How much can I borrow
Every calculator gives a different answer. Here is why.
We are not going to put a number on this page, because a number produced without your actual position is a guess dressed up as an answer.
You have probably already tried three online calculators and had three different answers. They were not broken. They were each applying one lender's assumptions to a handful of figures, and lenders genuinely disagree. What actually decides how much I can borrow? Your income as a lender counts it, minus your living expenses as a lender measures them, minus your existing commitments, tested against a rate higher than the one you will pay. Every one of those four is defined differently at different lenders, which is why two of them will lend you amounts that differ by a six-figure sum on identical facts.
The three things that move it more than pricing does
How your income is counted
Overtime, bonuses, commission, rental income and second jobs are all treated differently by different lenders — some count all of it, some a portion, some none at all. If a meaningful part of what you earn is not base salary, this is where your answer is decided.
What is counted against you
Credit card limits count at the limit, not the balance, so an unused card reduces what you can borrow. Buy-now-pay-later, car finance and HECS all register. Tidying this up before applying is often the cheapest borrowing capacity anyone ever finds.
The rate you are tested at
Lenders must assess you at a rate meaningfully above the one you will actually pay, so you are being tested against a payment you will probably never make. The size of that buffer differs between lenders and it moves the answer considerably.
Why we will not print a number here
A borrowing figure is only meaningful when it comes from a real assessment against a real lender's policy, using your actual income documents. Anything else is a guess, and a guess in this particular place is expensive: people go to open homes believing a figure a website produced, make an offer, and find out at application that it was never available to them.
So this page explains what moves the number and does not produce one. When you want the real figure we run your position through the assessment tools that the lenders themselves use, against several lenders at once, and you get a range with the reason each one differs. That takes a conversation and your documents. It does not take long, and it is right.
The questions a calculator would have been asked
Because each is built on one lender's assumptions about income, expenses and the assessment buffer, and those assumptions genuinely differ. The calculators are not wrong so much as each answering a slightly different question.
What a lender actually tests, in the order it happens
Your income, as that lender counts it Gross pay is the starting point. Overtime, bonuses, casual hours, salary packaging and self-employed add-backs are each shaded differently at each lender, and compulsory HECS repayments reduce the income the lender is willing to use.
Your living costs and what you already owe Living costs come from a household expenditure benchmark or the lender's own table, adjusted for dependants, and the lender uses the higher of that or what you declare. Credit card limits are subtracted at the limit, not at the balance.
A rate higher than the one you will pay Under APRA's prudential standard APS 220, an Australian bank must assess your repayments at a rate at least 3.0 percentage points above the rate you would actually be charged. That is arithmetic on the rate, not a rate anyone is quoting - a loan priced at 6% is assessed near 9%. APS 220 read on 2026-08-29.
And a ceiling on how much of this the bank may do From February 2026 APRA limits lending at a debt-to-income ratio of six or above to 20% of each bank's new mortgage lending, with owner-occupier and investor books counted separately. That is a cap on the bank's book rather than a personal limit on you, and it is why a file that cleared last year may be harder this year.
Why do two bank calculators disagree on the same salary?
Because each one is a different set of assumptions behind the same three input boxes. The assessment rate used, the version of the living-expense table, whether a credit card counts at its limit or its balance, how much overtime or bonus income is shaded, and the loan term assumed all differ between tools. Each of those moves the answer, and they compound.
Which of the answers should I believe?
None of them as a number, and the most conservative one as a signal. A public calculator is a guide rather than an offer of credit, and every bank says so on its own tool. The figure that decides what you can buy is produced after a lender has seen your income documents, your credit file and your actual expenses.
What salary do you need for a $500,000 loan?
There is no single salary that buys a $500,000 loan, and any page printing one has guessed at your expenses. The same income clears $500,000 at one lender and falls short at another, because the four things above are defined differently at each of them. Money Brain will not print a figure it has not assessed.
How much can I borrow if I earn $75,000?
The honest answer is a range, and it comes from running your position across several lenders rather than from a page. What moves it most on an income like that is what sits against you - a credit card limit you never use, a HECS balance, a car loan, dependants. Every salary question on the Money Brain site is answered here, not on the profession pages.
When borrowing power is not the limit that binds
Borrowing power is one of two limits, and often it is not the one that stops you. Deposit is the other. A strong income with a small deposit still meets mortgage insurance, scheme rules, or a family guarantee, and each of those is decided on criteria that have nothing to do with what you earn. Money Brain keeps the mechanics of each on its own page rather than summarising them here, because a summary is where the conditions get lost.
Mortgage insurance, and who avoids it
What lenders mortgage insurance costs, which lenders waive it and for which professions, and what a waiver actually requires.
A government scheme place
Who qualifies for a guarantee place, the purchase price caps that apply by state and region, and what the scheme does not cover.
A family guarantee
What the person signing is actually exposed to, and what has to happen before the guarantee comes off their property.
Get the real number, from a real assessment
Bring your income details and we will run your position against several lenders and explain why they differ.
Checked and updated 27 August 2026