Buy or refinance in Australia while living abroad

Why your borrowing power looks smaller from overseas

When you earn in another currency, most lenders discount your foreign income before they run the numbers. The shading commonly lands between 0% and 20%, and it varies by lender, by currency, and by how comfortable that lender is with applicants based abroad.

So the lender you start with decides almost everything. Get matched to one that counts your full income and your borrowing power holds up. Send the same application to one that haircuts it, and you look like a smaller borrower than you are.

How we find your highest-probability lenders

Lender policy on overseas income changes constantly, and it’s the part most brokers get wrong for expats. We track which lenders count foreign income in full, which currencies they’re comfortable with, and which ones will work with an applicant they’ll never meet in person.

Across 31+ lenders, that’s a shortlist of the lenders most likely to approve your situation, instead of a scattershot round of applications that each chip away at your credit file.

What the 30-minute session gives you

This is a working session, not a sales call. In half an hour you’ll leave with:

• A realistic read on your borrowing power based on how lenders actually treat overseas income.
• The lenders most likely to count your full income and approve an applicant based in your country.
• The documents you’ll need certified from abroad, so distance doesn’t stall the deal.
• A clear path forward, and a straight answer on whether we can help.

Built for the cross-border end of lending

The whole engagement runs remotely, around your timezone. You don’t fly home and you don’t take leave. You deal with one specialist who handles the cross-border parts: the income assessment, the currency, the certified documents.

Across 31+ lenders, when one lender’s policy doesn’t fit your situation, we have others that do.

A clear three-step path: Match, Apply, Purchase

The way we work spells the name. Match / Apply / Purchase is the same process from your first call to settlement.

• Match. We match your income and your goal to the lenders most likely to approve.
• Apply. We build the strongest version of your application, with the overseas-income evidence and certified documents already in order.
• Purchase, or refinance to a better deal. You buy back home or move an existing loan to a sharper rate, handled remotely from start to finish.

Common questions from Australians buying back home

How do lenders assess my overseas income?

Most lenders discount foreign income before they assess your borrowing power, commonly in the range of 0% to 20%, depending on the lender and the currency you’re paid in. The lenders most comfortable with overseas income shade it the least, which is why the match matters so much.

Do I need FIRB approval to buy back home?

No. Australian citizens living overseas are not foreign persons for FIRB purposes, so you don’t need FIRB approval or the FIRB fee. That’s one less hurdle than many expats expect.

Can I refinance an Australian property from overseas?

Yes. If you already own here and your rate has drifted, we can review it and match you to a lender comfortable refinancing for an applicant based abroad. The whole review runs remotely.

How much can an expat actually borrow?

It’s lender-dependent, and the difference comes back to income shading. We don’t quote a guaranteed number. We show you a realistic range based on the lenders most likely to count your income in full.

Can the whole thing really be done remotely?

Yes. The session, the application and settlement all run remotely, scheduled around your timezone. We handle the parts that distance complicates, including which documents need certifying abroad and how.