It is when you apply for a construction loan that they will then use the on completion valuation. I.e. you need to have your builder / tender in place too. Pre-sales are irrelevent for residential finance and in many cases essential for development finance. As a general rule building up to four dwellings on one title is residential and any more is commercial / development.

200 acres is more viable, however still outside policy for most residential lenders. For a home loan most lenders want less than 50 hectares, some want less than 8 hectares! The cheapest bridging loans are types of home loans. If the property is large then you would have to seek more expensive specialist finance.

Auctions are quite dangerous, and there is no perfect way of protecting yourself as the purchaser. The bank can't effectively value a property prior to auction, as by definition the sale price is the market value. Unless of course two bidders went way out of control.

Please be aware that some lenders have pre-approvals that are effectively worthless. We've written a guide to help you work out how reliable is your pre-approval.

As mortgage brokers we all hate to hear of customers that were "pre-approved" on the spot in a bank and then they went off to an auction. In most cases the bank hasn't completed a full assessment and then when the customer wins an auction they then go through everything in detail. They do this to save money, processing a pre-approval and getting a credit manager to review the file is quite a lot of work. Many pre-approvals never convert to a full application so the banks just don't bother!

I don't believe in ordering a valuation prior to the auction as the bank valuer will generally value it slightly below the actual value. So if you then bid over that amount and apply for full approval you can only borrow using that initial valuation, not the purchase price. This is because the bank valuer is unlikely to do a new valuation a week later saying a property is worth more than in their prior valuation.

Buying at auction is best avoided for first home buyers or for people with very little in the way of a deposit. If something goes wrong there aren't many options. Unfortunately there are plenty of homes that are sold at auction and if you want them then you just have to take the risk.

It is likely that increasing your existing loan (likely as a separate loan account) is the best option. BankWest has relatively competitive LMI premiums.

Do not cross securitise the properties! This will make the LMI quite expensive, as the individual loan size will be >$500k for both loans and so both will be charged a higher premium rate. We have an LMI calculator on our website you can use to work out the cost of LMI for each loan. BankWest's premiums are relatively similar to lender # 5 in our calculator.

Note that if you paid LMI on your current loan when you took it out then you will only pay an LMI premium on the increased amount if you increase your loan with BankWest. The calculation of this is more complicated and our calc isn't designed to handle this type of query. However it will be cheaper than our calculator quotes. As a general rule with BankWest the premium you originally paid will be deducted off the new premium. This is because they use QBE as an insurer and that is their policy.

Keep in mind for tax deducting the interest it doesn't matter what the loan is secured on. It only matters what the loan is used for. So if you borrow on your home to buy an investment property then the portion of the debt on your home that was used for investment purposes should be tax deductible. As always, talk to your accountant.

Yes this is acceptable to a few lenders as an exception to normal policy. Please note that due to new legislation that was introduced on the 1/1/2011 some lenders are being cautious to any policy exceptions where the customer cannot prove that they can afford the loan with their current income.

If you are borrowing >80% of the property value then you are unlikely to be approved.

The policy from one of our lenders for maternity leave mortgages is as follows:

Process: 

• applicants payslips (from the last 3 months prior to commencing parental leave)
• letter from employer confirming employment and salary
• letter from employer stating the terms of the parental leave, particularly the return date and the employment tenure upon return (FT, PT or casual)

Credit decision

• how long to they have before they return to work?
• do they have liquid reserves to fall back on?  Do they have any cash to fall back on if they are unable to service in absense of the female's income?  
• does the SP allow for child care costs
• does the SP include DSS payments which may cease upon their return to work
• have they included expenses for the new child

Upon considering all of the above, if acceptable the lender can take up to 100% of the income.

You can also consider a guarantor loan if your parents are happy to provide security for your loan. This is only an option to consider, it is not suitable for everyone. If you do take this approach then you should have a plan to remove the guarantee as quickly as possible & should consider taking out income protection, life & TPD insurance.

This can allow you to borrow 100% plus costs for owner occupied or investment purposes without paying LMI.

Finance for the self employed is very complex. You would really need to show your financials to a good broker for them to be able to work out which lenders you qualify with and how it would all work.  There are factors to consider such as:

* Is your husband a contractor with no employees & no major expenses? If so then a much shorter time in his current role would be fine with some lenders as they would assess him as being PAYG.
* Has your husband been SE for a minimum of 2 years, if not then many lenders will not accept him.
* Different lenders assess income in different ways. Some take the most recent years income, other average the two years. There are also some expenses he has which can be added back.

Be careful with on the spot pre-approvals, in particular if you are borrowing over 80% of the property value. If the loan needs to go to their credit department for approval then they can (and very often do) disagree with the branch staff. Read through this forum and you'll see countless complaints from people who have been pre-approved, won an auction and then to find out that the bank doesn't want to do their loan.

In ten years you can extend the int only period with ANZ by internally refinancing the loan or by refinancing to another lender if ANZ refuses to do it. You could also consider a product switch to their line of credit product which I believe is evergreen (no set term).

Not every lender requires you to be an existing customer. In addition to this some do not allow even existing customers to borrow 95% and have strange definitions of what an existing customer actually is!  Borrowing 95% is very much a specialist area and choosing the right lender requires a full understanding of your situation.

HSBC can consider Foreign Currency in US or HKD. As for SG I am not entirely sure however I expect there are still a few banks that can do it. It would just be a matter of doing the research to find out.