How much can I borrow?
It depends on the lender as much as on you. Each lender counts your income its own way, takes off your debts and living costs, and tests whether you could still pay at a rate well above the one you'd be charged. That's why three calculators can give three different answers on the same facts. The real number comes from running your actual figures through the lenders' own assessments, not from a guess on a page.
What decides how much you can borrow?
Three things, in this order. What income the lender will count, and how much of each kind. What it takes off: your debts, your card limits, and the living costs it assumes for a household like yours. And whether what's left would still cover the repayments at a test rate at least 3 percentage points above the real one. The interest rate you're offered matters far less than people expect.
What moves the number most
Which income counts.
A base salary usually counts in full. Overtime, bonuses, commission, a second job, rent and self-employed income are often counted at less than their full value, or only with a history behind them, and lenders differ most here.
Your card limits, not your balances.
Lenders usually assess a repayment on the full limit of every credit card, even one you clear each month. Closing an unused card can lift the number.
The costs they assume.
Lenders apply their own view of what a household like yours spends, or your declared spending if it's higher. Dependants, childcare and loan repayments such as HECS-HELP all come off.
Why every calculator gives you a different answer
Each one is a different lender's rules, simplified. A bank's online calculator shows that bank's view: how it counts overtime or rent, what living costs it assumes, and how it treats your cards. Another bank's tool, on the same facts, applies different rules and gets a different number. Neither is wrong; they're answering for different lenders.
Most leave things out. A short online form can't ask about every kind of income, every debt or every dependant, so it fills the gaps with assumptions. The fewer questions it asks, the more its number is a guess. The answer that counts is the one a lender gives after it sees your actual figures.
What a lender actually counts as income
Base salary or wages: usually in full, from payslips.
Overtime, allowances, bonuses and commission: often counted at less than their full value, and often only with a history behind them. Lenders differ widely.
Rent from an investment property: usually counted at less than the full rent, to allow for vacancies and costs.
Self-employed income: usually from your recent tax returns, with some lenders accepting other evidence.
Government payments: some count, some don't, and some only in part.
What lenders take off
Every debt's repayment: car loans, personal loans, buy now pay later and any other home loans.
Credit and store cards: usually a repayment on the full limit, used or not.
HECS-HELP: the compulsory repayment comes off your income, even though it isn't a loan repayment you choose.
Living costs: the higher of your declared spending or the lender's own benchmark for your household.
Dependants and childcare: each one lowers what's left.
How a lender tests whether you can pay
It works out the income it will count, after any shading.
It takes off your debts, card limits and living costs.
It tests the repayment at a higher rate. APRA expects banks to test at least 3 percentage points above the rate you'd actually pay. A loan at 6% is tested at 9% or more.
It checks the size of the loan against your income. Since 1 February 2026, APRA has limited each bank to 20% of new lending to people whose total debts are six or more times their income, counted separately for home buyers and investors.
The salary questions people ask
What salary do I need for a $500,000 loan?
There's no single answer, because the same salary supports different loans at different lenders, depending on your debts, your household and how your income is made up. Two people on the same pay can be approved for very different amounts. The calculator gives a starting figure; a lender's assessment gives the real one.
How much can I borrow on $100,000 a year?
The same applies. Your card limits, dependants, other debts and the lender's own rules move the answer more than the salary alone. Put your actual figures into the calculator, then have them run through the lenders that suit your income.
Your deposit is a separate limit
How much you can borrow is one limit. How much the lender will lend against the property's value is another, and it's set by your deposit. Whichever is lower decides what you can buy. If your income is strong but your deposit is small, the answer is usually mortgage insurance, a government scheme or a family guarantee, not a bigger loan.
If your deposit is the limit
Borrowing to invest is assessed differently
For an investment property, the lender adds part of the expected rent to your income, usually less than the full rent, and counts every existing loan at its test rate. APRA's debt-to-income limit is counted separately for investors. Which lender is best can change completely between your first home and your first investment.
Borrowing capacity questions
It depends on what income the lender counts, what it takes off for debts and living costs, and whether you could still pay at a rate at least 3 percentage points higher. Different lenders get different answers on the same facts, so the real figure comes from an assessment of your actual numbers.
Want the real number, not a guess?
Tell me your income, how it's paid, your debts and card limits, and who depends on you. I'll run it through the lenders that suit your income and tell you what each would lend.
You'll hear back within the hour in business hours, and by 9am the next business day after hours.
Sources
- 1
APRA, Strengthening residential mortgage lending assessments (6 October 2021): serviceability buffer of at least 3 percentage points; held at 3 points in APRA's release of 28 May 2026. Re-read 29 September 2026.
- 2
APRA, debt-to-income limit from 1 February 2026 (release of 27 November 2025). Re-read 29 September 2026.
Updated 2 October 2026