13 free Australian mortgage and property calculators — stamp duty all states, repayments, affordability, refinance, and more.
| Your question | Use this |
|---|---|
| What will my repayments be? | Mortgage Calculator |
| How much can I actually borrow? | House Affordability Calculator |
| Will a lender approve me? (DTI) | Debt-to-Income Calculator |
| How much stamp duty will I pay? | Stamp Duty Calculator |
| How much deposit do I need? | Home Deposit Calculator |
| Where does each repayment actually go? | Amortisation Calculator |
| How much sooner could I pay it off? | Mortgage Payoff Calculator |
| Is refinancing worth it? | Refinance Calculator |
| Is this loan really cheaper? | Comparison Rate Calculator |
| Should I rent or buy? | Rent vs Buy Calculator |
| Can I afford this rent? | Rent Affordability Calculator |
| Will this investment property pay for itself? | Rental Property Calculator |
Most first-time buyers focus entirely on the repayment. Lenders and settlement agents look at four separate figures, and any one of them can stop the purchase.
Loan-to-value ratio is the loan divided by the property value. Below a twenty per cent deposit — an LVR above eighty per cent — Lenders Mortgage Insurance is typically required.
Lenders do not assess whether you can afford the repayment at today's rate. They assess whether you could afford it at a materially higher rate, applying a serviceability buffer.
This is why a loan that looks comfortable on a repayment calculator can still be declined. Run your own numbers with the rate two to three percentage points higher before you fall in love with a property.
Total debt divided by gross income. Lenders and regulators watch this closely, and a high DTI can restrict borrowing even when serviceability appears adequate. Credit card limits — not balances — are commonly counted. An unused card with a large limit reduces what you can borrow.
The deposit is not the only cash required. Stamp duty, conveyancing, building and pest inspections, loan establishment fees, and any LMI paid upfront are all payable before you receive the keys, and stamp duty in particular is generally not borrowed as part of the loan.
This is the single most common reason a purchase falls apart late.
A mortgage calculator returns one number. Owning the property costs considerably more.
A repayment you can only just afford leaves nothing for the water heater that fails in July.
Both reduce the interest you pay. They are not the same thing, and the difference emerges precisely when it matters.
Money in an offset account is yours. It sits in a transaction account, reduces the balance interest is calculated on, and you can withdraw it.
Money paid into the loan has been paid to the lender. Redraw is a facility with terms. Lenders have, in practice, reduced redraw limits and suspended access — and some contracts permit this at their discretion.
If a property might ever become an investment, an offset account is usually the safer structure. Where the offset carries a package fee and the balance is small, the fee can exceed the interest saved.
A fixed rate buys certainty for the fixed term. That certainty commonly comes with restrictions: caps on additional repayments, no offset account, and break costs if you exit early. Break costs are not a penalty fee — they can be substantial and are calculated on the lender's loss.
A variable rate allows unlimited extra repayments and full offset functionality, and it can rise.
Because early repayments retire principal that would otherwise accrue interest for the remaining decades, the ability to pay extra is frequently worth more than a slightly lower fixed rate. Some borrowers split the loan, fixing a portion for certainty and leaving the rest variable for flexibility.
On a standard principal-and-interest loan the repayment stays constant, but its internal split does not. In the early years, the overwhelming majority of each repayment is interest, because interest is charged on a balance that is at its largest.
An extra payment made in year two removes principal that would otherwise have accrued interest for twenty-eight more years. The identical payment in year twenty-five has almost no time left to act on. Partway through the term the principal portion overtakes the interest portion — the crossover — and extra repayments bring that point forward.
Gross yield is the advertised number. Net yield is the real one. Net yield subtracts council rates, strata, insurance, management fees, maintenance, land tax, and vacancy. The gap between them is the true cost of holding the property, and it surprises most first-time investors.
Negative gearing is not a strategy in itself. It means the property loses money each year, and you recover a portion of that loss at your marginal rate. You remain out of pocket for the rest. It only makes sense if capital growth is expected to exceed the accumulated losses.
Depreciation is largely deferred, not free. Capital works deductions generally reduce the property's cost base, which increases the taxable capital gain when you sell.
Repairs and improvements are taxed differently. A repair restores something to its former condition and is generally immediately deductible. An improvement, or replacing an entire asset, is capital. Initial repairs — fixing defects that existed when you bought — are never deductible.
What is Lenders Mortgage Insurance and who does it protect?
Lenders Mortgage Insurance is generally required when your deposit is below twenty per cent of the property value. It protects the lender against loss if you default, not you. The borrower pays for it, either upfront or capitalised into the loan, where it then accrues interest across the life of the mortgage.
Can I add stamp duty to my home loan?
In most cases stamp duty must be paid in cash at or before settlement and is not borrowed as part of the loan. It should be budgeted as an upfront cash cost alongside the deposit, conveyancing, and inspection fees. Rates and concessions are set by each state and territory.
What is the difference between an offset account and redraw?
Money in an offset account remains yours, held in a transaction account that reduces the balance on which interest is calculated. Money paid into the loan as extra repayments has been paid to the lender, and redraw is a facility allowing you to access it again, subject to the lender's terms. Lenders have in practice reduced or suspended redraw access.
Why does an extra repayment made early save so much more interest?
In the early years the loan balance is at its largest, so the interest component of each repayment is at its largest. An extra payment then reduces the balance on which interest is charged for the entire remaining term. The same payment near the end of the loan has very few remaining years to act on.
Does refinancing reset my loan?
It generally does. Refinancing into a new thirty-year term restarts the amortisation schedule, placing you back in the interest-heavy early years. A lower interest rate over a longer total term can still result in more interest paid overall, so compare total cost rather than the repayment.
Is pre-approval the same as loan approval?
No. Pre-approval indicates a lender is willing to lend a certain amount subject to conditions. Final approval generally depends on a satisfactory property valuation and a final credit assessment. It allows you to bid with confidence but does not guarantee finance.
Why does an unused credit card reduce how much I can borrow?
Lenders commonly assess your credit card limit rather than your balance, because you could draw the full limit at any time. Reducing or closing unused card limits before applying can increase your assessed borrowing capacity.
What is the difference between gross and net rental yield?
Gross yield is annual rent divided by property value, and ignores all costs of ownership. Net yield subtracts council rates, strata, insurance, management fees, maintenance, land tax, and vacancy before dividing by property value. Net yield is the figure worth acting on.
Does negative gearing mean the property costs me nothing?
No. Negative gearing means the property makes a loss each year, and that loss can generally be offset against your other assessable income, recovering a portion at your marginal rate. You remain out of pocket for the remainder, and the strategy relies on capital growth exceeding the accumulated losses.
Should I fix my home loan rate?
A fixed rate provides certainty for the fixed term, commonly at the cost of restrictions on extra repayments, no offset account, and break costs if you exit early. A variable rate allows unlimited extra repayments and offset functionality but can rise. Some borrowers split the loan to obtain both. The right answer depends on your circumstances and tolerance for rate movement.
Are these calculators financial advice?
No. They are educational tools producing estimates from the information you enter. They cannot account for your circumstances, lender policies, or state-specific duty rules. Speak with a licensed mortgage broker or your lender, and a registered tax agent on anything involving deductibility, before committing.
Stamp duty rates, concessions, and thresholds are set by each state and territory and change with state budgets. Lending buffers and DTI expectations are set by regulators and lenders. We point you to the authority rather than restating a figure that may have moved.
Stamp duty and land tax are administered by each state and territory revenue office. Verify current rates and eligibility with the office for the state you are buying in.
Read more about how we build and check our calculators, or about who writes this site.
Important: MegaCalcOnline provides general information and educational calculators only. Nothing here is financial, tax, or legal advice, and none of it takes your circumstances into account. Stamp duty, concessions, and lending criteria differ by state and by lender, and change frequently. Speak with a licensed mortgage broker or your lender before committing, and a registered tax agent before restructuring a loan where deductibility matters.
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