Fast Home Loan Approval For 482 Visa Holders

You’re building a life here on your 482, working in the job that sponsored you, and now you want to buy a home with your partner. Someone has probably told you it’s complicated because of your visa.

Here’s what they likely didn’t tell you. When you buy your home jointly with a partner who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen, your lending position is one of the strongest available to a temporary resident. Because your Australian partner is not a foreign person, a joint purchase as joint tenants for the home you’ll live in can reach up to 95% LVR (Loan to Value Ratio), needs no FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) approval, and lets you buy an established home, not just new stock. It is effectively the same lending position as a partner-visa applicant.

Your 482 also helps in its own right. The income from the job that sponsors you is stable, verifiable PAYG income, which is exactly what lenders want to see when they assess whether you can service the loan.

Want to know exactly what you can borrow with your Australian partner? Book a free Home Loan Strategy Session. We’ll show you your lending options, which lenders on our 31+ panel work for 482 holders, and how the FIRB joint-tenancy exemption applies to your situation.

Can a 482 visa holder get a home loan in Australia?

Yes. If you hold a 482 visa, whether granted as the current Skills in Demand (SID) visa or the earlier TSS (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa, and you buy jointly with your Australian citizen or permanent resident partner, most lenders will treat your application much like any other Australian borrower.

What lenders look at:

• Your combined household income, including your employer-sponsored 482 income
• Your employment history and stability (your sponsored role counts in your favour)
• Your deposit and where it came from
• Your relationship: duration, living together, shared finances
• Your visa stream and your pathway to permanent residency

Buying with your Australian partner is the route most of our 482 clients take, and it’s the one we’ll recommend in your strategy session when it fits. We know which lenders on our 31+ panel are most receptive to 482 applications, and matching you to the right one is where a specialist broker makes the difference.

Book a Free Strategy Call

The FIRB joint-tenancy exemption: how it works

The FIRB exemption for spouses and de facto partners is one of the most valuable provisions in Australian property law for a 482 holder. Here is exactly how it works.

You do not need FIRB approval if all four conditions are met:

• You are buying with your spouse or de facto partner who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident (an eligible New Zealand citizen qualifies in some cases)
• The property is held as joint tenants: equal, undivided ownership, not tenants in common where each party owns a defined share
• The property is your principal place of residence, not an investment
• It is the home you’ll live in together

The exemption depends on your Australian partner, joint tenancy, and the home being your residence. It does not depend on your 482 stream. Core Skills, Specialist Skills, or a legacy TSS stream, the joint purchase sits outside the temporary-resident restrictions.

What the exemption saves you:

• FIRB application fee: the fee is indexed each July and scales with the property price, running well into five figures on a typical purchase (current fees are in our FIRB approval guide). The exemption means you pay none of it.
• Processing time: FIRB approval commonly takes around a month and can run longer. The exemption means no waiting for an approval before you buy.
• Purchase restrictions: the April 2025 established-dwelling ban does not apply to an exempt joint purchase, so you can buy an established home.
• Foreign-buyer stamp duty surcharge: an exempt joint purchase usually removes the surcharge as well, which can save tens of thousands.

A common mistake: some couples buy as tenants in common rather than joint tenants, often on advice from an accountant or solicitor focused on asset protection. Tenants in common does not qualify for the FIRB exemption. The legal distinction is small, but the financial consequence is large. We flag this early in every 482 application.

We confirm your FIRB position before you start searching. For most 482 holders buying with their Australian partner, the exemption applies, and you search with the full range of properties available to any Australian buyer. For the full breakdown of how a joint application is structured, see partner / spouse visa home loans.

What deposit and LVR you can get with a partner

Buying jointly with your Australian partner, you access deposit and LVR options that most temporary residents cannot. This is where the joint-purchase advantage is most visible.

On a representative $800,000 property:

• 95% LVR (5% deposit, around $40,000) is available from multiple lenders when you buy jointly with your Australian citizen or PR partner. This is the same LVR available to citizens and permanent residents.
• 90% LVR (10% deposit, around $80,000) is widely available and may give you more lender choice or better rates.
• 80% LVR (20% deposit, around $160,000) avoids Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) entirely, which lowers your upfront cost.

The 95% option matters. On that $800,000 property, the gap between a 5% deposit ($40,000) and a 20% deposit ($160,000) is $120,000. For many couples that difference decides whether buying is possible now or years away.

Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI): if you borrow above 80% LVR you pay LMI, a one-off premium added to the loan or paid upfront. On an $800,000 purchase at 95% LVR, expect LMI in the range of $20,000 to $25,000. It is a real cost, but it is the mechanism that makes a 5% deposit purchase possible. Most LMI providers will insure the application when your co-borrower is an Australian citizen or PR, which is not the case for most temporary residents buying alone.

What lifts your position: your Australian partner on the application, stable employer-sponsored income, a clean deposit history, and a clear pathway to PR. Getting the structure right, by matching you to the right lender, is one of the most valuable things a specialist broker does.

Book a Free Strategy Call

Stamp duty: skipping the foreign-buyer surcharge

Most states add a foreign-buyer stamp duty surcharge for temporary residents, on top of standard stamp duty. Buying jointly with your Australian / PR partner under the FIRB exemption usually removes it.

Current foreign-buyer surcharge by state:

Three ways to reduce or avoid it:

• Buy jointly with your Australian citizen or PR partner. The FIRB joint-tenancy exemption typically removes the surcharge as well.
• Buy in the ACT or NT, where no surcharge currently applies.
• Claim a refund after you get PR. Some states refund the surcharge if you obtain permanent residency within a set window after purchase. Rules vary by state.

We model your full cost up front (deposit, standard stamp duty, any surcharge, FIRB fee if it applies, legal costs, and LMI if it applies) so there are no surprises at settlement.

Skills in Demand streams: what changes for lending

In December 2024 the 482 changed from the TSS (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa to the Skills in Demand (SID) visa, and the old short-term and medium-term streams were replaced. A legacy TSS visa stays valid on its existing terms, but new 482s are granted in one of three streams. The two you’re most likely to hold:

Core Skills stream: for occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List, granted for up to 4 years. Your salary must meet the Core Skills Income Threshold, which gives a lender a verifiable income floor before they read a single payslip.

Specialist Skills stream: for higher earners in most occupations, also granted for up to 4 years. The higher salary requirement means serviceability is rarely the sticking point on these files.

Why the change helps your loan: under the old rules, short-term stream holders had no direct pathway to permanent residency, and lenders priced that risk into solo applications. Under Skills in Demand, every stream carries a pathway to PR through the subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme, ENS) visa after 2 years with your sponsor. A defined PR pathway and up to 4 years of tenure read as stability to a credit team, and a lodged 186 nomination can see you treated close to a permanent resident.

Still on a legacy short-term TSS stream? The 2-year 186 pathway now covers you too. Raise it with your migration agent before you apply for finance, because the better lending terms can be worth tens of thousands over the life of the loan.

How we help 482 visa holders get approved

The hardest part of buying on a 482 usually isn’t your finances. It’s not knowing which lenders will approve a temporary-resident application, and wondering whether your visa puts a home out of reach.

If a bank has already said no, that’s almost always because their policy didn’t fit a 482, not because you can’t be approved. With the right lender behind you, plenty of 482 holders get approved right now. Here’s how we get you there, in three steps.

1. Match

The first thing we work out is whether you’re buying with an Australian, PR, or eligible NZ partner, because that single fact sets your LVR, your FIRB position, and your lender list. We take that, plus your visa stream, remaining tenure, employer-sponsored income, deposit and property type, and run them through our VSL Matrix™ (Visa x Situation x Lender) to find the lenders whose policy already fits. We work across a panel of 31+ lenders, and we know which ones go to 95% on a joint partner purchase, which fund solo 482 applications, and which offer construction lending to temporary residents.

2. Apply

Once we know the right lender, we build your strongest application: the right documents, structured the way that lender’s credit team wants to see them. We also handle the regulatory layer that sits alongside the loan. On a joint purchase that means confirming your FIRB exemption and any surcharge saving. On a solo purchase it means telling you whether you need FIRB approval, what it costs, and how it affects your timeline. Lending and FIRB are one picture, and we manage them together so nothing falls through the gap.

3. Purchase

You get your pre-approval, then your formal approval, and you move forward knowing the finance is sorted. Because a 482 is temporary and many holders are on a path to PR through the 186 (ENS) visa after 2 years with their sponsor, we choose lenders and products that work for you now and set you up to refinance once your PR comes through, when your lending position improves again.

Our service is free to you. We’re paid by the lender when your loan settles, so there’s no cost and no obligation for the advice, the assessment or the application. And if you’re not quite ready to buy today, you won’t leave empty-handed: you’ll get a clear roadmap and timeline showing exactly what needs to happen to get you loan-ready.

Book a Free Strategy Call