Purchasing your dream home in Sydney

Borrowing capacity in Australia comes down to three factors: your income, your existing commitments (HECS, credit cards, loans, dependants), and the lender’s assessment of your living expenses. As a guide, most lenders will offer between five and seven times gross household income.

What makes the biggest difference is the lender you choose. Two lenders can assess the same income and return a $100,000 - $200,000 difference in borrowing capacity.

We model your scenario across multiple lenders and show you a realistic range - not just a single estimate.

Most major lenders accept a minimum 5% deposit, plus enough to cover stamp duty and purchase costs. The deposit you choose has a direct impact on your options and overall cost.

20% deposit
No Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), access to the widest range of lenders, and typically the sharpest rates. The benchmark where possible. 

10–19% deposit
LMI applies. The premium is usually added to the loan and can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands, depending on the loan size. 

5–9% deposit
Still possible with most lenders, but LMI is higher. Eligible first home buyers may be able to avoid it through the First Home Guarantee. 

The right approach depends on the trade-off between saving longer and entering the market sooner.

Most Sydney home loan applications require:

Photo ID (driver license / passport) 

Your last two payslips and latest PAYG summary or year-to-date income 

Three months of transaction statements showing income and living expenses 

Statements for any existing loans, credit cards, or HECS 

Evidence of your deposit (usually three months of savings history) 

If self-employed: last two years of personal and business tax returns, plus notices of assessment 

We collect everything through a secure portal - no emailing documents back and forth. A full checklist is provided after your first conversation.

Conditional (pre-) approval usually takes two to seven business days once we have your documents.

After you’ve signed a contract, formal (unconditional) approval typically takes a further five to fifteen business days, depending on the lender and valuation timing.

Settlement is then scheduled to match the contract, most commonly 30–42 days from exchange, though this can vary for off-the-plan or shorter settlements.

Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is a one-off premium that protects the lender — not you — when you borrow more than 80% of a property's value. In Sydney, LMI can cost between $15,000 and $65,000 depending on your loan size, and yes, there are several ways to avoid it. The most common routes are: saving a full 20% deposit, using a guarantor loan where a family member's property acts as additional security, accessing the First Home Guarantee (5% deposit, no LMI for eligible buyers), or qualifying for a profession-based LMI waiver available to some medical professionals and lawyers. Black and White Finance will identify which option applies to you and, where LMI is unavoidable, run the numbers on whether entering the Sydney market sooner — even with LMI — works out better financially than waiting to save a larger deposit.

Principal interest (P/I) or interest-only (I/O) repayments are the most common repayment types. Principal and interest (P/I) repayments: Allows you to pay off your loan sooner by paying the interest amount plus a portion of the original loan amount. This repayment type generally allows you to borrow more, as you’re paying off your loan over the entire term of the loan and not over a shorter period, in comparison to interest-only loans. For example, a P/I loan with a term of 30 years gives you 30 years to repay the original loan amount vs a loan of 30 years with 2 years I/O which only gives you 28 years to repay the original loan amount. Interest only (I/O) loans: With an interest-only loan, repayments during the interest-only period only cover the interest charged on your loan account. At the end of that interest-only period, your loan limit will still be the original amount borrowed from the bank. A benefit of having an interest-only loan is it allows you to manage your cash flow more effectively allowing you to put that money towards other higher-yielding purposes or reduce the debt on your owner-occupied property more quickly if you have both investment properties and an owner occupied property.

To buy a house in Sydney without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance, you need a 20% deposit — around $330,000 on Sydney's median house price. However, eligible buyers can purchase with as little as 5% deposit through the Federal Government's First Home Guarantee, with no LMI required. Single parents may qualify for the Family Home Guarantee with just 2%. If you don't qualify for a government scheme, buying with under 20% is still possible — you simply pay LMI, which on a Sydney loan can range from $15,000 to $65,000 depending on your loan size and deposit. Black and White Finance will map out exactly which deposit options apply to your situation, calculate your LMI exposure across lenders, and identify the fastest path to ownership — at no cost to you.

Whether to fix or go variable depends on your financial situation and appetite for certainty.
A fixed rate locks in your repayments and protects you if rates rise

A variable rate gives you flexibility offset accounts, unlimited extra repayments, and no break costs, but your repayments move with the market.

In 2026, with the RBA cash rate at 4.35% and further movements possible, this decision carries more weight than usual and many borrowers are opting for a split loan, fixing a portion for certainty while keeping the rest variable.

Black and White Finance models both scenarios for your specific loan size, shows you the real dollar difference, and recommends the structure that suits your circumstances, not just the product with the lowest headline rate.

Yes — in most cases a mortgage broker can secure a better rate than going direct to a bank. Brokers compare rates across 30 or more lenders simultaneously, have volume-based negotiating power, and access wholesale rates and promotions that banks don't advertise to the public. When you walk into a bank branch, you see one lender's products — a broker sees the full market including major banks, second-tier lenders, and non-bank lenders, and is legally required under Australia's Best Interests Duty to recommend what genuinely suits you. At Black and White Finance, the team negotiates across 30+ lenders, presents you with their top three recommended options with clear reasoning for each, and manages the entire process at no cost to you.

Using a mortgage broker in Sydney costs you nothing. Brokers are paid an upfront commission by the lender, approximately 0.65% of the loan value, once your loan settles. You receive expert advice, full market comparison across 30+ lenders, and end-to-end application support at zero direct cost.

The only exception is complex or niche lending situations where a direct fee may apply and any such fee must be disclosed to you in writing before you proceed. Black and White Finance has operated on a fully transparent, no-fee-to-you model since 2017, and will always explain exactly how they are paid, because no grey areas is how they work.

As a guide, stamp duty in NSW is:

~$40,000 on a $1 million owner-occupier purchase 

~$67,000 on a $1.5 million purchase 

Eligible first home buyers may receive a full exemption up to $800,000 and concessions up to $1 million under the First Home Buyer Assistance Scheme. Investors don’t receive this concession.

Yes - and it’s recommended.

Pre-approval confirms your borrowing limit with a lender (usually valid for 90 days), so you can make offers or bid with confidence.

Conditional approval (pre-approval): Initial approval, subject to conditions like valuation and a signed contract 

Unconditional approval: Final approval after the lender has assessed the specific property and contract 

You should only proceed unconditionally once formal approval is in place.

Yes.

Auction purchases are unconditional — there’s no cooling-off period. If you can’t settle, you risk losing your deposit (typically 10%).

The safest position is full approval. At minimum, you want pre-approval plus lender confirmation on the specific property.

Most pre-approvals are valid for 90 days and can usually be extended with updated documents.

If your situation changes during that time (job, debts, dependants), we re-confirm with the lender before you proceed.

Typical costs include:

Stamp duty 

Conveyancing ($1,500–$2,500) 

Building and pest inspections ($500–$800) 

Lender and government fees ($500–$1,000) 

Moving costs