r/AskABrokerAus

I’d be interested to hear if I’m getting closer to ‘possible’.

I’ve been busting my butt working, saving and trying to improve my overall financial situation.
I’m 38 single female, income $125k per year, no dependants, $30k saved - I do have a car loan of $644pm.
I’m concerned about the bank viewing my serviceability and giving me bad news.

I live in a very competitive area for housing so if ideally like to borrow $600k ish…

Am I in a position that it might be worth approaching a broker soon?

I’m hoping to buy land and build (using HelpToBuy, though I think that’s beside the point for this question). Will the bank reassess how much they’re willing to lend at each stage of the build/draw down? For example, if I’ve been approved for $700k when the slab’s laid, could they reduce that at lockup stage if my financial circumstances change?

I’d love to get the loan, get the build started, and leave my awful digital marketing job to do a PhD (the stipend for the PhD will be the same as what I make from marketing but most banks won’t count it, I believe). Will I be stuck in the job for the entire build?

I’ve noticed a lot of people focus on saving the deposit but don’t think as much about the debts they already have. Car loans, credit cards, personal loans and HECS can all affect the numbers in different ways. Would be useful to hear what brokers see most often when looking through applications, especially the things borrowers tend to underestimate.

Hi everyone.

I'm a tradie and I was going to setup accounts with some of my suppliers. These are usually paid fortnightly and would be like 2-3k credit limits. If I set these up will the bank be aware? Also, most of my income comes from PAYG (same with my wife) but we both have ABN's. Do banks care we both have small side businesses? We have 0 debt of any kind except our land loan on the land we are about to try and build on. No afterpay or anything.

Thanks for the help.

If I get pre-approved for, say, $700k and then spend 4 - 6 months looking, how much should I realistically worry about my borrowing capacity changing? Assuming my income, debts and expenses stay exactly the same. Is it mainly interest rate changes that can move the number, or are there other things that can cause the bank to reassess it?

Does anyone know any Banks/institutions that would accommodate a duplex build in Sydney (with 1 granny flat per side) with an 80% LVR?

Cost to build would be between $2,300,000 - $2,500,000 approx existing debt would increase it by a further $1,300,000 (totalling $3,800,000 approx).

One Bank will only do 70% and current valuations require it at 80% LVR.

Not a troll post legit cant build to house all the whingers in ausproperty subreddit so let me know which Banks can so housing stock goes up.

One of the more interesting charts from Cotality this month.

Over the last three months, Sydney’s top 25% fell 5.2% compared with just 1.4% at the bottom end.

Melbourne is almost identical. The top end fell 4.6% while the bottom fell 1.2%.

This is pretty consistent with what I’m seeing. First home buyer price points are still competitive, but once you move into the higher end there are fewer buyers, more properties sitting around and far more room to negotiate.

If you’re upgrading, you might take a hit selling your current place, but the discount available on the next property could be much larger.

https://preview.redd.it/137k60aim8jh1.jpg?width=1275&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c07d6c68b4418455c36a5374af8fbf34c315f72b

What does it actually mean? What does it actually do to your borrowing power? My parents have decided to transfer their properties to myself and my brother (one each) while they’re still alive in order to assist us in getting into the housing market. I don’t know all the specifics yet, but as far as I’m aware they have around 700,000 in equity in the property they’ll be signing over to me with about 500,000 left on the loan. This means I inherit a $500,000 mortgage on a house that they will continue living in and paying “ rent” to cover the mortgage, effectively making it an investment property.

I’m 29 - make around 90k a year, I have no dependants or debts, own my car outright and am single. I’m not really sure what the equity in this house means in terms of borrowing power.

Can I pull money from the equity and use it as a down payment and is that even a good idea? Does the equity in that house afford me a greater borrowing power? My brief Google searches/ internet mortgage calculators estimate I have a borrowing power of about 350,000 without it, and obviously that means absolutely nothing in the current housing market.

i’m not looking to buy a freestanding house, more likely a two bedroom apartment somewhere inner city(ish) in brisbane/ brisbane north. there’s a fair few around the 700 to 800,000 mark, however the same mortgage calculators tell me I would have issues servicing the loan unless I was able to put down a pretty significant down payment.

Any insights, information, advice or anything else much welcome as I have no real idea what I’m doing and to be honest I never thought I would be in a position to purchase at this stage in my life. I had assumed that I was part of the money that would have to suffer a loss in the family in order to get into the housing market.

Hello!
My wife and I have a combined income of about 130k and a deposit of 100k. We currently rent a house for $500 a week in the blue mountains. We rent off a family member who would let us rent here at this rate indefinitely.

We’d be looking to buy in the upper blue mountains for our home, but I do not think we could afford the repayments on a house we’d be able to comfortably live in. We’re both artists that need space for our work and we have a dog. Realistically, I do not see either of our incomes significantly growing over the next couple of years as we have a young infant and both work part time to spend time with him and this is important to us. Most of the deposit is from when we worked more hours. There would maybe be growth by 20k over the next three years max.

I’m worried that due to the likeliness of our deposit not really growing, that if we do not buy what we can afford now, what we would be able to afford to buy in the future, will only be worse. In this scenario, are we better off giving up FHB benefits and getting into the property market by buying an investment property now rather than wait for something we would be able to use FHB benefits for? I’m worried that if we wait to buy something we could live in, prices will rise faster than we can catch up too.

Would greatly appreciate any advice!

Hey all,

Is it fair to assume that there is a slow loan approval for home loan/bridging loan from non-banks at the moment due to increased SMSF applications?

A buyer for my property requested an extension for 2 days initially and another 2 days now stating that the broker is awaiting approval which is taking longer at the moment. The reason given was increase in SMSF applications and non-banks taking longer.

Is it fair to assume that home loan approvals (maybe bridging loan in my case) can take 9 business days right now?

Currently have a 3 bedroom unit PPOR (older walk-up unit) which CoreLogic is estimating currently as being 900k, with a 680k mortgage.

I earn 128k p.a. from my job with about 5k p.a. additional income from distributions/dividends. I currently have 35k p.a. non-mortgage expenses with total credit card limits of 8k (2 cards) and remaining HELP debt of 2k.

What are the chances of me being able to refinance by January next year if I'm planning on doing a loan split:

• Refinance of PPOR P&I
• Debt consolidate a 40k Equity Builder loan (currently I/O) to I/O

I am mindful of potential for an additional rate rise around November and the fact that property downturn may not lead to enough equity being available to remain under 80% LVR. The upside is that I'm expecting 4.75% p.a. pay increase in a few months, I also have enough slack to bring down expenses to HEM level (30k p.a.) few months before applying for a refinance.

When assessing serviceability for a home loan, I’m wondering how a bank can verify dependents. My partner and I currently have no children and are in the pre-approval process, but we are a few months away from having a kid. Two scenarios:

1.	If we get pre-approved now and the baby arrives before we purchase, does that void the pre-approval?

2.	If the baby arrives first and we exchange contracts to buy a week later, how does that affect the application?

Thanks in advance

Two policy changes caught my attention this past week.

AMP has launched a 40-year investment loan with up to 10 years interest only.

This matters because a standard 30-year loan with five years interest only is generally assessed on the principal being repaid over the remaining 25 years. Those higher repayments can reduce borrowing capacity, even though the investor may intend to extend the interest-only period later.

AMP’s structure leaves 30 years to repay the principal after the interest-only period. For some investors, this means directing more cash towards their non-deductible PPOR debt while keeping the investment loan interest only for longer.

Westpac has also increased the amount of rental income it will accept for servicing to 95%. Most banks discount rent to allow for vacancies and other risks, so accepting more can materially improve investor borrowing capacity.

Investor demand has dropped, so banks are changing policy to compete for what’s left.

For brokers here, what tends to catch first-home buyers out most often? Is it borrowing capacity, existing debts, expenses, employment history, the deposit, or something else? Would be useful to know what people should address before applying.

Preempting the Suncorp/ANZ merger, is there any appetite for a bank to convert a business loan at 7.5% to a personal mortgage, fully secured? Loan amount around 1.5m

I’m wondering how much day-to-day spending actually matters when a lender looks at an application. If your income and savings are solid, I’m guessing normal things like eating out, shopping and subscriptions aren’t a huge issue, but not sure how closely lenders go through it.

Hello all,

I just want to know is it possible to get a low doc loan while using a guarantor?

Can anyone explain why Aussie has called me 4 times in the last 24 hours after I told them on the 1st call I have no need for a home loan?

Must be missing those investors….

One of the key things I try to explain to clients early in their home-buying journey is that the bank’s maximum borrowing capacity should not automatically become their budget.

If you’re buying a home to live in, my version of the optimal position is to borrow less than 80% of your maximum capacity and still have six months of living expenses plus six months of mortgage repayments sitting in an offset after settlement.

Buying at this level should leave you with enough monthly surplus to build the offset quickly, handle unexpected costs and make a meaningful dent in the loan.

Then overlay where your income could be in five years. If your income increases without your lifestyle expanding at the same rate, turning a 30-year mortgage into something closer to 10-15 years can become achievable.

This won’t be realistic for everyone. But if you can find the right property within that borrowing limit, you’ll be putting yourself in an incredibly strong position.