See What You Could Borrow
Estimate your borrowing power across 40+ lenders in under a minute. Then we'll tell you straight whether the number can go further.
Stryve Borrowing Capacity Calculator
You may be able to borrow up to
$0
Fill in both steps and your estimate appears here, across 40+ 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
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.
