you choose.

What happens to your money if you move into an aged care home?

Your money pays a defined set of aged care costs, most of them capped. My Aged Care applies one of two fee arrangements, depending on when you entered care. The 1 November 2025 fee arrangements consist of the basic daily fee, a hotelling contribution, a non-clinical care contribution, and a higher everyday living fee. The 1 July 2014 fee arrangements consist of the basic daily fee, a means tested care fee, and a higher everyday living fee. My Aged Care published the fee rates in this section as at 23 August 2026, and the government indexes them each 20 March and 20 September.

• Basic daily fee. Every resident pays it. My Aged Care sets the fee at 85% of what a single person receives as the basic age pension. On current rates that gives a maximum of $66.80 a day, or $24,382 a year.
• Hotelling contribution (1 November 2025 arrangements). This means tested contribution is capped at the hotelling supplement itself, which is $22.15 a day. Below the income and asset thresholds, the government keeps paying the hotelling supplement in full.
• Non-clinical care contribution (1 November 2025 arrangements). It leaves out clinical care costs and is capped at $107.32 a day. Payment stops once total contributions reach $137,917.01 (indexed), or once cumulative contributions pass 4 years, whichever of those comes first.
• Means tested care fee (1 July 2014 arrangements). This fee is between $0 and $372.03 a day, capped at $35,910.43 a year or $86,185.23 in a lifetime. Indexation moves those caps each March and September.

Aged care home costs are split between the resident and the government. The government fully funds every clinical care cost in an aged care home under the 1 November 2025 fee arrangements. The share you pay is the basic daily fee, the means tested contributions for your entry date, the higher everyday living fee, and your agreed accommodation payment. Those four components apply at every aged care home, across the 224,493 places the Elderberry directory lists in Australia, pulled August 2026.

Common questions

How do you avoid ending up in a nursing home?

Subsidised home care is what the Australian Government funds for people who want to remain at home for as long as they can, according to Moneysmart. The Commonwealth Home Support Program suits people who largely manage alone and need help with only a few everyday tasks. Support at Home covers ongoing or more complex help. Short-term restorative care is support aimed at rebuilding your independence. Residential aged care becomes relevant once a person can no longer manage at home without ongoing help, whether with everyday tasks or with health care.

Who is eligible to enter a government-funded aged care home?

My Aged Care sets eligibility for a government-funded aged care home on two conditions: the care needs an assessment identifies, and age. You must be 65 years or over. The threshold drops to 50 for Aboriginal people, for Torres Strait Islander people, and for anyone homeless or facing the risk of homelessness. Your finances do not decide whether you are eligible for a government-funded aged care home. They decide only how much you pay.

What happens if an elderly person has no one to take care of them?

Care finders may be able to help. My Aged Care points people towards care finders when they have no family, no friends, no carer and no representative they are comfortable receiving help from. Care finders assist with applying for and arranging aged care. Independent advocates through the Older Persons Advocacy Network support the same group.

Who decides how much you pay towards aged care costs?

Services Australia works out your contribution through the aged care means assessment. Services Australia also states it can tell you what you can expect to contribute to your aged care costs when you are thinking about accessing services. My Aged Care explains your options, checks your eligibility, arranges a care-needs assessment and provides cost information. The Financial Information Service run by Services Australia is free for everyone, on 132 300, and explains what your aged care costs mean financially.

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