Borrowing power tells you the loan. Purchasing power tells you the house. It is your deposit plus the loan, minus stamp duty, lenders mortgage insurance and the costs of settling, solved for the highest price where the sums still close. Most buyers overestimate it by the duty. This calculator uses the Victorian rates and tells you what is left in the tank at settlement.
The binding limit is whichever runs out first, your borrowing power or your deposit at the chosen LVR. The result tells you which, so you know what to change.
LMI is estimated at a typical premium and capitalised into the loan where the LVR allows. Under the First Home Guarantee, choose 95% and ignore the LMI line: the guarantee replaces it.
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.
Borrowing power is the loan a lender will approve on your income. Purchasing power is the price you can pay once your deposit has covered the gap between price and loan plus stamp duty, LMI and settlement costs. On a $150,000 deposit and $700,000 of borrowing power, the house is not $850,000: after Victorian duty, LMI and costs it is closer to $800,000.
The calculator tells you. If the loan shown equals your borrowing power, income is the ceiling and a bigger deposit only lowers the LVR. If the loan is capped by the LVR, the deposit is the ceiling and every extra $10,000 saved lifts the price by roughly $50,000 to $100,000.
That second case is where the First Home Guarantee, a family guarantee or the First Home Super Saver Scheme change the picture, because each one stretches the deposit rather than the income.
Above 80% LVR, lenders mortgage insurance adds roughly 1 to 4% of the loan, usually capitalised into it. It lets you buy sooner with a smaller deposit, but it is a one-off premium you never get back. The First Home Guarantee removes it entirely for eligible buyers under the price cap ($950,000 in Melbourne and Geelong).
See the first home buyers page for the schemes side by side.
No. Keep a buffer for the first rate rise, the move, the first repairs and the months before an offset builds up. Enter a deposit figure that already excludes that buffer and the calculator will show the honest price.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask cinchi (bottom right) or book a chat.
Roughly how much a lender would let you borrow, with the 3% buffer applied.
Open calculator →04Victorian duty with the first-home and owner-occupier concessions built in.
Open calculator →02Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with total interest and what extra repayments save.
Open calculator →AllThe five tools and the cinchi assistant on one page.
See all →Bid with a number, not a hope. 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.
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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