Deposit and upfront costs for your home loan

Deposit

How much do I need for a deposit?

Generally you need a deposit of at least 20% of the purchase price of the property. Any less than this and you'll need lenders mortgage insurance.

Even if you don't have a 20% deposit, we may still be able to lend up to 95% of the purchase price. The minimum genuine savings amount required is no less than 5% of the purchase price.

A savings history helps

If you want to borrow more than 80% of the purchase price of the property you will need to provide us with a bank statement(s) indicating at least 3 months of savings history.

Family guarantee

If an immediate family member wants to help you with your loan application, they may be able to use some of the equity in their own property. If you want to know more on this just call us.

Upfront costs

It's easy to underestimate how much you need to save.

Here are some costs that are often forgotten (and been known to cause a few sleepless nights). Now you know, you can budget for them.

Stamp duty

Stamp duty is the state government tax on mortgage documents and the property. The laws and amounts vary from state to state. For more details or to work out stamp duty costs in your state, visit the relevant websites below, or use our stamp duty calculator.

Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from one person to another. You can use a conveyancer or solicitor to do this. The main difference is a solicitor can give you legal advice, while conveyancers are generally cheaper than solictors. You need to budget for a title search to verify ownership and type of property.

Lenders mortgage insurance

When you borrow more than 80% of the property value you will need lenders mortgage insurance. Lenders mortgage insurance covers us if you default or do not repay your loan, i.e it's insurance for the lender, not the borrower.

Home and Contents Insurance

As soon as the contracts are exchanged you need to organise building insurance. If you're an owner occupier, you might want to consider contents insurance as well.
Visit ing.com.au/insurance to weigh up your options and see if it could be right for you.

Moving costs

Here are just some of the costs you need to include (it's a great time to have a garage sale and save on some of the moving costs!):

Strata searches and building and pest inspection costs

Before you buy make sure you organise a strata search and pest inspection. It may cost a little, but if you find problems it can save you money in the long run. Check whether your solicitor can arrange these inspections for you.