How Much Can I Borrow? A Realistic Guide to Borrowing Power

Ask five different lenders how much you can borrow and you may get five different answers. That's not a pricing gimmick it reflects genuinely different serviceability policies, and it's exactly why comparing across a panel matters more for borrowing power than for almost anything else in a home loan.

What lenders actually look at

Borrowing power isn't a simple multiple of your income. Lenders build a picture from:

• Gross income salary, plus other income sources, often "shaded" (discounted) if it's variable, commission-based, or rental income.
• Living expenses either what you declare, or a benchmark minimum (like the HEM Household Expenditure Measure style floor), whichever is higher.
• Existing debts credit cards (assessed at a higher rate than your actual limit, not your balance), personal loans, car loans, and other mortgages.
• The proposed loan the amount, term and rate you're applying for.

The buffer that catches people out

APRA requires lenders to assess your ability to repay at a rate roughly 3 percentage points above the actual loan rate a serviceability buffer designed to make sure you could still service the loan if rates rose. This one rule affects your borrowing power more than almost any other single factor, and it applies regardless of how sure you are the rate won't move.

Why the number moves so much between lenders

Two lenders assessing the same applicant can land on meaningfully different maximum loan amounts because of differences in:

• How conservatively they shade rental or bonus income
• Whether they use your declared expenses or a benchmark floor and how high that floor is
• How they assess existing credit card limits
• Their own internal risk appetite for your employment type or deposit size

This is the entire reason a broker comparison exists not to find a "trick," but to find which lender's policy genuinely fits your situation best.

A more useful way to think about it

Rather than asking "how much can I borrow," it's often more useful to ask "how much should I borrow" a number that leaves genuine buffer for rate rises, life changes and the lifestyle you actually want to keep living, not just the maximum a lender will approve.

Our borrowing power calculator gives you a realistic same-day estimate using the current APRA buffer and tax settings a genuinely useful starting point before a full serviceability assessment with a broker refines it further.