Help
Guides for specific home loan questions
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All topics (32)
- First Home Guarantee vs saving a 20% depositBuying now with a 5% deposit under the federal scheme, or saving to 20% first: how the two paths compare on cost, timing and eligibility in a falling market.
- Fixed-rate break costs: who pays and when they biteHow Australian fixed-rate break costs are calculated, why they can be nil in a rising-rate market, who pays them, and what to ask for before you refinance or sell.
- Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) in AustraliaWhat LMI costs at each deposit level, why premiums step at LVR band edges, when capitalising beats paying cash, and the low-deposit paths that avoid a premium.
- Home loan pre-approval vs unconditional approvalThe difference between a system-generated pre-approval, conditional approval and unconditional finance — how long each lasts, and what actually overturns one.
- Offset account vs redraw in AustraliaOffset and redraw save identical interest on identical balances. What separates them is fees, legal certainty, fixed-rate limits and tax treatment.
- Guarantor and family guarantee home loans in AustraliaHow much equity a guarantor needs, what a limited guarantee caps their exposure at, the release test lenders apply, and when the 5% scheme is the better route.
- When refinancing a home loan is worth it in AustraliaThe full switching cost, the break-even months formula, the 30-year term reset that erases the saving, and why asking your own lender first usually wins.
- Rolling debts into your mortgage in AustraliaWhat consolidating cards and personal loans into a home loan really costs over 30 years, the split-term fix that avoids it, and the conditions lenders attach.
- Self-employed home loan paperwork in AustraliaThe documents lenders ask self-employed borrowers for, how add-backs work, what alt-doc really requires, and the lodgement timing that decides your answer.
- Bridging loans in AustraliaHow peak debt and end debt work when you buy before you sell, why lenders discount an unsold property, and the APRA exemption bridging finance carries.
- The comparison rate and what it cannot tell youThe comparison rate is calculated on a $150,000 loan over 25 years. What that assumption does to your numbers, what it captures well, and what it leaves out.
- Serviceability: how lenders stress-test repaymentsWhat the 3 percentage point buffer does to a real repayment, how income is shaded, why a benchmark overrides low declared expenses, and what moves the number.
- SMSF limited recourse borrowing from 10 August 2026New real-property LRBAs can only acquire business real property from 10 August 2026. What is protected, what business real property means, and what lenders test.
- Negative gearing and the 1 July 2027 rule changeNegative gearing reform is law, not a proposal. What is grandfathered from 7:30pm on 12 May 2026, what quarantining does to cashflow, and the CGT change.
- The First Home Super Saver Scheme: caps and timingFHSS caps are $15,000 a year and $50,000 in total. You need the determination before settlement and 90 days after signing to request release — not 14 days.
- Stamp duty for first home buyers, state by stateWhere first home buyer duty concessions stand now: the ACT abolition, NSW and Victorian thresholds, the Queensland new-build exemption and the Tasmanian rollback.
- Fixed versus variable home loans in a hiking cycleWhat fixing actually buys, why fixed pricing follows the swap curve rather than the cash rate, what break costs depend on, and how splits and expiry work.
- Credit scores and credit files before a home loanAustralia has had two credit bureaux since the April 2026 merger. What lenders read in a credit file, which score bands to trust, and the 90-day clean-up.
- Off-the-plan finance: the risk sits at completionYou exchange today and the lender values the property years later. What the delay does to your valuation, your approval and your deposit, and how to sequence it.
- Auction finance: everything happens before the dayA winning bid is a binding contract with no cooling-off and no finance clause. What has to be finished before you register, and what a broker cannot fix after.
- Co-borrower or guarantor: who owes whatJoint and several liability, what a limited guarantee actually caps, how a guarantee is released, and what it takes to get a name off a mortgage later.
- When interest-only ends: the repayment step-upThe maths behind a 20 to 40 per cent jump when interest-only reverts to principal and interest, why extending is harder now, and what to do a year out.
- Cash-out refinance: what lenders scrutiniseWhat Australian lenders ask for when you release equity in a refinance: stated purpose, evidence thresholds, LVR limits, AML checks and how falling values change what is available.
- Mortgage hardship options (high level)How financial hardship variations work on an Australian home loan: your right to ask, what lenders can offer, the credit reporting consequences, and the free help available.
- Mortgage broker fees: who pays in Australia?Who pays a mortgage broker in Australia: lender-paid upfront and trail commission, when a borrower fee applies, clawback, the best interests duty, and what to ask before you proceed.
- Bank valuation below contract price: what happensA valuation under the contract price is now the common case, not the exception. How lenders use the figure, what a shortfall costs in cash, and your options.
- Signing unconditional before finance is certainWhy going unconditional without formal approval is the largest avoidable risk in an Australian purchase, what the deposit exposure actually is, and why a falling market makes it worse.
- Honeymoon / introductory rates: revert riskHow introductory and honeymoon home loan rates work in Australia, what the revert rate does to your repayment, and why the comparison rate understates the risk in a rising market.
- Loan portability when you sell and buyHow home loan portability works in Australia, when substituting security beats refinancing, what it can save on a fixed loan, and the timing that makes or breaks it.
- Cross-collateralising two propertiesWhat cross-collateralisation means for Australian property investors, why lenders like it, the exit problems it creates, and why falling values make it riskier than it looks.
- Genuine savings: what lenders count as your ownWhy high-LVR lenders want 5% saved over three months, which deposit sources pass without argument, how gifts are treated, and what the scheme layer changes.
- DTI and APRA’s 20% cap on high debt-to-income loansAPRA’s 1 February 2026 limits cap each lender at 20% of new lending above 6x DTI. Why that is not a borrower ceiling, the exemptions, and how DTI is built.
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