Residential
Residential Mortgages
Your Mortgage Broker for Residential Home Loans and Investment Loans
There are various types of residential mortgages, all offering different rates and features. The type of loan you require is dependent on your personal circumstances and goals. As experienced mortgage brokers we help you understand the finance options available for any property purchase.
An Experienced Mortgage Broker
Residential home loans, whether for owner-occupied, investment loans or loan refinancing, have a vast number of options available. There are differences in lenders, home loan interest rates, loan types and product features.
An experienced mortgage broker will help sort through these options to find the products that are most suitable for you.
Home Loan Types
The starting point for most home loan.
Always check the terms of your loan.
Honeymoon rate loans
A loan with lower repayments for the first six to twelve months. After the ‘honeymoon’ the loan becomes a standard variable loan and the repayments increase. Make sure that you can meet the higher repayments for the remainder of the loan. You could also be faced with a fee at the end of the honeymoon period to switch to another loan type.
Basic or “no frills” loans
This is a variable rate loan with a relatively low interest rate. The low rates for these loans could mean that you can repay the loan faster because there are no extra options available. Repayments will rise and fall with interest fluctuations.
Remember to check that the loan conditions will suit your circumstances. This is particularly important if you want the ability to make additional repayments, or pay-out without a penalty.
Standard variable rate loans
These loans are the most common loan type available. The variable rate loan offers more features and flexibility than the basic or “no frills” loan, so the rate is usually slightly higher.
The extra options (for example a redraw facility, the option to split between fixed and variable, extra repayments and portability) should be taken into account when choosing your type of variable loan. Repayments will vary as interest rates fluctuate.
Fixed rate loans
Fixed rate loans are set at a fixed interest rate for a specified period, usually one to five years. This allows you to organise your finances and repayments without the risk of interest rate changes. This protects you against rate increases, however, this is offset by not being able to benefit from a drop in rates.
At the end of the term all fixed loans automatically revert to the applicable variable rate. At this stage you have the option to lock in another fixed rate for a new term, switch to variable or go for a loan where you split with a percentage fixed and the remainder variable.
Fixed rate loans are very useful in some situations, however, may have limited features and lack the flexibility of 100% variable loans. There may be early exit fees and limited ability to make extra payments. As a mortgage broker we can help clarify the options and alternative open to you.
Professional home loan packages
These loans are offered to provide an all-in-one home loan package. They offer interest rate and fee savings on your home loan, credit card and transaction accounts and some lenders also waive the annual fees for your credit cards. An annual fee ranging from $120 to $395 is usually applicable on these loans.
Professional packages can also offer amazing flexibility, with some banks willing to waive product switching fees when changing from a variable to a fixed rate or converting a principal and interest type loan to an interest only loan.