Hi all,
My partner and I are in the market to buy our first home in Brisbane. We have been looking around and speaking to different mortgage brokers about home loans and what deals are available for us. We currently have a 5% deposit for a housing up to $500K (and continually saving). However, the cost for Lends Mortgage Insurance is such a killer to pay for when you don't have a 20% deposit :(
While doing some research, I came across Queensland Housing Finance which is essentially a home loan offered by the Qld Government. Link is here https://www.qld.gov.au/housing/buying-owning-home/financial-….
What attracted me to this home loan is that you only need a 2% deposit and you don't have to pay LMI. The eligibility requirement seems quite relaxed and I think we may qualify. So I gave them a call today (twice actually lol) to find out more information and they told me the following additional information:
- Its an alternative option for a home loan where you have been declined by private lenders (i.e. banks).
I asked them how do you show that you have been declined and the guy said you just need to declare or tell them "with your heart on your hand" that you have been declined lol
There's no off-set account linked to the home loan account.
You can borrow up to $500,000.00 from them. They will assess your income and financial circumstances etc.
There's an application fee of $700.00
Variable interest rate is based on the average interest rates of the big 4 bank - currently 4.77% pa or fix at 3.5% (or something) for 3 years.
You need to get financial and legal advice before signing the loan documents. the website only says financial advice though.
What's the general process? there is no face to face appointment, everything is done over the phone. they essentially find out if you are eligible first based on what you disclose to them and determine how much you can borrow. They then send you an offer of how much you can borrow which is valid for 3 months (kind of like a pre-approval). Once you sign a sale contract, you need to submit that and the loan application form and all the other information they require back to them for assessment.
you should may your sale contract subject to finance for 28 days as it can take that long to process your loan application. And then you should allow a further 2 weeks from when finance is satisfied for them to organise the funds etc for settlement.
You need to show that you have been consistently save money for the deposit for the last 6 months.
You and your partner must have steady employment for the last 12 months. If not then they will only take into account the spouse/partner who has been employed for more than 12 months which means you may end up with a lesser loan.
My questions are:
Does anyone have a Qld Housing Finance loan or have any experience dealing with them?
I feel like this home loan is too good to be true… Am I missing something?
Thanks :)
How's this too good to be true? It's bloody terrible.
You're paying interest on 98% instead of 80-90% and you're paying it at a much higher interest rate (4.77%, what the hell?) instead of ~2.8% or so.
Too many people are borrowing more than they can afford which in turn props up property prices and stuff like this doesn't help.