How to boost your borrowing power

Lenders look at three things: income, expenses, and existing commitments. We unpick how to legitimately strengthen each, and what HEM, HECS and casual income actually do to the calculator.

12 min readBy Sarah ChenStage 4 of 8

Your “borrowing power” isn’t one number. It’s a band, and lender policy moves the band by 8–15% between cheapest and most generous.

HEM and your real expenses

The Household Expenditure Measure (HEM) is a benchmark lenders cross-check your declared expenses against. If your declared spend is below HEM, the lender substitutes HEM. Above HEM, your declared figure wins.

HECS-HELP impact

A $35,000 HECS balance with $4,200/yr repayments reduces your borrowing capacity by roughly $35,000–$50,000. Paying it off only helps if you have the cash sitting flat, otherwise, your deposit is more powerful.

Borrowing power calculator

 Borrowing power

Borrowing Power Calculator

Estimate how much you could borrow based on your income, expenses and household.

Annual income (before tax)$100,000

$30,000$500,000

Monthly expenses$2,000

$500$10,000

Existing monthly debt repayments$500

$0$5,000

Number of dependents0

Indicative borrowing power

Indicative only, at a 6.5 per cent rate over 30 years. Actual capacity moves materially with lender policy on income type, dependants and credit history.

Get pre-approved

Estimate only. Lender assessment depends on full income/expense picture and credit file.

Want a richer scenario? Open the full borrowing power calculator →

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From the rest of the site

WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the example given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees, or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate. Comparison rates are based on a secured loan of $30,000 over 5 years for vehicle finance and $50,000 over 5 years for equipment finance, as required under the National Credit Code.