Before you start going to open inspections, it helps to know roughly what you can borrow. A borrowing power calculator gives you a quick estimate in a few minutes, so you can focus on homes within your budget.
Income. Lenders look at your base income first. Overtime, bonuses and rental income are often only partly counted.
Expenses. Lenders compare your stated living costs with benchmarks and use whichever is higher.
Credit cards. Lenders usually count the full limit of each card, not just what you owe. Closing or reducing cards you don't use can lift your borrowing power.
Interest rates. Lenders test whether you could still afford repayments if rates rose. This buffer is set by APRA, the banking regulator, so the rate used in the assessment is higher than the rate you'll actually pay.
Deposit. A bigger deposit means a smaller loan, and with less than 20% you may need to pay lenders mortgage insurance.
Lenders will count part of the expected rent as income. A rental estimate from a property manager can help support your application. Our property management team can provide a free rental appraisal for a property you're considering, even if it's listed with another agency.
Loan Market has a range of free calculators, including borrowing power, repayments, offset and stamp duty: Loan Market calculators.
A calculator is a starting point, not a loan approval. For an accurate figure, talk to our in-house brokers at Loan Market Glenelg. They work with a wide range of lenders and can get you pre-approved before you start bidding.
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This is general information only, not financial or credit advice.