If you move new sims into their house by merging households,
then evict the old sims you don't want. I think they become townies. (Do you know I haven't actually tried that! Not near my pc till later tonight so I can't 100% be sure.)
But, I'm not quite sure if the unlocks from the old sims will still be unlocked. I think they will.. try it, if it doesn't work you can always <delete>
In my generation game the unlocks from dead sims are still able to be bought by household members that didn't actually earn the rewards... so it
should work
If you totally don't want the old sims you could always kill them off after merging the households... then you will definitely have the unlocks and only have your new sims.
Seems like a lot of mucking around compared to what grimsoul said about just using the build/buy cheat! But I get that because I don't use mods at all.