Six tips to cracking the housing market

RateCity-15/11/2015- 4 min read

Interest rates might be at an all time low but since the global financial crisis, most banks have actually tightened their lending criteria, making it a lot harder for some people to get in to the property game.

The days of getting a loan with no deposit are pretty much over, with most banks upping the minimum deposit amount to as high as 20 percent, putting home ownership out of reach for some Australians.

Why are the banks asking for bigger deposits?

Skyrocketing house prices in some capital cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, have seen the property market run hot. This has made the government regulator, APRA, nervous, and not without reason – no-one wants the housing bubble to burst and send our economy into a tail spin.

As a result, APRA has told lenders to keep a check on risky loans, such as:

loans with small deposits
interest-only terms for owner occupiers
loans with very long terms; and
high loan-to-income loans.

Tips for anyone wanting to crack into the housing market

1. Save up a decent deposit

A deposit of at least 20 per cent is ideal. It means you don’t have to pay lenders mortgage insurance, which can be up in the tens of thousands. Plus, it means you are starting from a good, stable base from which your mortgage repayments will be manageable. A lot of lenders now offer lower interest rates for people with sizeable deposits, so you’ll save there as well.

2. Look for something that’s within your means

If you are just starting out in the property market, start slowly. Look at how much of a deposit you have, and how much you can afford in monthly repayments first. Then add a buffer of at least 2 per cent, if not more, on to the repayments. Interest rates are an all time low right now so the one thing you can be sure of is that they are going to go up, and probably quite a bit. Historically the cash rate over the last 20 years has averaged at 7 per cent so bear this in mind when you are crunching the numbers.

3. Reduce the number of credit cards you have

Large amounts of credit card debt can affect your borrowing capacity and potentially your credit rating. It’s also counterintuitive to helping you save, rather than spend, so cut those cards up and stick with a debit card linked to a transaction account where it’s a lot harder to get yourself into trouble.

4. Build up a positive credit report

Since last year, lenders now access both negatives and the positives of a person’s credit history. This should be good news for most people because it means you can actively work towards building a positive credit history, which will help you secure a loan. To build up your credit rating start by paying your bills on time. A fixed address and a permanement job are also crucial to showing a potential lender you are a trustworthy borrower.

5. Do your research

Find out which loans require a decent deposit of, say, 20 per cent, and which ones will still let you borrow with a smaller one. Bear in mind that you’ll probably pay higher rates for the one that allows you to make a smaller deposit. You might actually be better off waiting til you have a bit more in the bank and choosing a lender with one of the lowest interest rates.

6. Consider using a guarantor

If you don’t have a big enough deposit for a home loan, you might want to consider asking your parents to be a guarantor. It will help you secure your mortgage and avoid lenders mortgage insurance. Bear in mind though, going guarantor isn’t as simple as signing a couple of forms – if you find you can’t meet your mortgage repayments the bank will then turn to your guarantor to come up the money.

Did you find this helpful? Why not share this article?

RateCity

RateCity is one of Australia's leading financial comparison websites, allowing Australians to compare home loans, personal loans, car loans, credit cards, insurance, superannuation, and banking products.

The money talks which you don't need to avoid any more

Subscribe to our newsletter so we can send you awesome offers and discounts

Learn more about home loans

Popular searches

Low deposit home loan

Low interest home loan

No deposit home loan

Home loans how much can i borrow

Cheap home loan

Investment loan rate home loan

View all

A deposit of 20 per cent or more is ideal as it’s typically the amount a lender sees as ‘safe’. Being a safe borrower is a good position to be in as you’ll have a range of lenders to pick from, with some likely to offer up a lower interest rate as a reward. Additionally, a deposit of over 20 per cent usually eliminates the need for lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI) which can add thousands to the cost of buying your home.

While you can get a loan with as little as 5 per cent deposit, it’s definitely not the most advisable way to enter the home loan market. Banks view people with low deposits as ‘high risk’ and often charge higher interest rates as a precaution. The smaller your deposit, the more you’ll also have to pay in LMI as it works on a sliding scale dependent on your deposit size.

It’s no longer possible to get a no-deposit home loan in Australia. In some circumstances, you might be able to take out a mortgage with a 5 per cent deposit – but before you do so, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons.

The big advantage of borrowing 95 per cent (also known as a 95 per cent home loan) is that you get to buy your property sooner. That may be particularly important if you plan to purchase in a rising market, where prices are increasing faster than you can accumulate savings.

But 95 per cent home loans also have disadvantages. First, the 95 per cent home loan market is relatively small, so you’ll have fewer options to choose from. Second, you’ll probably have to pay LMI (lender’s mortgage insurance). Third, you’ll probably be charged a higher interest rate. Fourth, the more you borrow, the more you’ll ultimately have to pay in interest. Fifth, if your property declines in value, your mortgage might end up being worth more than your home.

Low-deposit home loans aren’t as common as they once were, because they’re regarded as relatively risky and the banking regulator (APRA) is trying to reduce risk from the mortgage market.

However, if you do your research, you’ll find there is still a fairly wide selection of banks, credit unions and non-bank lenders that offers low-deposit home loans.

Following the Global Financial Crisis, no-deposit loans, as they once used to be known, have largely been removed from the market. Now, if you wish to enter the market with no deposit, you will require a property of your own to secure a loan against or the assistance of a guarantor.

If you want to get a home loan with bad credit, you need to convince a lender that your problems are behind you and that you will, indeed, be able to repay a mortgage.

One step you might want to take is to visit a mortgage broker who specialises in bad credit home loans (also known as ‘non-conforming home loans’ or ‘sub-prime home loans’). An experienced broker will know which lenders to approach, and how to plead your case with each of them.

Two points to bear in mind are:

Many home loan lenders don’t provide bad credit mortgages
Each lender has its own policies, and therefore favours different things

If you’d prefer to directly approach the lender yourself, you’re more likely to find success with smaller non-bank lenders that specialise in bad credit home loans (as opposed to bigger banks that prefer ‘vanilla’ mortgages). That’s because these smaller lenders are more likely to treat you as a unique individual rather than judge you according to a one-size-fits-all policy.

Lenders try to minimise their risk, so if you want to get a home loan with bad credit, you need to do everything you can to convince lenders that you’re safer than your credit history might suggest. If possible, provide paperwork that shows:

You have a secure job
You have a steady income
You’ve been reducing your debts
You’ve been increasing your savings

If your deposit was less than 20 per cent of your property’s value when you took out your original loan, you may have paid lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI) to cover the lender against the risk that you may default on your repayments.

If you refinance to a new home loan, but still don’t have enough deposit and/or equity to provide 20 per cent security, you’ll need to pay for the lender’s LMI a second time. This could potentially add thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in upfront costs to your mortgage, so it’s important to consider whether the financial benefits of refinancing may be worth these costs.

A bad credit home loan is a mortgage for people with a low credit score. Lenders regard bad credit borrowers as riskier than ‘vanilla’ borrowers, so they tend to charge higher interest rates for bad credit home loans.

If you want a bad credit home loan, you’re more likely to get approved by a small non-bank lender than by a big four bank or another mainstream lender.

Australia no longer has no-deposit home loans – or 100 per cent home loans as they’re also known – because they’re regarded as too risky.

However, some lenders allow some borrowers to take out mortgages with a 5 per cent deposit.

Another option is to source a deposit from elsewhere – either by using a parental guarantee or by drawing out equity from another property.

Saving for a deposit to secure a mortgage when renting is challenging but it can be done with time and patience. If you’re on a single income it can be even more difficult but this shouldn’t discourage you from buying your own home.

To save for a deposit, plan out a monthly budget and put it in a prominent position so it acts as a daily reminder of your ultimate goal. In your budget, set aside an amount of money each week to go into a savings account so you can start building up the ‘0’s’ in your account. There are a range of online savings accounts that offer reasonable interest, although some will only off you high rates for the first few months so be wary of this.

If you aren’t able to save a large deposit, you can consider ways of entering the market that require small or no deposits. This can include getting a parent to act as guarantor for your home loan or entering the market with an interest only loan.

A low-deposit home loan is a mortgage where you need to borrow more than 80 per cent of the purchase price – in other words, your deposit is less than 20 per cent of the purchase price.

For example, if you want to buy a $500,000 property, you’ll need a low-deposit home loan if your deposit is less than $100,000 and therefore you need to borrow more than $400,000.

As a general rule, you’ll need to pay LMI (lender’s mortgage insurance) if you take out a low-deposit home loan. You can use this LMI calculator to estimate your LMI payment.

An ‘interest-only’ loan is a loan where the borrower is only required to pay back the interest on the loan. Typically, banks will only let lenders do this for a fixed period of time – often five years – however some lenders will be happy to extend this.

Interest-only loans are popular with investors who aren’t keen on putting a lot of capital into their investment property. It is also a handy feature for people who need to reduce their mortgage repayments for a short period of time while they are travelling overseas, or taking time off to look after a new family member, for example.

While moving on to interest-only will make your monthly repayments cheaper, ultimately, you will end up paying your bank thousands of dollars extra in interest to make up for the time where you weren’t paying off the principal.

Each lender has its own policies, but as a general rule you will have to pay lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI) if your loan-to-value ratio (LVR) exceeds 80 per cent. This applies whether you’re taking out a new home loan or you’re refinancing.

If you’re looking to buy a property, you can use this LMI calculator to work out how much you’re likely to be charged in LMI.

If you are on a variable rate home loan, every so often your rate will be subject to increases and decreases. Rate changes are determined by your lender, not the Reserve Bank of Australia, however often when the RBA changes the cash rate, a number of banks will follow suit, at least to some extent. You can use RateCity cash rate to check how the latest interest rate change affected your mortgage interest rate.

When your rate rises, you will be required to pay your bank more each month in mortgage repayments. Similarly, if your interest rate is cut, then your monthly repayments will decrease. Your lender will notify you of what your new repayments will be, although you can do the calculations yourself, and compare other home loan rates using our mortgage calculator.

There is no way of conclusively predicting when interest rates will go up or down on home loans so if you prefer a more stable approach consider opting for a fixed rate loan.

A mortgage default occurs when you are 90 days or more behind on your mortgage repayments. Late repayments will often incur a late fee on top of the amount owed which will continue to gather interest along with the remaining principal amount.

If you do default on a mortgage repayment you should try and catch up in next month’s payment. If this isn’t possible, and missing payments is going to become a regular issue, you need to contact your lender as soon as possible to organise an alternative payment schedule and discuss further options.

You may also want to talk to a financial counsellor.