What we work on
Residential mortgage broking on the Connective panel. The work I take on is whatever I can put real attention on — that means most files cluster around self-employed structures, investors, and PAYG borrowers whose income or liabilities sit outside the bank-calculator template. Below is a quick look at each.
First home buyer
Queensland first home buyer
Three Queensland concessions in play right now: the First Home Owner Grant (new builds only, capped), the First Home Guarantee (federal, 5% deposit without LMI), and stamp-duty concessions (full exemption under $700k, scaled relief between $700k and $800k for eligible first home buyers).
- Eligibility check across all three before pre-approval — the order matters.
- Lender-specific FHG panel (not every lender is a participant; some have allocations that fill mid-quarter).
- 5% deposit lender appetite — which panel members will actually approve, not just market the headline.
Refinance
Refinance — including the cashback honest version
A refinance is worth doing when the rate, fee, and structure change actually pays back the switching cost inside a window you'll hold the loan. Not when the cashback marketing makes the maths look right on the front page.
- Rate vs. cashback economics — most $4k cashbacks are eaten by 30-50bp rate differential within 18 months.
- Clawback risk — most lenders claw back broker commissions if you exit within 24 months. That doesn't cost you directly but it constrains how often you can re-refinance.
- Retention rate negotiation — sometimes the right move is asking your existing lender for the rate you'd switch for, before switching. We'll tell you when that's the better play.
- Structure changes — fixed-rate splits, offset, redraw, principal-and-interest vs. interest-only — usually more important than the rate itself.
Self-employed
Self-employed home loans
The widest panel spread on the market — this is where lender choice matters most. Same borrower, same income, can borrow 30-50% more with one lender than another, depending on how each one treats add-backs, multi-entity flow-through, and minimum trading history.
- Sole trader, company, trust — each entity structure changes which lenders are even on the table.
- BAS-derived income — a handful of non-bank lenders accept BAS-only without two years of tax returns; useful when full financials aren't ready yet.
- Add-back categories — depreciation, interest, vehicle, home office, owner salary. Each lender publishes which categories they'll add back; not every lender allows everything.
- Trading history thresholds — 12 months ABN trading is enough at some lenders; 24 months at most; 36 months at the most conservative.
Investor lending
Investor lending
Single property and portfolio. The interesting decisions are structural — how you arrange equity, where the offset sits, what ratio of fixed to variable, whether interest-only is actually tax-advantaged for your situation or just deferring principal.
- LVR strategy — when LMI is worth it (capital deployment > LMI premium) and when it isn't. The LMI break-even calculator models the rent-paid + growth-foregone trade-off.
- Debt recycling — splitting deductible vs. non-deductible debt cleanly without ATO pushback.
- Rental income shading — most lenders use 75-85% of gross rent; some lenders apply higher shading for short-stay or holiday-let properties.
- Lender appetite by property type — high-rise apartments, regional, mining-town, rural-residential — each carries lender-specific restrictions.
Accountant referrals
Accountant referral partnership — the co-pro model
For registered tax agents and accountants. A documented, scope- clean handoff: you keep the relationship and the tax-structuring work, we run the borrowing side of the file. The four file shapes where the accountant decision and the broker decision are genuinely interdependent:
- Division 7A refinance — shareholder pays out the company-source Div 7A loan via commercial finance; structural call yours, lender selection ours.
- SMSF LRBA lending — investment strategy yours, panel of LRBA-accredited lenders ours.
- Self-employed file translation — same returns, different lender, $300k–$500k spread on borrowing capacity from averaging methodology and add-back policy.
- Multi-entity property purchase — entity-aware lender routing for trust and corporate structures.
SMSF property lending
SMSF property lending — LRBA on the post-2020 panel
A Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangement (LRBA) lets a Self- Managed Super Fund borrow to buy a single property under s67A of the SIS Act. The lender panel narrowed materially between 2018 and 2020 when the Big-4 majors withdrew from residential SMSF — what's left is a non-bank specialist tier plus a few retained mutuals. Five policy levers decide where today's file lands:
- Minimum fund balance — $150k–$300k post-settlement depending on lender.
- Liquid-asset buffer — typically $100k–$150k retained as cash, term deposits, listed securities.
- Servicing income source — some lenders accept member contributions + shaded rent; others count only rent and fund earnings.
- Property type — residential and commercial have meaningfully different panels.
- Custodian trust deed acceptance — most lenders require a corporate trustee for the SMSF and either accept a standard custodian deed or insist on their panel-approved template.
Profession-based loans
Profession-based loans — LMI waivers and income recognition
Profession-based home loan programs are real and they materially change the file. LMI waivers up to 95% LVR (or 100% at specialist medical lenders) for doctors and dentists. 90% LVR no-LMI waivers for nurses, teachers and police. Income recognition for penalty rates, shift loadings, on-call and locum work that mainstream lenders shade. Five profession pages covering the file shapes we work most often:
- Nurses & midwives — KD 2 lead piece. New-graduate case treated favourably; ~$15k waiver on a $675k loan.
- Doctors & medical specialists — 95% LVR (sometimes 100%) no LMI. Locum income gap of $200k+ in capacity between specialist and mainstream lenders.
- Dentists — 95% LVR no LMI plus practice-ownership self-employed income treatment. $300-$500k borrowing-capacity swing on practice files.
- Teachers & educators — 90% LVR no LMI. Contract / casual / relief teacher file shapes addressed.
- Police & emergency services — 90% LVR no LMI plus the penalty rate / shift loading gap. Same income, $80-$150k swing depending on lender.
Complex PAYG
PAYG with complex income shape
Bonus, commission, allowances, second jobs, recent role changes, international income, equity-component compensation. The cases where the bank's calculator either ignores the income outright or shades it down to the floor — and the lender variance is widest.
- Bonus by frequency — regular monthly/quarterly bonus is treated very differently to annual or one-off; every lender has its own rule.
- Commission averaging — most lenders use the lower of the last two years; some use a 12-month average; specialist lenders look at YTD.
- Allowances and overtime — only some lenders count these as servicing income.
- Recent role changes — minimum employment-tenure thresholds (3, 6, 12 months) vary lender-by-lender.
Construction
Construction loans
Knockdown-rebuild, owner-builder where allowed, builder contracts. The mechanics are progressive drawdowns against fixed-price contracts, with interest charged only on the drawn balance during the build phase.
- Land + construction as a combined facility, or land settling first with a separate construction component.
- Builder requirements — most lenders need a registered builder, fixed-price contract, and stage-payment schedule.
- Cost during build — the interest-during-build cost is non-trivial and frequently underbudgeted.
- Practical completion → revert — the loan reverts to standard P&I (or the structure you chose) at handover.
Family pledge / guarantor
Family pledge and guarantor structures
Where parents (or another close family member) use equity in their property to support yours — typically removing or reducing LMI and improving your effective LVR. Limited-guarantee structures ring-fence the guarantor's exposure to a specific dollar amount, not the whole loan.
- Limited vs. unlimited guarantee — limited is the standard structure; the guarantor's exposure ends once your LVR drops below 80%.
- Lender appetite — most major lenders accept guarantor structures, but minimum age, residency, and own-LVR rules vary.
- Independent legal advice — required for the guarantor; we coordinate the timing.
Where most clients start
Run the borrowing-capacity calculator across the home-loan panel. It tells us the shape of your situation before we get on a call, so the conversation focuses on the policy fine print that actually moves your number.
Run the calculator →