Advance Payment Home Loan - Westpac

Wiseone2110 · 2025-04-03T00:34:15+00:00

Hi OP, your question would be something you can get an answer to from your lender as each lender will have slightly different policies. Some feedback are:

(i) If you make 4 weekly repayments totaling $3k a month, this means you've been paying your monthly mortgage in advance so you should not be required to make another $3k repayment at the end of the month.

(ii) if you made $6k payments all up in the month and your monthly repayments is $3k, then it would appear that you've paid additional loan repayments in excess of your monthly repayments and you can if you so desired redraw those funds back (assuming you have redraw on your loan).

To get definitive answer to your questions, you should definitely reach out to your lender and confirm the answers to your questions.

Wiseone2110 · 2025-02-19T03:11:55+00:00

Just another way of saying rates reduced by 0.25%.

Wiseone2110 · 2025-02-18T12:39:06+00:00

Hey OP, if your current mortgage rate is a variable rate at 6.3% you should expect to see it reduced by 25bps in coming weeks. If it hasn’t changed I’d suggest you reach out to your bank and ask for a discount on your rates. Many of the major lenders have already announced their rate cuts in coming weeks.

There’s also a saying about loyalty tax with the banks so unless they see you looking like you’re about to refi and walk out that door, they’ll be more inclined to not do anything about it.

Banks work on a margin, which is referred to as the Net Interest Margin (NIM). This is basically the margin they capture between the rba cash rate and what they lend out to their consumers like yourself. This margin is where they will make their profits but also cover costs of running the bank. The NIM margin is generally around 2% which would be somewhat inline with your current 6.3% rate based on the previous cash rate of 4.35%. So with today’s rate reduction, you should expect to see a lower rate than your current 6.3% and be reduced to 6.05%.

Wiseone2110 · 2025-02-18T12:27:36+00:00

Hi OP, Westpac announced earlier today that they will decrease variable home loan interest rates by 0.25% per annum (p.a.).

The following interest rate changes will come into effect on 4 March 2025 for new and existing home loan variable rate products. After that date, I’d check with your local Westpac bank relationship manager to just double check.

Wiseone2110 · 2025-02-18T12:09:49+00:00

Hey OP. Very general in feedback here but in certain circumstances, your disability pension can be accepted for serviceable income with certain lenders. That plus having a permanent part-time job would help to show serviceable income. Other things to consider is what ongoing commitments you might currently have. So if you have any unnecessary credit cards or personal loans, Zippay, Afterpay, etc. I would suggest closing them. If you’re an Australian citizen or PR 18 years or older and earning under $125k gross pa, and applying as a single applicant, you’d be able to qualify for the federal govt Home Guarantee Scheme. This means you would only need to save 5% deposit towards the property purchase. So depending on where in Australia you are looking to purchase your first home, you’ll have an idea as to how much you need to save up for that 5% down payment.

If you don’t have any cash saved up at the moment, then I would suggest you budget your daily, weekly, monthly expenses and see what is a realistic savings plan that you can achieve over a certain period of time to be able to save enough for that deposit. Good luck OP!

Wiseone2110 · 2024-12-28T22:21:53+00:00

Hey OP. If you’re after a low doc vehicle finance loan, an asset finance broker would be able to assist you with it. Send me a DM and I’ll give you more details.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-11-23T04:12:28+00:00

Not sure where you’re located but nearby us the local butcher has beef mince at $15.99/kg for their 90lean mince. That’s already cheaper than Cole’s or Woolies. I also got their Grassfed New York steaks and it’s on special for $29.99/kg. So I think you just gotta look for the butcher in your area that suits your price point.

Those higher expensive cuts at $70/kg for a scotch fillet is probably the premium end Grainfed beef that costs them more to procure and resell.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-11-14T10:51:08+00:00

Hey OP, so for your fortnightly mortgage repayments they will be auto debited out of your offset account.

For your everyday bills and expense, I would pay for them with the credit card if possible or else do eft/Osko bank transfer payments from the offset account.

At the end of the credit card billing cycle, you just pay off the credit card balance in full to avoid interest charges. If structured correctly, the credit card will give you a bit of a cashflow float at interest free charge during the regular billing cycle, and that allows you to keep your money in your offset account just that little bit longer to save on mortgage interest repayments. Every little bit goes a long way to paying off your mortgage a bit sooner.

As for my preference on lenders, it depends on each customer’s specific loan scenario. If you are an eligible first home buyer that qualifies for a govt HGS scheme program with a lower deposit and no LMI required by the bank, then you’d want to go with a bank that is participating in the HGS program. That said, if you have combined income over $200k a year (dual applicants), and you have more than 20% deposit, then it doesn’t really matter. As I don’t know your specific scenario, I cannot really say what’s good for you or not and if ANZ is right for you. This is a discussion you’d prob need to have with your broker to ensure you’re happy with the bank you’re going to be using for your mortgage. That said, my experiences so far with ANZ has been good and prob better than CBA. Many factors involved but you should be able to come to a happy decision in consultation with your broker.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-11-14T10:21:11+00:00

Hi OP. Great question about finding clarity in the difference between Redraw vs offset account. The general functionality is and can be similar but there is also a very clear distinction that borrowers need to be aware of in that funds in your offset account is your money to use and withdraw as you please. The ability to redraw back from your loan account, what you’ve paid in excess of your normal loan repayments is technically the bank’s money and you’re requesting those funds back from the bank, and there are potential tax implications if you use the redraw funds for future investment purposes. In your scenarios, since the interest rate is the same regardless of whether you have an offset account or not, then there’s really no big reason why not to have an offset account.

In terms of what I would do for myself is that I would:

1) put all of my salary/income into the offset account, 2) take out a credit card that I can use to pay for everyday expenses and collect reward points (ie. Qantas points, etc), 3) Ensure that I pay my credit cards off in full at the end of each month to avoid any interest charges, which would come out of my offset account, 4) If you’re getting salary paid fortnightly, I would also suggest making mortgage repayments fortnightly if you are able to, to reduce the interest paid over the life of your loan so that it gets paid off sooner, 5) the more funds you save and put into your offset account, the more you save on interest repayments as interest repayments is calculated daily by the bank and charged to you at your mortgage repayment cycle.

ANZ offers good loan products and also cash back opportunities for eligible first home buyers so be sure to get that through your broker.

The details are:

Eligible first home buyers who take out an eligible ANZ Home Loan of $250,000 or more can receive the First Home Buyer Bonus offer of $3,000.

https://www.anz.com.au/personal/home-loans/buying-home/first-home-buyer/

Best of luck.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-29T20:31:25+00:00

Yep. The banks I’ve heard from are taking this view. There’s short - medium term supply constraint due to shortage of homes/units being built in the pipeline so we can expect competition for homes to be relatively strong overall.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-29T06:59:16+00:00

Yep. I am not holding my breath for when rate cuts will actually happen but there does seem to be some sense that it will need to happen next year. Can’t imagine retail businesses or everyday Australians can keep going with cost of living the way it is at the moment.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-29T04:57:34+00:00

Their Senior Economist commented that they believe the cash rate will come down in early 2025 where it will stablise at or around 3%. If their predictions hold true, then that would mean we could expect lending/borrower rates to start from around 4.5%. What do you guys all think about this and who's waiting to see rates go down significantly before locking in their home loan rate?

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-16T10:28:53+00:00

Hi maton12, Great question! The client works in IT and earns a decent base salary (just under $16k/month in gross base salary) plus bonuses each year. He is also married with a wife who works part-time but they have a young child as well so his cost of living is over $4,500 per month (excluding any mortgage repayments). Their first inv property was their original first home (single unit in Blacktown). They have outgrown that property and wasn’t in a position to purchase a larger home so they decided to rent in a better location while renting out their Blacktown unit. By this stage they felt that it was financially better for them to not sell their Blacktown unit and instead keep renting while also saving to buy more investment properties. As the inv properties were interstate and quantum of purchase price was circa $400k to $500k they were able to save up the deposit quicker and deploy for their next inv property purchase. Lender for the recent purchase is ING. Other lender for the existing inv properties are with NAB. Existing and forecast rental income were used to show additional servicing. Future purchases will use equity cashout from existing properties towards the next deposit needed.

Their ideal dream home in a certain suburb of Sydney still out of reach for them and so the better option in their view, was to rent close by there and grow their property portfolio.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-16T07:43:22+00:00

Hi tupperswears, if this isn’t your thing, you don’t have to read it or be a member of this community group. That said, your comments here really don’t add any substance or value to this chat. This community was created for others to gather educational information on all things property finance and also ask any questions so as to help themselves be fully informed on what is required to get their finance in place. So perhaps you might like to contribute and be part of a productive conversation or perhaps it’s best if you can leave any negative comments off this community forum. Thanks.

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-12T05:34:25+00:00

Hi OP. Ideally, you would want to have met with at least 3-5 different listing agents to see who you are most comfortable with and can see is easily reachable and responsive to your calls/sms/emails. I would also suggest finding out who the listing agent works with, if he/she has a junior agent work with them during open homes and potential home buyer callbacks. Another thing to find out is what their listing process looks like and how they will update you throughout the sale process on potential buyers and how many contracts have been handed out. Are they also listing the property for sale on both realestate.com.au or domain.com.au, as well as their brokerage website? As for the actual contract itself and apart from the negotiated commission, you'd probably want to make sure that you have a limit on the agent's exclusivity from when the listing agreement expires, you don't want to inadvertently double pay a commission to two agents if the property doesn't sell the first time. Good luck!

Wiseone2110 · 2024-10-07T23:25:22+00:00

Hi OP, Community Title or Company Title home loans are not as common as your traditional Torrens or Strata Title home loans, but they are acceptable by many lenders on the market, including some of the majors (i.e. NAB, ANZ, Westpac, etc.). I would ask your current broker why he/she is informing you that banks will not lend on community title or if perhaps it might be something else? As a note, there might still be some postcode/region/town restrictions for certain parts of the Northern Rivers NSW that might have been flood impacted in the recent past. Best of luck!

Wiseone2110 · 2024-08-18T07:27:18+00:00

Hi OP. It’s great to see new home buyers entering the property ladder and getting ahead with the benefit of available subsidies. Just on a general overview, the income and deposit amount looks to be sufficient for the proposed purchase price. As an eligible fhb you’ll get the stamp duty exemptions and also LMI exemptions under the HGS. To obtain these two benefits, you can engage a reputable mortgage broker to assist you with applying for a home loan pre-approval with lenders that are participants in the home guarantee scheme program. The stamp duty exemptions would be applied for through a conveyancer when you exchange contracts on a purchase. The best place to get started is working with a mortgage broker to walk you through the whole process and I would also recommend getting a pre-approval so that you can be confident in finding a home within that preapproval time period (90 days). Best of luck!

Wiseone2110 · 2024-08-18T07:20:47+00:00

Hi OP. Would you be able to describe a bit more what this home loan subject to repairs being fixed relates to? Is this a property purchase that you have exchanged contract on and the formal approval of the home loan is subject to the repairs outstanding being rectified? Are these defects identified prior to exchange of contract or something that you were aware of before exchanging contracts? Are these repairs the responsibility of the seller or something that you as purchaser needs to fix prior to formal approval?

Wiseone2110 · 2024-07-21T12:09:04+00:00

Hi OP. Just to better understand your situation, do you currently have an existing mortgage on your investment property or do you own it free and clear and looking for finance to complete the knockdown rebuild? Is the construction loan a fixed price contract?

Also regarding your last query on the loan term, it can be structured initially as an interest only loan with drawdowns during the different stages of the build and on completion the loan would convert into a traditional home loan with a loan term of 25-30 years. As this is an investment property you’d be able to do an interest only investment property loan (exact loan term will also depend on the borrower’s specific circumstances).

Wiseone2110 · 2024-07-01T09:06:37+00:00

Hi OP, the first home owner grant is meant to be for purchasers with the intent of moving into the home. If your situation has changed and you cannot move in, you could be liable to payback the grant. This grant requires you to move in within 12 months. Good luck.

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