A lender does not ask what you can afford today. It asks what you could afford if your rate rose by 3 percentage points, after living expenses, HECS, credit card limits and any other loan. This calculator runs that test the way an assessor does, at an indicative 9.25% (6.25% plus the buffer) over 30 years. It is a starting point. The written lending plan the team prepares is the real number.
Sliders cover the common range. For bonuses, self-employed income, rental income or a guarantor, talk to the team: those are exactly the cases where lenders disagree most.
Thirty-year principal-and-interest loan, income taxed at an average 30%, living expenses floored at a modest household benchmark. Lenders differ; this is a starting point, not an offer.
Get the real number from the team →Every assumption the tool makes, so you can see where your situation differs.
Figures checked October 2026. Rates and thresholds change; the team re-checks before every application.
Lenders take your after-tax income, subtract living expenses (or their own benchmark if yours is lower), subtract existing commitments, and ask how big a loan the remaining surplus can service at the rate plus a 3-point buffer over the loan term. That surplus-to-loan conversion is what this calculator does.
Where lenders diverge is in the details: how much of a bonus or rental income they count, whether a HECS debt that ends next year is ignored, how they treat an interest-only period, and what living-expense benchmark they apply to a household your size. Those policy differences are why one bank says $650,000 and another $780,000 to the same couple.
Three usual reasons: the buffer, the credit card limits, and the living-expense benchmark. A 3-point buffer on a 6.25% loan means you are tested at 9.25%, roughly a third more in repayments than you will actually pay. A $15,000 card limit costs around $50,000 of borrowing power even if you never use it.
Closing unused cards, paying off a small car loan, or knocking a HECS balance below the next threshold can move the figure more than a pay rise would. We go through all of that before any application.
No. It estimates the loan a lender would approve on income. The purchase budget shown simply adds your deposit. Stamp duty, lenders mortgage insurance and costs come off that, which is what the purchasing power calculator works out.
Within about 10 to 15 per cent for a straightforward PAYG household, and much less reliable for self-employed income, multiple properties or guarantor structures. The team runs your actual position through the lenders' own calculators before quoting a figure, and that one is written down.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask cinchi (bottom right) or book a chat.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with total interest and what extra repayments save.
Open calculator →05Deposit plus loan, minus duty, LMI and costs: the price you can actually bid to.
Open calculator →04Victorian duty with the first-home and owner-occupier concessions built in.
Open calculator →AllThe five tools and the cinchi assistant on one page.
See all →Know your number before you fall for a house. A cinch.
I'm cinchi, Cinch Loans' AI assistant. I explain how Australian home loans and finance work, and when a question needs a current figure I check trusted sources like MoneySmart, Housing Australia, the RBA and the state revenue offices, and show you where it came from. Suvidh and the team give the actual advice. Your questions are saved so they can pick up where we left off, and when a question needs a person, I'll put you straight through on WhatsApp.
Conversation ref · pending
cinchi is an AI assistant. It can be wrong. Figures are quoted from the source shown and change over time. Nothing here is personal credit advice or an offer of credit. Credit Guide · Privacy · Talk to Suvidh