How easy is it to get a mortgage right now?

[Salsa]

Can anyone tell me what the current situation is with lending for mortgages right now - and if they know where things might be heading?
We are thinking about buying our first home in melbourne. Dh works (but as we moved here from overseas he has only been in the job half a year). We do however have some savings and will be able to get the first homebuyers grant.


Are banks lending now? Not sure with the economic crisis if the banks will be very willing to lend. Perhaps they have want you to have very high income or large deposit?

[Lulu]

Depends on your deposit first off I'd say. I don't think any banks will give 100, 95, or 90% loans for a long time...

[visitor1]

Friends on DH's have just been approved for a 350k (100% ) loan to build a new home and buy land.

They had to jump through hoops to get it however. They had no deposit.

Thats was through St George bank

[HotI]

Also depends on where you want to live. Banks will sometimes lend you less cash if you are buying in a less 'profitable' area.

You can always get an anppointment with a bank or mortgage broker to find out your options. Most times doesn't cost anything to get info.

[Snacks]

You can always get an anppointment with a bank or mortgage broker to find out your options. Most times doesn't cost anything to get info.

S'right - PM me if you want details of a pair of great brokers
Banks are still lending, and some are offering great deals atm. They have indeed tightened up on no- or low-deposit loans though. St George is the only bank I know of who are still offering 100% loans, and the Lenders Mortgage Insurance is horrendous.
If you have 20% of the value of the house you want to buy in savings already, (i.e. you want to borrow 80%) then that is safer because you won't have to pay the insurance premium.
Give a mortgage broker a call or drop in and see your bank rep and they will have a program that works out how much you can afford to borrow based on your financial situation.
HTH.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

i;m not sure about other banks but commonwealth has just changed it so that they require you to have at least 3% deposit before they will loan to you.

also, if you go for pre-approval it is taking upwards of 2 weeks to get it through to the banks, they are very back logged apparantly.

lenders mortgage insurance was quoted to us about a month ago as heing $4800 which is kind of annoying.

[Cassius2]

hi, i can offer some advice as we just went for pre-approval today...

DH is the only income earner and we have savings to cover 20% of the deposit (after we take out the roughly $26,000 in fees and charges like stamp duty). we are also first home buyers.

we found that in relation to last year (when we first started enquiring) the banks have become alot more conservative in relation to how much they lend. for us the amount dropped by $200K despite the fact that we are now earning more!
in all honesty though, we feel more comfortable with this. the low interest rate and the loan amount we are asking for means only a $100 difference a week between the mortgage and the rent. this time last year it was a completely different picture and threatened to really impact on our lifestyle ITMS.

so although it kinda sucks not being able to borrow so much, it is also a little reassuring to know that we feel 'safer' with the amount we have.

It shouldnt be a problem that your DH has only been working there for 6 months. they usually just want 3 payslips...so that time-frame should hopefully cover it.