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Great Southern Bank home loans

Great Southern Bank (formerly CUA) is one of the largest credit unions in Australia, with almost half a million customers. Great Southern Bank is owned by these customers, and not by shareholders.

Great Southern Bank's origins date back to 1946 when two small credit unions opened and joined forces to offer fairer deals than the banks. Since then, there’s been a series of amalgamations and today Great Southern Bank is made up of 171 credit unions.

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Personal Finance Editor

Content updated

21 Feb, 2024

Product data updated

30 Apr, 2025

Why choose Great Southern Bank

Benefits

A range of home loans to choose from
Suitable for low deposits
Parents can act as guarantors for some loans
Opportunity to package financial products
Flexible repayment schedule with weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayment options

Drawbacks

Not all products offer offset facilities
Some products have upfront and annual fees

Home Loans calculator

Use our home loan calculator to see how much you’d have to repay under different borrowing scenarios.

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All calculations are estimates only; they are not guarantees, pre-qualifications or pre-approvals for borrowing. All results are based solely upon the data entered into the calculator.
It is assumed that data entered into the calculator, including interest rates, do not change for the lifetime of the loan - unless specified.
The Present Value provided by this calculator is displayed as the amount labelled 'Loan amount'.
At the end of the interest-only period, the rate may change. For this calculation, rate switches to the current rate.
The current rate is today’s average big 4 owner occupier advertised discounted variable rate (LVR 80%), unless you have inserted your own rate.
Interest is calculated by compounding on the same frequency as the repayment selected, i.e. weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

Months are assumed to be of equal length. However, given some months are longer than others, interest charged may vary depending upon the month.
One year is assumed to contain exactly 52 weeks or 26 fortnights. Thus each year has 364 days.
The calculator uses the unrounded repayment to derive the home loan summary line graph and repayment schedule. However, institutions may round repayments to the nearest cent.
Your final mortgage repayments or borrowing amount will depend on your lender’s eligibility criteria among other factors.
Calculator does not include the cost of fees or other extra charges.
Calculator does not account for changes to interest rates over time.
This calculator is for information purposes only. Any advice is general and has not taken into account your personal circumstances. Consider whether you need financial advice from a qualified adviser.
After the interest only term ends, your repayments will change based on the current* interest rate. This rate is subject to change. Read our full disclaimer.

Great Southern Bank customer service

Great Southern Bank home loan customers can get in touch with the credit union by visiting one of its branches Australia-wide. Alternatively, customers can contact the customer service centre by phone. Customers can also submit a query through the Great Southern Bank website or by emailing the lender directly. For straight forward banking transactions Great Southern Bank customers can use internet banking and their mobile app 24-hours a day.

Customer service centre (phone, email, branch)
Mobile app
Online banking

How to apply for a Great Southern Bank home loan

Home loan enquires can be submitted online and a Great Southern Bank home loan specialist will provide a call back. Applications can be completed face-to-face in a branch or over the telephone.

Before you submit a loan application it’s important consider how much you can afford to borrow before making any commitments.

To support your Great Southern Bank home loan application, you may need to provide several documents, including:

Personal identification
Personal income details
Details of current debts and assets
Information about the property

Great Southern Bank home loans

Great Southern Bank caters for a wide variety of mortgage customers, including:

First-home buyers
Upgraders
Refinancers
Renovators
Those building their own property (Building/Construction loans)
Investors
Self-employed (low-doc loans)

Great Southern Bank mortgage customers can choose from a range of interest rate options:

Principal and interest
Interest-only
Variable
Fixed
Split

The longest term offered at Great Southern Bank on a home loan is 30 years, and its fixed interest rate mortgages range from one to five years. Depending on the loan, some Great Southern Bank mortgages also include added features, like offset accounts, the ability to make extra repayments, and redraw facilities.

Some Great Southern Bank home loans also allow a loan top-up, which gives you the ability to use the equity in your property to pay for expenses like renovations, or for a deposit on an investment property.

Great Southern Bank also offers package home loans, which include benefits and discounts on a range of financial products, including credit cards and insurance.

Great Southern Bank home loan rates

To compete with the big banks, Great Southern Bank offers mortgage rates that are generally lower than the market average.

Some of Great Southern Bank's lowest rates are found on home loan packages for new customers and refinancers. Owner occupiers and those paying principal and interest tend to receive lower rates than investors and those paying interest only.

Some of Great Southern Bank's mortgages have no ongoing fees, though there are upfront fees to consider. Great Southern Bank also offers free redraw and extra repayment options on most of its mortgages.

Great Southern Bank home loan review

Great Southern Bank's headquarters are in Queensland, but Great Southern Bank has branches across the country and offers lower home loan rates and fees than many of its competitors in Australia. Unlike most banks that make profit for shareholders, Great Southern Bank reinvests its profits and passes the benefits directly on to customers.

In 2017, Great Southern Bank (as CUA) was named Money Magazine’s credit union of the year, in part because of its low interest rates and excellent customer service.

Great Southern Bank has a wide variety of mortgages to suit many different borrowers. It offers home loans that let customers borrow up to 95 per cent of their property’s value (LVR), and offers the option for parents to sign on as guarantors.

Unlike some of its competitors, Great Southern Bank doesn’t offer the option to sign up to a home loan online. Instead, applications need to be done face-to-face at a branch or over the phone.

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About our expert

Mark Bristow

Personal Finance Editor

Mark Bristow is RateCity's Home & Personal Finances Editor, and an experienced analyst, researcher, and producer. While primarily focused on Australian mortgage and home loan expertise, he has experience across energy, home and travel insurances. Mark has been a journalist and writer in the financial space for over ten years, previously researching and writing commercial real estate at CoreLogic. In the years since, Mark has worked for the Winning Group, Expedia, and has seen articles published at Lifehacker and Business Insider. Mark has also completed RG 146 (Tier 1), making him compliant to provide general advice for general insurance products like car, home, travel and health insurance, as well as giving him knowledge of investment options such as shares, derivatives, futures, managed investments, currencies and commodities.

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^Words such as "top", "best", "cheapest" or "lowest" are not a recommendation or rating of products. This page compares a range of products from selected providers and not all products or providers are included in the comparison. There is no such thing as a 'one- size-fits-all' financial product. The best loan, credit card, superannuation account or bank account for you might not be the best choice for someone else. Before selecting any financial product you should read the fine print carefully, including the product disclosure statement, target market determination fact sheet or terms and conditions document and obtain professional financial advice on whether a product is right for you and your finances.

Great Southern Bank home loans

Why choose Great Southern Bank

Benefits

Drawbacks

Great Southern Bank Home Loans