North Shore mortgage broker

The Lower North Shore sits close to the harbour and the city. North Sydney, Mosman, Cremorne, Neutral Bay, Crows Nest and Lane Cove sit in this group, and there are a lot of apartments. The Upper North Shore starts around Roseville and runs up the train line through Lindfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra, Wahroonga and St Ives. Bigger blocks, more houses, and a lot of older homes people plan to renovate.

You need more than a rough idea, yes. The North Shore sells heavily under the hammer, and once the hammer falls the contract is exchanged on the spot. Pre-approval tells you your limit and tells the lender you are coming, but it is not the same as formal approval and it can still depend on the valuation of that particular property. Talk to us before the day so you know which number is real. Our guide to buying at auction covers the rest.

This is the one that catches people. In NSW there is no cooling off period when you buy at auction. The moment the hammer falls you are bound, you sign the contract there and then, and you pay the deposit on the spot, usually 10%. You cannot pull out because your loan was declined or because the valuation came in low. If you do walk away you can lose the deposit and the seller can chase you for their losses. That is why the finance work has to happen before you raise your hand, not after.

Five business days on a normal private treaty sale, and ten business days if you buy off the plan. It ends at 5pm on the last day. If you pull out during it you forfeit 0.25% of the purchase price. There is no cooling off at all if you buy at auction, or if you exchange contracts on the same day the property was passed in. You can also give up your cooling off rights with a 66W certificate, which is worth getting advice on before you sign one.

Usable equity is roughly 80% of what your place is worth today, less what you still owe. A Lane Cove unit worth $1.1 million with $450,000 owing gives you about $430,000. That is your deposit on the next place, and you have not saved a cent extra. Go past 80% and lenders mortgage insurance usually comes back into it, so that line is worth knowing before you start looking.

Often yes, using a bridging loan, and on the North Shore it comes up a lot. The house you want may go to auction months before you are ready to list. Bridging covers you for the stretch where you own both, then winds back once the old place settles. Because auction has no cooling off, this has to be sorted before the day, not after. Not every lender offers bridging and the terms vary a lot.

It depends on whether the work is cosmetic or structural. New kitchen, bathroom, floors and paint can usually be funded by topping up your existing loan or redrawing, which is the cheapest money you will find and the least paperwork. Once you are changing the footprint, adding a second storey or taking out walls, most lenders want a construction loan instead. That releases money in stages as the builder finishes each one, needs a fixed price contract and council approval, and is interest only while the work happens. The rough dividing line sits around $50,000 to $100,000, but every lender draws it differently.

Often yes. Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney and Milsons Point have a lot of tall blocks. Some lenders cut the most they will lend on a unit in a big building, which means you need a bigger deposit with them. Some keep their own list of towers they will not lend on at all. Some set a minimum size in square metres for studios and small one bedroom units. The same unit can be approved by one lender and declined by another.

You may be able to. Lenders mortgage insurance is a one off cost you pay when you borrow more than 80% of what a place is worth. Some lenders drop it completely for certain jobs, and doctors and dentists usually get the widest access. Other jobs sit on shorter lists with different limits. A family guarantor loan is another way to avoid it. We check every option across our panel.

A bank can only offer its own loans and its own rules. If those rules leave out your building or your street, you often find out after you have applied and paid for a valuation, which is too late if there is an auction on Saturday. A broker checks it against many lenders first. Brokers also have a legal duty called the Best Interests Duty, which means we have to put you first. Buyvest compares 35+ lenders at $0 cost to you.

Ninety days. That is the standard across lenders, and there is no such thing as a six month pre-approval, whatever you may read elsewhere. If your search runs past it you can usually ask for an extension, but the lender reassesses your position rather than simply stamping it again, so anything that has changed in the meantime gets looked at. Each application is a hard enquiry on your credit file and those sit there for up to five years. One is minor. Several at once looks like you have been knocked back, and some lenders will not touch an applicant with more than a couple in six months. That is the argument for picking the right lender first rather than scattering applications, and it matters more here because you may need pre-approval live across several auction weekends.

A variable rate home loan moves with the market. It usually comes with an offset account, free extra repayments and redraw, so it suits you if you want to pay the loan down or expect to sell. A fixed rate home loan locks your repayment for one to five years, which helps if certainty matters more than flexibility, but there are break costs if you exit early and most lenders cap how much extra you can pay. Plenty of people split the loan and take some of each. What suits depends on whether you plan to move, renovate or pay it down quickly, so it is worth working through before you pick.

If you are an eligible first home buyer, often yes. The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme lets you buy with a 5% deposit and pay no lenders mortgage insurance. Housing Australia guarantees the gap between your deposit and 20%, so the lender treats the loan as covered. It is a guarantee, not a grant, and the government takes no share of your home. Not every lender is approved to write these loans, and the rules are reviewed from time to time, so we check what applies to you before you start looking rather than after you have found something.