Complete Home Loan

Lots of different factors will determine how much you can borrow. Lenders factor in things like your income, the type of property you want to buy, the amount you want to spend, as well as your savings and expenses.

It pays to think longer term about your future, too, and consider whether you plan to start a family or switch careers, as these things could change your financial position. It’s a good idea to be conservative when estimating how much you can borrow so you don’t overextend yourself and find it hard to make the repayments down the track.

Our Home Loan Borrowing Power Calculator can help you get a rough idea of what you can borrow based on your current financial position. From here, you can consider more personal factors and decide whether you’re comfortable paying that level of repayments.

Your repayments will depend on a range of different factors, including the size of your deposit, how much you borrow, how often you make repayments, and the interest rate you’re paying on your loan. You may find you can pay off your loan sooner if you make repayments fortnightly rather than monthly. You can explore what your repayments could be using our repayment calculator.

The minimum amount for a deposit is 5% of the total purchase price. A 10% deposit is typically recommended for a first home buyer, comprising 5% for the house deposit and 5% for associated costs, including lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), stamp duty and conveyancing fees. You may not need to pay LMI if you can pay a 20% deposit.

Interest can be charged on your loan: through a variable rate, fixed rate or by splitting the loan into fixed and variable components.

Variable rate mortgage
The interest rate you pay will rise and fall, generally in response to movements of the official cash rate set by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Bendigo Bank variable home loans also allow you to make unlimited extra repayments and come with other benefits such as a 100% offset account which can help you pay less interest. You may choose a variable rate if you think rates will fall, so the amount you pay reduces with the official cash rate.

Fixed rate mortgage
You pay a fixed interest rate for a specific term. Then, you can re-negotiate the rate you pay. You may choose to fix your interest rate if you expect interest rates to rise, or if you value certainty in your outgoings. Unlike most banks, Bendigo Bank also offers an offset account on our fixed rate home loans which could save you in interest.

Split
You can also split your loan between fixed and variable. This means paying a fixed rate of interest on part of the loan and a variable rate of interest on the remaining portion of the loan. Splitting your loan can offer you the best of both worlds.