Home loans for pensioners and retirees
Yes, pensioners and retirees can get a home loan. There's no legal maximum age for borrowing in Australia. What a lender looks at is whether your income, from the Age Pension, super, investments or work, covers the repayments, and how the loan would be repaid if your circumstances change. That second question, the exit strategy, decides most applications.
What lenders are actually looking at
Lenders can't refuse you because of your age. What they must do is check that you can repay the loan without hardship, and for an older borrower that means two things: whether your income covers the repayments now, and how the loan gets repaid if that income changes or before the end of a long term.
That's why an application can be declined when the borrower feels it was about age. The decision rests on the repayments and the plan to repay, and both can often be fixed with a shorter term, a bigger deposit, or a clear exit strategy.
What a lender means by an exit strategy
A plan, written down, for how the loan will be repaid if your income stops or before the loan term ends. Lenders usually accept one or more of these:
Selling the property, or downsizing to a cheaper one, with enough equity left to clear the loan.
Super or other savings set aside to pay the loan off by a set date.
Selling other assets, such as an investment property or shares.
A shorter loan term that ends while your income is still in place.
Each lender decides what it will accept. A plan that's specific, with figures, goes further than "I'll sell if I have to".
How retirement income is read
The Age Pension and other ongoing Centrelink pensions.
Many lenders count them as income, at least in part. Pepper Money's lending policy counts 100% of the Centrelink pensions it lists, though not rent, sickness or pharmaceutical allowances (read 3 October 2026); other lenders count less, or won't use a pension as your main income.
Super drawn as an income stream.
Account-based pensions can count, and lenders look at whether the balance will last the loan.
Rent and investment income.
Usually counted, often at less than the full amount to allow for vacancies and costs.
Part-time or casual work.
Counted alongside a pension, usually with a history behind it.
Lenders that rely heavily on Centrelink income often limit how much of the property's value they'll lend and test repayments more strictly. Which lender counts what is the main reason the right lender matters more here than for most borrowers.
Shorter terms, and what they do to repayments
A lender may offer a shorter loan term to an older borrower, so that the loan ends while your income is still in place. A shorter term means higher repayments, because the same loan is repaid over fewer years. It can turn a loan that fits into one that doesn't, which is why the exit strategy and the term are worked out together.
Why applications usually fail
No clear exit strategy, or one with no figures behind it.
The repayments don't fit on the income the lender will count.
The wrong lender, one that counts less of your pension or super than another would.
A term too long for the lender's comfort, with no plan for what happens before it ends.
Questions older borrowers ask
Yes. There's no legal maximum age. Lenders assess whether your income, including the Age Pension, super and investments, covers the repayments, and how the loan would be repaid if your circumstances change.
Thinking about buying or refinancing in retirement?
Tell me what you'd like to buy or what you owe, your income from every source, and what you own. I'll tell you which lenders would count your income, what exit strategy they'd want, and what the repayments would be.
You'll hear back within the hour in business hours, and by 9am the next business day after hours.
Sources
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Pepper Money's lending policy: 100% of the Centrelink pensions it lists accepted; rent, sickness and pharmaceutical allowances not used. Read 3 October 2026.
Updated 3 October 2026