Home Loan Affordability Calculator

Five levers set your maximum price, and the calculator models all of them. Your borrowing capacity - driven by income, expenses, debts and the interest rate, stress-tested with the 3% APRA buffer - sets the loan side. Your deposit sets the cash side, but not all of your savings reach the property: stamp duty comes out first and differs a lot between states, and typical buying fees take another slice. Finally, if your deposit lands under 20% of the price, Lenders Mortgage Insurance is added to the loan, which limits how far the same savings stretch. Change any input above and the result panel tells you which lever is holding your price back - your income or your deposit.

Lenders treat an 80% loan-to-value ratio as the safe line: borrow no more than 80% of the property's value and no insurance is needed. Go past it and the lender takes out Lenders Mortgage Insurance - and passes the premium to you, usually capitalised on top of the loan. The premium grows quickly as the loan approaches the 95% ceiling, so a deposit only slightly under 20% costs far less in LMI than a 5% deposit does. That's why two buyers on the same income can afford quite different homes: the one with the bigger deposit borrows less, pays no LMI, and keeps more buying power per dollar saved. The calculator estimates LMI from indicative insurer rates and shows it as its own line in the breakdown.

First home buyers usually have the smallest deposit and the most help available, which makes the sums move around more. Most states waive or discount stamp duty for eligible first home buyers under price caps, and the First Home Guarantee lets eligible buyers purchase with as little as a 5% deposit and no LMI. The calculator prices an established home at standard state rates without first-home concessions, so if you qualify for them, read your result as conservative - the real number is often higher once duty relief and guarantee places are factored in. Our first home buyer team can run your scenario with every concession you're eligible for.

They answer different questions. Borrowing capacity is what a lender will lend you - a loan amount. Affordability is what you can actually buy - a property price, after your deposit, stamp duty, fees and any LMI are folded in. A strong borrowing capacity with thin savings still buys a modest home, and a big deposit with modest income hits the loan ceiling instead. If you haven't sized the loan side yet, start with our Borrowing Capacity calculator to check what you could borrow - both tools use the same assessment and the same default rate, so the numbers reconcile. Then our Stamp Duty calculator breaks down the biggest upfront cost by state, and our Loan Repayment calculator shows what the loan would cost you each month.