We have a 7 month old and have no bath tub (its one of those portable ones) and its a nightmare. My wife is now saying we need to build a house because of this. Not a good outcome.

Advantedge (owned and backed by NAB) is offering as low as 5.58% for loans under 75% LVR but please dont start chasing lenders purely on interest rates. You need to look at the bigger picture or better yet the overall picture. 

Hi KK,

Like most banks they have their pros and cons. What did you need to know specifically? They access the Westpac ATM network which is great (St George and Westpac ATM's). 

They have one of the cheapest rates and fees in the market. Their policy is a bit on the tight side. For example, they don't accept maternity leave income.

Has a broker referred you to Macquarie? 

Regards

Shahin

You have 2 options. You either go with a specialist lender and pay an arm and leg for the finance or if possible purchase the property on joint names (say with your spouse) however the application would need to services just on your spouse's income, must be under 80% and a few other rules apply. Not all lenders will do this and some will.

Morning Ralph,

It comes down to:

1. Amount of funds you are borrowing

2. Relationship strength (i.e other products they you may have with the bank)

3. Your LVR 

4. The actual Lender

What I mean by point 4 is that lenders will vary in terms of how they price. Don't expect CBA or Westpac to give you a big interest rate discount. Suncorp is arguably the best when it comes to pricing negotiations and NAB is somewhere in the middle. Also, depending on what your loan amount is I wouldn't be solely focused on pricing. You also need to consider the features associated with the product and even more important the policy. 

Regards

Shahin

Good article Nigel. A lot of people look at negative gearing as the main reason for property development. 

Arguably I would get myself a local crew who know the areas, zonings, property markets, etc. If you are wanting to develop property as a long term strategy, I would invest to speaking to the local councils about zonings, minimum requirements depending on what you want to do, download the local council's DA guide. You can also get some good and free advice from town planner. A good town and local town planner will be one of your biggest assets.

Having said all that, firstly determine how much time you have to dedicate to the game and what type of investor you are (sounds like you are quite aggressive which makes sense since time is on your side).

I can't possibly give you a definitive answer without looking at the whole picture and anyone who does it talking out of their backsides. Yes its obvious that a negatively geared property is not fantastic for servicing however there is more to it than that. Have you factored in selling costs? Have you factored the short, medium or long term potential for development of those properties? How long will it take before you convert those NG properties to PG properties? Personally I have a hold strategy but that is because I land bank and look at maximising by properties to become positively geared or there is some potential for capital growth.

I own a property which I sat on for about 7 years before the zoning changed and allowed for sub-division. I bought it at a steal, sure enough it was negatively geared for a while but I was happy to ride it out until the zoning changed for me to do what I wanted with the property. Sorry for the long reply but its not that black and white.

Why are you not putting them on Torrens Titles?

So do I and many other brokers but it doesn't make a difference. We all need to send the scenario to the lender and they would need to get pricing approval.