See What You Could Borrow

Estimate your borrowing power across 50+ lenders in under a minute. Then we'll tell you straight whether the number can go further.

Stryve Borrowing Capacity Calculator

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You may be able to borrow up to

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Fill in both steps and your estimate appears here, across 50+ lenders, in about a minute.

Worked example

Say you're a single applicant earning $120,000 a year, buying a home to live in, with no dependants and a $10,000 credit card limit. After tax that's about $7,590 a month - once living expenses (floored at an indicative HEM benchmark) and the card's assumed commitment come out, you'd have roughly $5,025 a month of surplus to service a loan, assessed at 9.00% (a 6.00% rate plus the APRA buffer). That works out to a borrowing capacity of about $624,516 - try your own numbers above.

How Borrowing Capacity Is Calculated

To calculate borrowing capacity, lenders start with your income, take off tax, your living expenses and any existing debts, then stress-test what's left at an interest rate higher than the one you'd actually pay. What remains is your monthly surplus, and that surplus - capitalised over a typical 30-year loan term - sets your estimated maximum loan. The calculator above runs that exact process on your own numbers; the worked example below shows it on a real income.

What affects how much you can borrow?

Your income is the biggest lever - its size, type and stability all matter, and a second applicant's income is added to the household total. From there, lenders subtract your living expenses (floored at an indicative Household Expenditure Measure if your declared figure is lower), any existing home loan or personal loan repayments, and a monthly commitment for every credit card limit you hold - even on a card you never use. Dependants raise the expense floor, and rental or other income is only counted at a shaded percentage to allow for vacancy and variability. Change any of these in the calculator above and watch your number move.

The APRA serviceability buffer

Australian lenders are required by APRA to assess your repayments at your loan's interest rate plus a buffer of about 3 percentage points, not the rate you'd actually pay. That buffer exists so you could still service the loan if rates rose after settlement, and it's built into the calculator above - it's the main reason your assessed borrowing capacity comes in lower than a simple "income times a multiple" rule of thumb would suggest.

How accurate is this calculator?

It models the same mechanics real lenders use - after-tax income, the HEM expense floor, existing commitments and the APRA buffer - so it's a solid planning figure. It doesn't currently factor in HECS/HELP debt repayments or the Medicare Levy Surcharge, both of which reduce real borrowing capacity, so if either applies to you, treat this estimate as a touch optimistic. Every lender also applies its own policy on income shading, expense benchmarks and existing debt, which is why real offers can vary by $100,000 or more for the same applicant - use this to plan, then confirm the real number with a broker.

From borrowing capacity to what you can afford

Knowing what you could borrow is only half the picture - your deposit and the property's price also decide what you can actually buy. Now see how much house you can afford: our Home Affordability calculator combines this same borrowing-capacity engine (and the same default rate) with your deposit and stamp duty to show a maximum property price. Once you've got a property and a loan amount in mind, our Loan Repayment calculator shows what it would actually cost you each month, and our Stamp Duty calculator covers one of the biggest upfront costs of buying.

Borrowing Capacity Calculator FAQs

It depends on your expenses, existing debts and dependants as much as the income figure itself, but as a guide: a single applicant on $120,000 a year with no dependants and a $10,000 credit card limit could borrow roughly $624,516 today (see the worked example above). Enter your own income, expenses and debts into the calculator for a figure specific to you.

It's a regulator-required margin - currently about 3 percentage points - that lenders add on top of your actual loan rate when assessing whether you could afford the repayments. So a loan at 6% is assessed as if it were around 9%. It's designed to make sure you could still service the loan if interest rates rose, and it's the main reason your assessed borrowing capacity is lower than your headline repayment would suggest.

Yes, significantly. Lenders use the higher of your declared living expenses or an indicative Household Expenditure Measure benchmark for your household size, and every credit card limit you hold is assessed at around 3.8% of the limit per month as a commitment - even on a card sitting at zero balance. Closing or reducing unused credit card limits before you apply is one of the simplest ways to lift your number.

It's a realistic starting point using the same mechanics real lenders apply - after-tax income, an indicative HEM expense floor, existing commitments and the APRA buffer - typically within 5-10% of what a major Australian lender would offer. It doesn't currently model HECS/HELP repayments or the Medicare Levy Surcharge, so those will reduce a real result below this estimate. Borrowing capacity can also vary by $100,000 or more between lenders because each applies different expense benchmarks, income shading and policy rules, so use this as a planning number and validate with a formal pre-approval.

Generally yes - a couple's combined income is assessed together, which usually more than offsets the slightly higher living-expense benchmark lenders use for two adults versus one. The calculator above splits a couple's income evenly for tax purposes (a fairer estimate than taxing it all as one earner) and applies the couple's HEM benchmark, so switching between 'Just me' and 'Two of us' shows the real difference for your numbers.

Often yes. Brokers compare 50+ lenders, each with different policies on income shading, add-backs for self-employed applicants, HECS treatment and professional-package discounts. Two lenders assessing the same applicant can differ by $50,000 to $100,000, so a broker's job is finding which lender's policy suits your income, debt and expense profile best.

Want to know if your number can go further?

Lenders read the same income very differently. If there's room to borrow more, we'll find it — and if there isn't, we'll tell you straight.

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The calculator gives you a number. We pressure-test it against 50+ lenders' actual policies — and if yours can go further, we'll find the one that gets you there. If it can't, we'll tell you straight.

Stryve Finance team reviewing borrowing capacity