Home Loan Affordability Calculator

See the most you could spend on a home or investment once your deposit, stamp duty, fees and LMI are accounted for. Then we'll tell you straight whether the number can stretch further.

Stryve Home Affordability Calculator

This Will Be For
My Income Comes From
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Typical rate pre-filled, edit to match a quote.

$
Dependants
0

Your estimated maximum property price

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Select your state in step one to see your estimate.

Estimates only,

Worked example

Say you're a single applicant earning $120,000 a year with $150,000 saved, buying a home to live in in New South Wales. Your income supports a loan of about $671,742, and after estimated stamp duty of $30,044 and around $3,000 in typical fees, your savings leave a deposit of $116,956. Together that's a maximum property price of about $788,698, including an estimated $7,693 of Lenders Mortgage Insurance added on top of the loan because the deposit is under 20%. Try your own numbers above.

How Much House Can I Afford in Australia?

How much house you can afford comes down to a simple sum: your deposit plus what a lender will let you borrow, minus the upfront costs of buying. In practice, your maximum property price is your borrowing capacity plus your savings, less stamp duty (which varies by state) and typical fees like conveyancing and inspections - and if your deposit is under 20% of the price, Lenders Mortgage Insurance gets added on top of the loan. The calculator above runs that exact sum on your numbers and shows the full breakdown, not just the headline price.

What affects how much you can afford?

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.

Deposit, LMI and the 20% threshold

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. Worth knowing before you set a savings target: your upfront costs come out of the same savings as your deposit, so what actually reaches the property is less than what you have in the bank. Our upfront cost to buy calculator works that through in reverse, showing the total cash a given price needs and whether your savings cover it.

How affordability works for first home buyers

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.

Affordability vs borrowing capacity

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.

Home Affordability Calculator FAQs

It depends on your deposit and state as much as the salary itself, but as a guide: a single applicant earning $120,000 a year with $150,000 saved, buying a home in NSW, could afford a property around $788,698 (see the worked example above). Enter your own income, savings and state into the calculator for a figure specific to you - the same salary with a smaller deposit, or in a higher-duty state, buys noticeably less.

Most lenders will go to 95% of the property's value, so a 5% deposit plus enough to cover stamp duty and fees is the practical floor - but below a 20% deposit you'll pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which grows steeply as the deposit shrinks. A 20% deposit avoids LMI entirely. Eligible first home buyers can often buy with 5% and no LMI under the First Home Guarantee. Remember that stamp duty and fees come out of your savings first, so the deposit that reaches the property is smaller than the balance in your account.

Directly. Stamp duty is paid from your savings before anything goes toward the deposit, so every dollar of duty is a dollar less deposit - and because it scales with the property price and differs by state, the same savings buy different amounts in different states. The calculator deducts your state's duty automatically at each price it tests, which is also why picking your state is required for a result.

Lenders Mortgage Insurance protects the lender (not you) when a loan is more than 80% of the property's value. The premium - often thousands of dollars, rising steeply toward a 95% loan - is usually added on top of your loan rather than paid in cash. Because lenders cap the total loan including the capitalised premium, LMI effectively shrinks the price your deposit can support. The calculator estimates it from indicative Helia/QBE rates and shows it as its own line in the breakdown.

The same sum applies, with two extra factors: your existing commitments count against your borrowing capacity, and lenders assess investment purchases at slightly higher rates. Set the calculator to Investment, add your existing loan repayments and credit card limits under debts, note whether you'll keep paying your own rent, and include the expected rent from the new property as investment income - lenders count a shaded portion of it toward your capacity. Investment purchases also miss out on owner-occupier stamp duty concessions in most states.

Borrowing capacity tells you the loan a lender might approve; this tells you the property price you could actually complete on. Affordability starts from your borrowing capacity, then adds your deposit and subtracts stamp duty, typical fees and any LMI - so it's the next step once you know what you can borrow. Both calculators use the same serviceability assessment and the same default interest rate, so the borrowing figure here matches the borrowing capacity calculator for the same inputs.

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Stryve Finance team helping a buyer plan their budget