Buying Before Selling When You Are Self-Employed: How Bridging Works
Self-Employed Home Loans
Bridging loan self employed · Alt doc income · No end debt bridging loan
Almost every guide to buying before you sell is written for a salaried borrower with two payslips and a fixed settlement date. This page is written for the other case: income that has to be evidenced from a business, a lender that may assess peak debt and end debt differently, an existing mortgage that may need to move or be ported, and an exit that depends on a sale you do not control. It focuses on the Australian alt-doc and non-bank lane, while using current bank products where their repayment, portability or expiry rules answer the same customer decision.
Quick Answer
Yes. Self-employed borrowers can buy before selling. Three questions decide it: what happens to your existing mortgage, whether the lender tests peak debt or end debt, and how your business income is evidenced. Where the sale clears the whole position, some published products require no income documents at all.
Also called: bridging loan self employed, no end debt bridging loan, bridging finance, buy-before-sell finance.
What this guide answers
- Can you get bridging finance if you are self-employed?
- Is the servicing test run on peak debt or on end debt?
- If you could not service the loans you already have, can you still bridge?
- What income evidence does a non-bank accept for a bridge?
- How much can you borrow on a bridging loan?
- Where does the deposit come from before your home has sold?
- How is your existing home valued?
- How long does a home actually take to sell?
- What happens if your home does not sell before the term ends?
- Which alternatives to bridging work on alt doc income?
- What does it cost to own two homes at once?
- Is bridging finance regulated?
- What gets a self-employed buy-before-sell deal declined?
- Frequently asked questions
Can you get bridging finance if you are self-employed?
Yes. The important split is not simply bank versus non-bank; it is the product's repayment method, serviceability method and income-evidence route. Current Australian bridging products differ materially. Some require interest-only payments during the bridging period, while others capitalise or retain the bridge interest so no monthly repayment is required. For a self-employed borrower, the questions that decide the file are which debt figure the lender assesses, whether an end debt remains after the sale, and which self-employed income route applies to that end debt. A decline under one structure does not prove the file is unfundable under every other structure.
What does not change is the proof. The lender still has to be comfortable with the security, with the debt position it services under its own policy, and with the sale that repays the temporary position. For an alt doc borrower the practical job is to have current income evidence, a credible sale assumption and the lender’s actual servicing method confirmed before the purchase goes unconditional. The parent question, how a lender turns business income into an assessable figure at all, is answered in the guide to how lenders assess self-employed income, and the term itself is defined in the glossary entry for alt doc lending.
Do you have to sell your house before you buy the next one?
No, and for most self-employed buyers that is the whole reason a bridge is on the table. Buying first keeps you in control of which property you end up with; selling first keeps you in control of the money. Which way round is cheaper is a real calculation rather than a preference, and it is run against four alternatives, with the numbers, in do you actually need a bridging loan.
Where are you in this already, and what changes because of it?
Most people do not arrive at the start of this. They arrive somewhere in the middle of it, and where they are decides which question is urgent. The rest of this guide is written in order, but you do not have to read it in order.
| Where you are | What is actually deciding it | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Still deciding whether to sell first or buy first | Whether you can carry both positions at all, which is a servicing question before it is a preference | What you repay during the bridge |
| You have equity but you could not service the loans you already have | Whether the sale clears the debt entirely, because that decides whether any income document is needed | The no end debt route |
| Looking, nothing signed | Whether your income evidence is assembled and current, because it has the longest lead time of anything here | What income evidence is accepted |
| Auction this week | Whether the income evidence, accountant sign-off, valuation and lender conditions are already resolved before you bid, because the purchase is ordinarily unconditional when the hammer falls | What has to be finished before you bid |
| Under contract, finance clause still alive | The date on the clause, and whether the lender has instructed a valuation on your existing home yet | How your home is valued |
| Already unconditional and the home has not sold | How long a sale actually takes measured against how long you have, and what your contract allows | How long a home takes to sell |
| A bridge is already running and the term is close | Whether the facility converts to serviced repayments or is called, which is a published product term rather than a market rule | If your home does not sell |
The words you arrive with, and the words your file is assessed in
The gap between how this gets described at the kitchen table and how it gets assessed at a credit desk is where most of the confusion on this topic lives. The translation is worth having early, because it changes what you go looking for.
| What you said | What the lender calls it | Why the difference matters |
|---|---|---|
| I just need something to cover the gap | Peak debt on a bridging loan, end debt, and the lender’s bridge-period servicing basis | The gap is not a small separate loan. It is the whole combined position, for the whole overlap |
| I will pay it back when the house sells | The exit | An exit is assessed for credibility on evidence, not accepted as an intention |
| I only need it for a few months | The term, and the end date attached to it | The end date is fixed and the sale date is not, and that difference is the entire risk in the structure |
| The bank said no | Either the servicing assessment on the combined position, or the income evidence behind it | A decline is usually one of those two, and they have completely different fixes |
| Whatever is left over after the sale | End debt | It is the loan you live with for years, and it is decided at the start rather than at the end |
| A no doc loan | Alt doc or low doc, and neither means no paperwork | Most end-debt products still require a lender declaration or financial-position form plus at least one income evidence source. Genuine no-income-document treatment appears only on specific no-end-debt structures |
| A no doc loan | Alt doc or low doc, and neither of them means no documents | No doc is an American term. One income document is the norm on these products, and the only case where none is required is the no end debt structure |
| My accountant does all that | The income evidence set, and the declaration your accountant signs | That signature has the longest lead time and the least control over it of any input on the file |
Does your existing mortgage have to move to the bridging lender?
Not always, and the answer changes the cost and the timetable rather than the eligibility. Some structures refinance the existing loan into the bridge, some leave it in place and sit behind it, and which one you are being offered is worth establishing before you compare rates, because a refinance brings a discharge, a fresh valuation and the outgoing lender timetable with it. The two structures, and what each costs, are set out in bridging with a different lender to your mortgage. The table below sets out what can happen to the existing loan in each case.
| Structure | What happens to the existing loan | What must be confirmed early |
|---|---|---|
| Refinance into the bridge | The old lender is paid out and its mortgage is discharged at or before the bridge settlement | The payout figure, discharge request, settlement timing and whether the new lender needs both properties as security |
| Port or substitute security | The existing home loan stays open and the property securing it changes. Two major banks publish security substitution as an available option for eligible customers | Whether the existing loan is portable, whether the new property is acceptable, whether a top-up must be completed first, and how the bridge fits around the port |
| Specialist second-ranking structure | The existing first mortgage can remain while a separate lender takes a lower-ranking security position | Whether both lenders accept the ranking, priority and consent arrangements. Do not assume a standard residential bridge can simply sit behind the current bank |
Portability can preserve more than the interest rate. One major bank’s current portability material says eligible borrowers can keep the existing loan balance, repayment settings and attached features such as a linked offset account while substituting security, and it separately states that a new bridge may still be needed when the new property is bought before the old one is sold. A second major bank’s current substitution guide makes the timing distinction explicit: substitution normally assumes the purchase and sale settle together, while a purchase within 90 days of the sale may be handled case by case with temporary cash security; otherwise it directs borrowers to consider bridging. Porting and bridging can therefore solve different parts of the same transaction.
Offset and redraw are not the same thing. An offset is a separate account linked to an eligible loan. Redraw is access to extra repayments already made into the loan, and drawing it back increases the outstanding loan balance. If settlement funding depends on either one, confirm the exact treatment before the lender produces the payout figure. A bridge approval does not make a discharge request, payout figure or security release happen automatically.
If your existing loan has to move, the old lender's payout and discharge become part of the settlement critical path. Ask this before you sign: does the bridge require my existing mortgage to be refinanced, ported or left in place, and who is responsible for the discharge or security-substitution request? The broader timing chain is explained in what actually sets a property-finance settlement timeline. If both homes are tied to one facility, the security release after the sale becomes part of the transaction, and it is worth understanding how cross-collateralised structures work before you sign rather than afterwards.
What makes a self-employed bridge fundable rather than a conversation?
| What the lender is looking at | Fundable | A conversation rather than an application |
|---|---|---|
| The valuation | Every property the lender is relying on as security is acceptable to it, and the valuations required for that structure are complete | The valuation is being ordered after the point at which you could act on it |
| The income evidence | Already assembled and current, not promised for later in the process | The declared income and the business activity statements tell different stories |
| The accountant | The accountant who has to sign has already agreed to sign | The accountant has not been asked yet, or will not sign |
| The listing | The existing home is on the market and priced against local comparable evidence | The purchase is already unconditional and the existing home has not been listed |
| The exit | The exit is a sale with a date attached, not an intention | The exit depends on a price the market has not tested |
| The term and the contract | There is room in the contract to respond if the valuation lands differently to expectations | The term was chosen from a product page rather than from local selling evidence |
One claim needs retiring before the rest of this page makes sense. Two statements circulate on this topic and neither is a rule for the whole market: that bridging is asset-based and the lender looks mainly at the exit, and that a borrower who cannot prove enough income will fail serviceability. Both describe real facilities. A regulated consumer bridge still involves a serviceability assessment, while the debt figure and the repayment method used in that assessment vary by product. The useful question is not whether bridging is asset-based. It is which facility you are being offered, what it assesses, and on which figure.
The regulator’s own definition is deliberately narrow. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Moneysmart glossary defines bridging finance as “short-term finance that covers the period between buying a new property and selling your existing property” (Moneysmart glossary, entry last updated 1 October 2019, read 14 September 2026). Short-term, and defined by a sale, are the two load-bearing words. Nothing in that definition says the lender stops caring how the debt is repaid in the meantime.
Is the servicing test run on peak debt or on end debt?
There is no single Australian rule. Peak debt is the temporary maximum exposure while both properties are held; end debt is the ongoing loan left after the sale. Many products use peak debt to set exposure and loan-to-value limits, while the end debt is the figure that usually has to work as the long-term loan. Some lenders also test a bridge-period position. The exact method is product-specific, so the useful question is not "peak or end?" in the abstract. It is what this lender assesses, on this structure, and on which figure.
Repayment method is a separate question from serviceability. The four non-bank products compared on this page publish no required repayment during the bridging period because interest is retained in an interest budget, capitalised or incorporated into the facility. Current bank products can also capitalise bridge interest, so bank versus non-bank is not a reliable shortcut for repayment method. No monthly repayment does not mean no credit assessment: the lender still assesses the security, the maximum exposure, the exit and, where a residual loan remains, the position that continues after the sale.
What you repay during the bridge, as published
- NoneFour non-bank lender bridging pages, each read at source 14 September 2026. Published product positions, subject to credit assessment, not an offer.All four publish that no repayment is required during the bridging period. The mechanism differs: an interest budget that is retained or draws down, interest capitalised into the balance, or future interest incorporated into the loan amount.
- Up to 2 yearsOne non-bank lender’s published bridging page, read 14 September 2026: interest budget period “set to suit applicants requirements (maximum 2 years)”. One lender’s published maximum, not a market standard.The longest published interest budget period found among the four. The other three publish bridging terms of 6 to 12 months, with one distinguishing 12 months for an uncontracted sale from 6 to 12 months once the sale is contracted.
- At least 3.0 per centAustralian Prudential Regulation Authority, APG 223 Residential Mortgage Lending, effective 19 June 2025, read 14 September 2026, reflecting Attachment C of Prudential Standard APS 220 Credit Risk Management.The serviceability buffer authorised deposit-taking institutions “must apply … over a loan’s interest rate … unless determined otherwise by APRA”. Three qualifiers travel with it: it binds authorised deposit-taking institutions rather than every funder, the regulator reviews and has changed it, and it is never a rate you pay. It is an assessment assumption applied to a rate.
General information only. Lender positions are published product terms read at source on the date shown, they are subject to credit assessment and they change. Nothing above is a quote, an offer or a prediction about your file. Not financial advice.
| Non-bank lender | Repayment during the bridge | How interest is handled | What happens at expiry | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-bank lender 1 | None required | Covered by the interest budget until the existing property is sold | Not stated on the page | ORDE Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 2 | None required | Interest budget retained during the bridging period | Not stated on the page | Brighten Connect, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 3 | None required | Future interest payments incorporated into the loan amount | Reverts to principal and interest up to 30 years where a residual debt exists | La Trobe Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 4 | None required | Capitalised interest available | Not stated on the page | MA Money, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
Read the last column carefully. There is no safe market-wide rule for what happens at expiry. One of the four non-bank lenders publishes that where a residual debt exists, the loan can continue on principal and interest over a term of up to 30 years. The other three do not state an expiry position on the public page. That is a reason to ask what your own documents say, not a reason to assume either automatic conversion or automatic default.
What peak debt and end debt actually are
Peak debt on a bridging loan is the combined debt position while both properties are still held, before any sale proceeds are applied: your existing loan balance, plus the purchase price of the new property, plus purchase and transaction costs, plus any interest added during the term. End debt is that figure less the net proceeds of the sale. Neither term has a glossary entry on this site yet, so both are defined here in full and neither is used elsewhere on this page as an unexplained shorthand.
| Question | Peak debt | End debt |
|---|---|---|
| What is it | Your existing loan balance plus the new purchase plus costs plus any interest added during the term, before the sale is applied | What is left once the existing home sells and the net proceeds have been paid across |
| When does it exist | Only during the overlap, from settlement on the new property until settlement on the sale | From the day the sale settles, and for the rest of the loan term after that |
| What does the assessment do with it | Varies by lender. On the non-bank products read for this page it is used for exposure and for the maximum loan rather than for a repayment you make | Usually the figure the income evidence has to support, and on one published product the figure that decides whether any income document is needed at all |
| What happens if the sale runs slow | It keeps growing where interest is capitalised or drawn from an interest budget, because interest continues to accrue during the overlap | The forecast end debt also rises if the bridge runs longer or the net sale proceeds fall |
| What can you actually control | The purchase price, the costs you capitalise, and how long the overlap runs | The sale price achieved, and the structure you refinance the residual into afterwards |
Interest that is not paid monthly is not interest that is forgiven. Whether it is held in an interest budget, capitalised into the balance or incorporated into the loan amount, it increases the peak position and therefore the security position, and if the sale takes longer than modelled, more of it is added before the sale proceeds are applied. That is the cost of not making a repayment, and it is a real one. Carrying more than one property at once is a live assessment problem in its own right, covered in carrying more than one property.
What happens on the day the sale settles?
Your lenders are paid before you are. The sale proceeds clear the first mortgage, then the bridge at its payout figure, then the agent commission and the conveyancing costs, and what is left is yours or is applied to the end debt. The payout figure is struck for the settlement date rather than taken from your last statement, so ask for it in writing against the booked date. The full order, and why the number moves in the last week, is in bridging loan until your property sells.
| What changes | What happens on the day | What it leaves you deciding |
|---|---|---|
| The debt | The net sale proceeds are applied and the combined position becomes the end debt | Whether the end debt is structured the way you would have chosen if you had started here rather than finished here |
| The pricing | A bridge is priced for a short overlap, and the loan you are left with is not the same thing | Whether and when to refinance off it, which is a conversation to start before settlement, not after |
| The security | The sold property leaves the picture and the security taken over it has to come off | Whether what remains is still tied to more than one property, and what it takes to untangle that |
| The repayments | The repayment method changes when the bridge ends. On a facility that required nothing during the bridge, the first repayment you make is the one after it | Whether the repayment type, offset and loan splits are the ones you want before that first repayment falls due |
| The paperwork | Settling a sale and releasing the security over it are two separate steps run by two different parties | Who is chasing each one, and by when, because nobody chases it on your behalf by default |
Two decisions sit on the other side of that day and both are worth naming now rather than later. Refinancing once the sale settles is part of the same decision as taking the bridge, not a separate one you get to later, and if both properties were taken as security for one position then untangling a cross-collateralised structure is the job that outlives the transaction.
If you could not service the loans you already have, can you still bridge?
Sometimes yes, and the structure that makes it possible has a name: a no end debt bridging loan. Where the sale of your existing home clears the whole combined position and nothing is left owing afterwards, there is no ongoing loan to service, and at least one non-bank lender publishes in plain words that in that case no income documents are required. Its published bridging page, read on 14 September 2026, states: “No end debt? No income documents required.” A second lender publishes the same rule and the mirror of it: “If there is no end debt involved, no income documentation is required. If there is end debt involved, the required documents will depend on the end debt loan.”
That is the whole mechanism, and it is worth being precise about why it works. It is not a lender relaxing a test. It is a lender applying the test to a loan that will not exist. During the bridge there is nothing to service because the interest sits in an interest budget or is added to the balance. After the sale there is nothing to service because the debt is gone. Serviceability is an assessment of your capacity to repay an ongoing obligation, and in this structure there is no ongoing obligation on the other side of the sale.
Who this actually describes
This route is published everywhere as a downsizer product. Almost every page that explains it is written for a retiree moving from a family home into something smaller, and that framing is so consistent that a self-employed borrower reading it will assume it is not for them. It is the same structure. The person it fits just as well is the business owner with substantial equity in a home, a trading position that will not evidence conventionally this year, and a purchase that costs less than the sale will realise.
Two conditions do the work, and both are about arithmetic rather than about you. The sale has to clear the combined position, which means the new property plus costs plus the interest added during the term has to land inside the net proceeds of the sale, and the whole structure has to fit inside the lender’s maximum loan against the security it holds during the overlap. If either fails, an end debt remains, and the moment an end debt remains the income requirement follows that end debt loan rather than disappearing.
Where an end debt remains
Then you are in an ordinary alt doc assessment, sized to the residual loan. That is not a worse outcome, it is a different one, and it is answerable: the published alt doc requirements on these products run to one income document, and the variance between lenders on which document and which period is set out in the next section. What changes is that the file now has to satisfy a servicing test, so the accountant’s agreement to sign and the currency of your business activity statements move from useful to load-bearing. Which document to use, what each one proves, and how a lender turns it into an income figure are covered in the guide to low doc home loan income documents, and the term itself is defined in the glossary entry for alt doc lending.
There is a third case worth naming because people arrive at it by mistake. If the real objective is to take money out of the home rather than to move house, this is the wrong instrument and a bridge is an expensive way to reach it. Releasing equity without selling is the route that does that directly, and it carries a full servicing assessment for as long as it runs, which is exactly the test the no end debt structure avoids by not leaving a loan behind.
What income evidence does a non-bank accept for a bridge?
Usually one primary income-verification source, but often with a lender declaration or financial-position form sitting beside it. That distinction matters. Read at source on 14 September 2026, the published combinations range from a borrower repayment declaration plus an accountant’s letter, business activity statements or trading statements; to a Borrower Income Declaration plus one of a lender-template accountant’s letter, 6 months of business activity statements or 3 months of business bank statements; to one income document plus a Declaration of Financial Position. Where there is no end debt, two published products state that no income documentation is required. The table below separates the evidence source from the supporting declaration instead of calling the whole pack "one document".
This section deliberately does not explain the documents themselves. Which document to use, what each one proves, how a lender converts it into an income figure, what an accountant can and cannot sign, how many periods are needed and what happens when your business activity statements and your bank statements disagree are all answered at length in the guide to low doc home loan income documents. What follows is only what changes because the loan is a bridging loan.
Four things change because it is a bridge
- No end debt can mean no income document at all. Where the sale clears the position, one lender publishes that no income documents are required, and a second publishes that no income documentation is required where there is no end debt. That is a structural exemption rather than a discount, and it is set out in the no end debt bridging loan route.
- No monthly repayment does not mean no bridge assessment. All four lenders publish that no repayment is required during the bridging period, but the lender still assesses the security, peak exposure, exit and any residual debt. The income evidence is most important where an end debt survives the sale.
- The test runs on the end debt, or on the peak position, depending on the lender. A pack sized only to the residual loan can still miss a product that looks at the peak position for exposure and maximum loan. Confirm which figure the product uses before the purchase goes unconditional.
- The minimum Australian Business Number and goods and services tax registration thresholds are bridging product criteria, and they appear nowhere on a general income-documents guide. They are published per tier, and on one lender they are the difference between a file that fits and a file that does not.
| Non-bank lender and tier | Minimum ABN | Minimum GST registration | Published alt doc pack | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-bank lender 3, Lite Doc | Not stated on the page | Not stated on the page | Borrower repayment declaration plus one of: accountant’s letter, BAS or trading statements | La Trobe Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 4, Prime | More than 24 months | More than 12 months | One of: accountant letter, last 2 BAS or 6 months business bank statements, plus a Declaration of Financial Position | MA Money, Residential and Vacant Land Rate and Product Guide, 26 August 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 4, Near Prime | More than 12 months | More than 6 months | One of: accountant letter, last 2 BAS or 6 months business bank statements, plus a Declaration of Financial Position | MA Money, Residential and Vacant Land Rate and Product Guide, 26 August 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 2, alt doc tier | At least 2 years | At least 12 months where turnover is above $75,000 | Borrower income declaration plus one of: that lender’s own template accountant’s letter, 6 months BAS or 3 months business bank statements | Brighten Connect, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 1, no end debt | Not applicable to income verification on the published no-end-debt route | Not applicable to income verification on the published no-end-debt route | No income documents required | ORDE Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
The variance is the point. Business activity statement periods run from the last 2 statements to 6 months. Business bank statement periods run from 3 months to 6 months. Two lenders publish an extra declaration alongside the primary evidence source, and one of them requires its own accountant-letter template if that route is used. A pack assembled for one lender will not automatically satisfy another, even when both advertise "alt doc". The label is the same; the evidence combination is not.
The Near Prime tier is the one most self-employed borrowers have never been told about
Of everything on this page, the single most useful published fact for a borrower with a young business is that one lender publishes two self-employed tiers rather than one. That lender publishes Prime at more than 24 months ABN and more than 12 months GST registration, and Near Prime at more than 12 months ABN and more than 6 months GST registration. That means "less than 2 years trading" is not automatically the end of the conversation, although it can remove some products. The same page also publishes that paid defaults up to $500 in aggregate may be considered on its Prime tier. These are product criteria, not an assurance about any application.
What if your accountant's letter, BAS and bank statements do not show the same income?
Do not assume the lender simply averages them. Alt doc products usually nominate a primary verification route, but the declaration still has to be credible against the rest of the file. If the accountant's letter says one thing while recent BAS or business bank statements point somewhere else, the inconsistency can trigger questions, a different income route or a lower usable figure. The lender is assessing whether the income evidence tells one defensible story, not whether one document contains the highest number.
Different forms of self-employed income can also be treated differently. One current lender's residential policy, dated 26 August 2026, is a useful example rather than a market rule. It publishes Full Doc self-employed income at 100 per cent of profit before tax less non-recurring income, with specified add-backs such as depreciation, superannuation above the compulsory amount, specified non-recurring expenses and the instant asset write-off where the company is not trading at a loss. Its Alt Doc policy uses 100 per cent of taxable income from the accountant's letter, requires at least a 25 per cent shareholding for that route, and separately publishes acceptance criteria for trust income, share dividends and trust distributions. Another current lender publishes a director-wage route using payslips, salary-credit bank statements and an accountant's confirmation that the business can meet its commitments and has traded profitably.
ATO debt and business liabilities are also not an automatic yes-or-no rule. The same current residential policy says tax liabilities and ATO payment arrangements may be considered using the actual repayment amount, while its bridging range allows ATO debt consolidation on Near Prime but not Prime. Its public residential summary also states that company debts can be excluded from servicing under its criteria. Those positions are useful because they show why the question is not simply "do you have ATO debt or a business loan?" It is which liability belongs to you, which belongs to the company, what repayment is being assessed, and which product tier is being used. The deeper calculation of director wages, retained profit, distributions and add-backs belongs in the self-employed home loans guide.
Timing is the part that catches self-employed borrowers out
The evidence has to be current at the point the bridge is finally assessed, not when the purchase was first discussed. A reporting quarter can turn over between those dates, and when it does, the pack that supported the pre-approval may no longer be the pack the assessor needs. That is why the accountant is asked first and not last, and why a purchase timed across a reporting boundary is worth planning around rather than discovering. How the BAS cycle changes the income window goes through that timing directly. If your existing lending already sits with a non-bank, the shape of those options is set out in non-bank alt doc options, and how many years of trading a particular lender wants in general, outside a bridge, sits in the self-employed home loans guide.
How much can you borrow on a bridging loan?
There is no single portable answer, and that is not an evasion, it is the answer. Lenders quote their maximum against different bases: the value of the new property, the combined value of both securities, the peak position, or a product-specific calculation. Two pages can quote different percentages and both can be correct because the denominator is different. So the question to ask a lender is not how much. It is against what.
| Non-bank lender and tier | Maximum published loan to value ratio | Measured against | Loan size | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-bank lender 1 | Up to 80 per cent | Not stated on the page | Loans up to $5m | ORDE Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 2 | Up to 80 per cent is published in the current product summary | Peak debt | The same current page also carries FAQ figures of $2m at 80 per cent and $5m at 70 per cent while the product summary states a $15m maximum loan and peak debt up to $5m at 80 per cent. Confirm the current product guide before relying on a maximum | Brighten Connect, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 4 | Up to 80 per cent | Not stated on the page | Peak debt of $200K to $5M | MA Money, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 3, tier one | Up to 80 per cent | Not stated on the page | Maximum $5,000,000 | La Trobe Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
| Non-bank lender 3, tier two | Up to 75 per cent | Not stated on the page | Maximum $10,000,000, and to $50,000,000 on application | La Trobe Financial, bridging page, read 15 September 2026 |
Two things in that table are worth pausing on. First, current published pages are not always internally consistent. One lender’s current product summary and FAQ carry different maximum-loan and peak-debt combinations, so this page does not choose one and pretend the conflict is not there. Confirm the current product guide before using the number in a purchase decision. Second, some lenders publish a headline percentage without publishing the denominator beside it. That is why the question to ask is not just "what LVR?" but "what is that LVR measured against on my structure?"
The prudential layer sits above all of it, and it is guidance to lenders rather than a rule about your access. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority “has not formally defined ‘high LVR lending’, but experience shows that LVRs above 90 per cent (including capitalised LMI premium or other fees) clearly expose an ADI to a higher risk of loss” (APG 223 Residential Mortgage Lending, effective 19 June 2025, read 14 September 2026). Read that for what it is. It does not set a borrower limit, it does not create an entitlement below that level, and it says nothing about bridging specifically. How the ratio itself is constructed is covered in the loan to value ratio glossary entry.
Deriving it in order, rather than looking it up
No calculator on any site can answer this for you, because the first input is a number only the lender can produce. What a calculator is standing in for is a sequence, and the sequence runs in one direction. Work down it with your own figures, in this order, and the last line is the one that decides whether the purchase happens.
| In order | What goes in the line | Where the number comes from, and what moves it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What the lender values | The assessed value of every property the lender is taking as security for the structure | The lender’s own instructed valuation. Not what you paid, not the agent’s appraisal, not the contract price. This is the input everything else is built on, and it is the one you cannot supply |
| 2. What it counts as debt | The balance still owing on your existing home, plus the purchase price of the new property, plus the interest expected to be added during the term | Your payout figure and your contract. The interest line grows if the bridge runs longer than modelled, so the term you choose feeds back into this line |
| 3. What it counts as costs | Transfer duty, legal and conveyancing costs, lender fees, valuation fees and settlement adjustments | Your state revenue office and your solicitor. Some lenders let a portion sit inside the facility and some do not, and that single policy difference moves the answer more than the headline percentage does |
| 4. The peak position | Lines 2 and 3 added together, before any sale proceeds are applied | Arithmetic. This is the figure several published products measure their maximum against, which is why line 5 has to be asked rather than assumed |
| 5. What percentage applies, and to which line | The lender’s published maximum, applied to whichever base that lender actually uses | The lender, in writing. This is the step the published sources disagree about, and the step Table C above answers lender by lender |
| 6. The forecast end debt | The peak position less the net proceeds you expect from the sale | Your own sale assumption, which is the number to stress-test. If this line is zero, the no end debt route is open and the income evidence question changes entirely |
| 7. What has to be found in cash | Whatever the facility will not carry, at settlement, in cleared funds | You. This is the number that decides whether the deal happens, and it is the last one anybody calculates |
Lenders mortgage insurance may apply to a bridging structure, and where it does it is quoted per file against your figures and that lender’s policy. No premium, threshold or waiver figure is stated on this page, because none exists that would be accurate for your file.
Two questions this page hands to another guide
Where the contract deposit comes from before your existing home has sold is a real problem and it is not answered here: the sources, what each one needs from you and what each one does not solve are set out in the guide to buying a second property while self-employed, which also covers how your existing loan is assessed on a new application, debt to income, whether the securities are crossed or standalone and what order to do things in. That guide is about keeping the first property. This page is about selling it, with a bridge across the gap. If the money is coming out of the business, where the cash at the top comes from covers how lenders treat business funds used for that purpose, because cash removed from the business can be relevant to the same trading position your income evidence is being read for.
Where does the deposit come from before your home has sold?
It comes from somewhere other than the sale, because the sale has not happened yet. The contract deposit and the money needed to complete settlement are two different funding problems. The deposit is due when the contract requires it; the rest of the purchase price, duty, legal costs, adjustments and any loan shortfall have to be ready at settlement. Solving one does not automatically solve the other. Where the money has to come out of the property you are selling rather than the one you are buying, the sale evidence and the hold back are in bridging loan until your property sells.
| Possible source | What it needs | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|
| Cash you already hold | Cleared funds available by the contract deadline | It does not change the peak debt by itself; it changes where the contribution comes from |
| Equity released from the existing home | A facility arranged before the deposit is due, with the lender comfortable with the increased debt position | It can add debt before the bridge is assessed, so it is not invisible to the next lender |
| Deposit bond | Approval from the bond provider and, on longer bonds, evidence that settlement funds will be available | It defers the cash deposit, not the settlement. The full purchase still has to be funded on the day |
| Money from the business | Evidence of the source and comfort that taking the cash out does not weaken the business position being used to support income | It can make the same business look weaker in the bank statements or working-capital position the lender is reading |
| A smaller deposit negotiated with the vendor | Agreement before you sign, reflected in the contract | It is a contract change, not extra borrowing capacity, and it does not reduce what has to be paid at settlement |
For a self-employed borrower, the source matters because the deposit can change the evidence behind the loan. Pulling a large amount of cash out of the business can affect the same account activity or liquidity that supports your declared income. Releasing equity before the bridge can create another liability that the bridge application sees. A deposit bond can solve exchange and still leave the settlement funding problem untouched.
Ask for a settlement-funds worksheet before the purchase goes unconditional. It should show the contract deposit, purchase price, transfer duty, legal and conveyancing costs, settlement adjustments, lender and valuation costs, the approved advance and the exact cash contribution required on the day. If the contribution is coming from the business, read how lenders treat business cash used for a property deposit. If the plan is to release equity before selling, releasing equity without selling is the closer structure.
How is your existing home valued?
The lender instructs its own valuation, and that number, not the agent’s appraisal and not the price you hoped for, is what the entire structure is built on. Every figure downstream of it moves when it moves: the peak position, the percentage, the maximum loan, and the cash you have to find at settlement.
A valuation for mortgage purposes is a defined professional exercise rather than an opinion of what a home might fetch. The Australian Property Institute’s guidance paper on valuations for mortgage and loan security purposes states that “the primary role for Members is to advise the market value of the asset(s) for mortgage and loan security purposes”, and separately requires valuers to comment on any difference between their value and the sale price (ANZVGP 112, Valuations for Mortgage and Loan Security Purposes, effective 1 January 2025, read 14 September 2026, sections 3.0 and 5.6). The practical translation is that a market value assessed to a professional standard and a marketing appraisal produced to win a listing are two different documents with two different purposes, and a lender only funds against the first.
Which properties get valued
That depends on the security structure, and it is worth asking rather than assuming. Many mainstream residential bridging loans take both the outgoing and the incoming property as security for one position, which means two valuations. Published non-bank bridging material describes first-mortgage bridging on either multiple securities or a single security depending on the product, so a single-security structure is a real option rather than an exception. Ask which property or properties the lender will actually mortgage, because it decides how many valuations are instructed, what they cost and what has to be released when the sale settles.
What property types and postcodes can be used as bridging security?
There is no market-wide Australian rule, and location and property type can change the maximum loan, maximum loan-to-value ratio or whether the product is available at all. One non-bank's current bridging material accepts houses, apartments and townhouses in its category 1 and category 2 locations. A second publishes the same two location categories in its broker guide and allows vacant land as partial bridging security with an additional pricing loading. A third operates a postcode tool that returns product-specific maximum loan and loan-to-value settings for the security location. All three are named and linked in the fact verification log below.
| Security issue | What current lender material shows | What to do before signing |
|---|---|---|
| Metro house or townhouse | Commonly accepted where the postcode and valuation fit the product | Confirm the lender's location category and maximum LVR for that exact address |
| Apartment | Accepted on some current bridging products, but product and location rules still apply | Check the property type, postcode and any size or concentration restrictions rather than assuming all apartments are equivalent |
| Regional property | Current lenders publish postcode or location categories that can change eligibility and maximum LVR | Run the exact postcode through the lender's current policy before relying on a metro maximum |
| Vacant land | At least one current lender permits it as partial bridging security rather than treating it the same as an established dwelling | Confirm whether it can be primary security, partial security only, and whether a pricing or LVR adjustment applies |
| Acreage, lifestyle or specialised property | No reliable market-wide rule was found in the current public material used for this build | Get a lender-specific security answer before the contract goes unconditional. Do not import the rule for a standard suburban house |
The same issue can arise on either side of the bridge. A difficult outgoing property can weaken the sale exit and the security base; a difficult incoming property can fail the new lender's acceptable-security policy. Extra security can sometimes help a structure, but it does not automatically turn an unacceptable property into an acceptable one.
The sequencing point is the one worth acting on
A valuation instructed after the purchase has already gone unconditional gives you no room to respond to it. In practice that is where a buy-before-sell file quietly turns from a structuring exercise into a cash-finding exercise: the number lands lower than assumed, the percentage is applied to a smaller base, the gap has to be closed at settlement, and the borrower has already surrendered every lever that could have closed it. Instruct the valuation on your existing home while you still have a finance clause, a cooling-off period, or an unsigned contract. The timing chain that sits around it is set out in what actually sets a settlement timeline.
What if it values under?
The lender lends against the valuation rather than the appraisal, so a shortfall reduces what it will advance and leaves the gap for you to close with cash, a smaller facility or a different lender. On a bridge the effect is doubled, because the ratio is measured while both properties are held, so a shortfall on either one moves the same number. The options, in the order of what each costs you, are in what to do about a valuation shortfall at settlement.
How long does a home actually take to sell?
Longer than the figure most people use, because the figure most people use is the marketing period and the marketing period is one phase out of four. The most recent national median from the data provider that publishes the series is 35 days, over the 3 months to July 2026, and that measures time on market only. It does not include the preparation before the campaign, the contract and cooling-off phase after it, or the settlement period at the end.
The four phases between listing and settled funds
- Phase oneTransaction sequence described from practice, not a published statistic. As at 14 September 2026.Preparation. Presentation, photography, any works you decide to do, agent selection and the pricing conversation. It happens before the campaign starts and it is invisible in every days-on-market figure ever published.
- 35 daysCotality Monthly Housing Chart Pack, published 14 August 2026, read 14 September 2026: “Homes took a median 35 days to sell over the 3 months to July”. National median for the marketing period only. Half of all sales sat on the slower side of it.Phase two. The active campaign, measured as time on market. This is a national median across every market in the country, so it describes none of them exactly, including yours.
- 5 business daysNew South Wales Government, contracts and deposits, page updated 22 September 2025, read 14 September 2026. New South Wales only.Phase three. Contract and cooling off. In New South Wales buyers have a 5 business day cooling-off period after contracts are exchanged. Cooling-off rules and their exceptions differ in every state and territory, and yours must be confirmed rather than assumed.
- About 6 weeksNew South Wales Government, page updated 22 September 2025. Queensland Government, page updated 3 November 2020, which is the oldest source cited on this page. Both read 14 September 2026.Phase four. The settlement period. In New South Wales settlement usually takes place around 6 weeks after contracts are exchanged. In Queensland it is most commonly 4 to 6 weeks after both parties sign, mostly falling within a range of 30 to 90 days. Electronic settlement runs Monday to Friday only, so a settlement cannot simply be pushed into a weekend to make a term fit.
General information only. These are medians and conventional periods, not entitlements or predictions, and each is stated with its source, the period it covers and its limits alongside it. Two states are named in full because they are the two with published conventional settlement periods; every other state and territory must be confirmed for your own transaction. Not financial advice. Lender figures are published product terms read at source on the date shown, subject to change without notice and to credit assessment; they are not offers.
The direction of travel matters more than the median
Selling times lengthened through 2026 rather than shortening, and the market conditions behind that are the reason a term set from a figure published a year ago is a term set from the wrong market. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on 1 September 2026 that the proportion of capital city suburbs recording a fall in home values “more than doubled through winter, rising from 45.8 per cent in autumn to 93 per cent”, with prices falling in almost every capital city. That is a description of conditions at a point in time and not a prediction, and it is included here for one practical reason: a slower market lengthens every phase above, and the phase it lengthens most is the one your bridging term was sized on.
No capital city breakdown is given on this page. The quarterly capital city figures that used to sit in this section have been superseded, and the current per-city numbers circulating in search panels are attributed to sources that do not publish the series. A national median is the wrong input for an individual decision anyway. Take a current figure for your own suburb and property type from local comparable sales, and treat the national number as context rather than as a planning input.
What that means for the term you agree
The term is a decision you make against local evidence, not a product fact you accept. Published non-bank bridging terms commonly run 6 to 12 months, with one lender publishing an interest budget period of up to 2 years, so there is usually more room than a borrower assumes. The inputs are your suburb rather than the nation, your property type, the season you are selling into, the settlement period that is conventional in your state, and how much of the four-phase timeline is already behind you.
An open bridge generally means the existing home has not sold yet, so the timing and amount of the exit are still uncertain. A closed bridge generally means the home is already under an unconditional sale contract with a known settlement date. One of the four lenders published for this page distinguishes the two directly, offering 12 months where the sale is uncontracted and 6 to 12 months once it is contracted. Open against closed describes the certainty of the exit; it is not the same thing as whether you will have an end debt after the sale.
If the settlement side of the timeline is the binding constraint, what actually sets a settlement timeline goes deeper, and if you are buying into a short settlement, buying on a short settlement covers that case directly. If a settlement date is going to be missed, that is a contract question for your solicitor before it is a finance one, and what late settlement actually costs goes through the money side of it.
What happens if your home does not sell before the term ends?
The facility does not quietly continue and it does not convert to a normal home loan by itself. The lender either extends on terms priced at that moment, or the loan moves to its default rate, and your leverage is highest before the maturity date rather than after it. Ring the funder while the facility is still performing, get the sale campaign into evidence, and ask for a dated payout figure against the booked settlement date rather than the hoped for one.
The whole sequence, including what a statutory default notice does to the clock, what an extension actually costs and which of the three ways out is still open to you, is the subject of bridging loan expired and the property not sold. Where the sale does happen but lands under the payout figure, sold early or sold for less sets out what the lender does next. Where you would rather hold the property and sell into a better market, the arithmetic is in holding a property to sell later, and where the answer is to keep the old home and let it, the rent question is in renting out the old home during a bridge.
Which alternatives to bridging work on alt doc income?
Four routes are worth pricing before a bridge, and on alt doc income two of them behave differently from the way they are usually described. A deposit bond does not fund a purchase, it defers the deposit, so it needs the sale to complete on time. An equity release on the current home is assessed on servicing, which is exactly the test a self-employed borrower is trying to avoid. A longer settlement costs nothing but depends on a vendor agreeing. Selling first removes the interest and the risk, and removes your control of the buying timetable.
The four are compared against each other, with the numbers, in do you actually need a bridging loan. The table below only asks the narrower question this page owns: which of them survive contact with alt doc income.
| Alternative | How it works | Works on alt doc income? |
|---|---|---|
| A simultaneous settlement | The sale and the purchase settle on the same day, negotiated in the contract before it is signed, so the two debts never overlap | Yes, and it is the cleanest of the five. One loan, assessed once, on the end position only. It is also the least available, because it depends on the other side agreeing |
| A longer or deferred settlement | A settlement period negotiated out far enough for your sale to complete first, agreed before the contract is signed | Yes, same reason. The strain is on the vendor’s willingness rather than on your income evidence |
| An offer subject to sale | A contract condition tied to the sale of your existing property, drafted and checked by your solicitor before you sign. It is a contract solution, not a loan | Yes, where a vendor accepts it. It can remove the overlap entirely, which removes the alt doc problem with it. It cannot ordinarily be added to an auction purchase after the bid is won |
| A deposit bond | A bond stands in place of the cash deposit at exchange, assessed by the bond provider rather than by a lender | Partly. The bond provider assesses the deposit only, and on longer bonds wants evidence of the funds that will settle. It defers the deposit, not the settlement, so the full servicing question still arrives on the day |
| Selling first and renting | The existing home is sold before the purchase, and you rent in between | Yes, completely. One loan, assessed once, no second position to carry. It removes the servicing problem and creates a housing and timing problem instead |
Use the words simultaneous settlement rather than the American phrase, because the search results that use the American phrase describe a different transaction under a different legal system and the advice in them does not transfer.
Two of those routes carry a qualification the table cannot hold. A deposit bond solves the deposit and not the settlement: it buys you time at exchange, and the full purchase price still has to be funded on the day. And selling first and renting is the only route on the list that removes the servicing problem entirely, which is why it is on the table despite being the option nobody wants to hear.
Two further routes are sometimes offered as alternatives and are better understood as different instruments. Releasing equity without selling raises money against the home you still own, and it carries full servicing on the increased position for as long as it runs, with no sale date attached to retire it, which is the opposite of what a bridging structure does. A second mortgage sitting behind a first, or caveat-backed short-term funding, weights the assessment heavily to security and to the exit with a lighter income assessment on many facilities, and the lighter assessment is the thing you are paying for. How those instruments work as a family is set out in the bridging, caveat and second mortgage guide. If the constraint is that the settlement date is short rather than that the income is hard to evidence, buying on a short settlement is the closer read.
No cost, rate or fee figure for any route appears above, deliberately. Pricing on these varies by lender, by security position and by term, and a published number would be wrong for most readers on the day they read it.
What does it cost to own two homes at once?
You carry the financing cost of the bridge plus the holding costs of two properties for the overlap, and cash flow is not the same thing as cost. A facility can require no monthly bridge repayment while interest is still accumulating in the balance. Separately, rates, insurance, utilities, maintenance, presentation costs and strata or body-corporate levies can continue on both properties until the old one settles. Every line on a bridging term sheet, decoded with the published bands and dates, is in bridging loan rates, fees and the term sheet.
| Cost | When it can hit | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge interest | Paid during the bridge or added to the balance, depending on the product | The debt balance and the actual number of days the overlap runs |
| Valuation | Before the structure can be confirmed | The security structure and the valuation type the lender requires |
| Establishment and legal work | At or around purchase settlement | The lender and the complexity of documenting the security |
| Holding two homes | Throughout the overlap | Rates, insurance, utilities, maintenance, presentation and levies where applicable |
| Security release or restructure | When the old home settles | How the bridge was secured and what loan is left afterwards |
| Extension or refinance | Only if the original exit slips | The new term, current valuation, current evidence and the lender willing to take the position |
Which bridging costs can be added to the loan, and which need cash upfront?
It depends on the lender and the available equity. Do not treat the approved facility limit as the amount of cash available for the purchase. Current major-bank bridging material says stamp duty and legal fees may be included in the bridge subject to available equity. One non-bank's current broker material shows a different cash-timing issue: its valuation fee is payable before the valuation is ordered. Establishment, legal, discharge and settlement costs can also be charged at different points depending on the facility.
| Cost | Can it sometimes sit inside the facility? | Cash-timing risk |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge interest | Yes, where the product capitalises interest or funds an interest budget | The longer the overlap runs, the more of the facility is consumed by interest rather than purchase funding |
| Stamp duty or transfer duty | Some current products allow it where sufficient equity and facility headroom exist | If the lender will not fund it, the whole amount becomes part of the cash contribution at settlement |
| Legal and conveyancing costs | Some products may include all or part of them | Your own solicitor or conveyancer can still require money before settlement |
| Valuation | Product-specific | At least one current lender publishes that its valuation fee is payable before the valuation is ordered, which means the file can need cash before approval is final |
| Establishment and lender legal costs | Sometimes deducted from or funded inside settlement proceeds | They reduce usable proceeds even if they do not arrive as a separate bill |
| Discharge and security-release costs | Usually dealt with around sale or refinance settlement | They reduce net sale proceeds or appear as a settlement deduction and therefore move the final end debt |
The document to ask for is not just a loan approval. Ask for a sources-and-uses or settlement-funds worksheet showing the gross facility, every amount retained or deducted, every cost funded inside the loan, the amount paid to the outgoing lender, the net advance available at purchase settlement and the cash contribution you personally need. That is the answer to the fan-out question "how much money do I physically need?", and it prevents an approved loan from still producing a settlement shortfall.
The six-month tax clock runs beside the bridging clock
The Australian Taxation Office says that when you acquire a new home before disposing of your old one, both can be treated as your main residence for up to 6 months if the old home was your main residence for a continuous period of at least 3 months in the 12 months before disposal, you did not use it to produce income during the relevant part of that 12-month period when it was not your main residence, and the new property becomes your main residence. If the old home takes longer than 6 months to dispose of, the main-residence outcome can become partial. This is tax information to take to your accountant, not a reason to choose a shorter or longer bridge by itself.
If the plan changes and you rent the old home, another tax clock begins
The Australian Taxation Office also states that a former home can generally continue to be treated as a main residence for up to 6 years while it is used to produce income, or indefinitely while it is not used to produce income, subject to the rules and your choices. That is why "we will just keep it and rent it" is not only a lender decision. It changes the exit and it changes the tax questions. If the underlying decision is whether to sell the old home at all, whether to sell or borrow against it is the adjacent read.
Is bridging finance regulated?
On a buy-before-sell bridge over a home you will live in, yes. That is consumer credit under the National Credit Code, so the lender must hold an Australian Credit Licence and belong to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, and the responsible lending obligations apply to the assessment. A bridge written for a genuine business purpose on a section 13 declaration sits outside the Code, and the protections that come with it do not travel.
The distinction decides which lender can write your loan, what it must assess and where you can complain, so it is the first question in the guide to bridging loans without a bank, which also sets out how to check a funder's licence before you sign. The business purpose side, including what a declaration can and cannot do, is in private bridging loans for business.
What gets a self-employed buy-before-sell deal declined?
Five things, and four of them are fixable before the contract hardens and expensive after it. The common failure points are income evidence that is insufficient or has gone stale, a serviceability failure under that product’s assessment method, a valuation or maximum loan problem, an exit that does not withstand scrutiny, and going unconditional before any of those are resolved. Sequence is the thread running through all five. What to do after a decline, in order, is in bridging loan declined: what to do next.
What clears the file
- Income evidence assembled and current at the point of assessment
- The accountant has already agreed to sign, and knows the deadline
- The servicing basis confirmed with the lender before the contract goes unconditional
- The valuation on the existing home instructed while a finance clause is still alive
- A sale assumption the market has tested, at a price a downside case still works at
- A term set from local selling evidence rather than from a product page
What stops it
- A reporting quarter that turned over between pre-approval and assessment
- An accountant who will not sign, or has not been asked
- A declared income the business activity statements contradict
- An unconditional contract with no cooling off and no finance clause
- A valuation instructed too late to respond to
- A plan that assumes the marketing period is the selling period
Two of those deserve expanding, because they are the two that are specific to a self-employed file rather than general. The first is currency. Income evidence is not a document you obtain once, it is a position that ages, and on a bridging loan the assessment date is set by a contract rather than by you. The second is the accountant. On an alt doc file the accountant’s declaration is the input with the longest lead time and the least control over it, and a file that is complete except for one signature is not a complete file. If a bank has already declined, it is worth knowing which of the two it actually declined on, because they have completely different fixes: what to do after a self-employed home loan decline works through the diagnosis, and why the big banks decline self-employed borrowers covers the policy reasons behind it.
From our broking, indicative
What follows is qualitative on purpose. This is a decision people make under time pressure, with a home and a deadline attached, so no indicative rate, band, ratio or approval time is published here. What we can say is what recurs.
What makes a self-employed bridge land:
- The existing home already listed and priced against local evidence before the purchase goes unconditional
- The valuation on the existing home instructed early rather than after the fact
- An accountant who has already agreed to sign
- A business activity statement profile that reconciles to the declared income
- A purchase contract that still has a finance clause in it
- A term chosen from local selling evidence rather than from a product brochure
What gets them declined:
- An existing home that has been on the market too long at the wrong price
- An accountant who will not sign
- A declared income the activity statements contradict
- An unconditional contract with no cooling off and no finance clause
- A valuation instructed too late to respond to
- A plan that assumes the marketing period is the selling period
What changes in the last 60 days of a term: the conversation moves from selling the property to managing the facility, and the options narrow in a specific order.
Indicative only, drawn from files we have placed, and qualitative by choice on this topic. It is not a quote, not an offer, and not a prediction about your file. Actual outcomes depend on lender policy and on your circumstances at the time of application. General information only, not financial advice.
What changes if you are bidding at auction
Everything conditional disappears. A bid accepted under the hammer is unconditional, so finance has to be settled as a decision before you raise your hand rather than as a condition afterwards, and a valuation that lands under is your problem on the fall of the hammer. The unconditional bid, and what a lender wants to see before it will let you make one, is in buying at auction before you sell.
The first week: what to do, and in what order
| The move | Why it sits here in the order | What leaving it late costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Ask your accountant whether they will sign, and by when | It is the input with the longest lead time and the least control over it | A file that is ready except for the one signature it cannot get |
| Ask the lender whether your structure leaves an end debt | It decides whether any income document is required at all, so it changes the size of every other job on this list | Assembling a pack you did not need, or failing to assemble one you did |
| Assemble the income evidence and check it is still current | It has to be current when the bridge is assessed, not when you decided to buy | Quarters that have gone stale by the time anyone reads the file |
| Get pricing evidence on your existing home from local comparable sales | It sets both the term and the exit the whole structure rests on | A term chosen from a product page and an exit priced on hope |
| Have your solicitor read the contract before you sign it | The contract decides the dates, the conditions and what happens if a date is missed | Finding out what the contract says at the point where it has become expensive |
| Get the lender’s valuation on your existing home instructed early | Every figure downstream of it is built on it | A valuation that arrives after the point at which you could still have acted on it |
None of that is a scoring system and none of it is a promise. It is what recurs, from the underwriter’s seat, on this particular kind of file. The structure that follows the sale is worth designing at the same time as the bridge that precedes it: the residual position on a self-employed file often lands as a one doc home loan, and it is a better loan when it was planned at the start of the transaction rather than assembled at the end of one. If the binding constraint turns out to be speed rather than evidence, fast settlement finance is the adjacent read.
Buying before selling can work for self-employed borrowers even when a conventional bank assessment has not, but the reason is product structure rather than a simple bank-versus-non-bank divide. On the four non-bank bridging loans compared on this page, no monthly repayment is required during the bridging period, but peak exposure, security, exit and any residual end debt are still assessed. Where the sale clears the position entirely there may be no end debt and therefore no income document required. Where an end debt remains, the lender's self-employed evidence rules apply to that ongoing position. Before the purchase goes unconditional, confirm four things: what happens to the existing mortgage, whether an end debt remains, which income evidence route applies, and how much cash is actually required after fees, retained interest and settlement deductions.
Key takeaway: ask whether your sale leaves an end debt before you assemble anything, because on some structures the answer is that no income document is required at all.Frequently Asked Questions
No. Buying first and selling afterwards is the ordinary shape of a bridging loan, and the lender assesses you while you hold both. What changes is the test: peak debt while both are held, then end debt once the sale settles. Selling first removes the funding gap and the interest that comes with it, and it also removes your control of the buying timetable. The four cheaper routes are priced against each other in do you actually need a bridging loan.
On the published no end debt route, yes. One non-bank publishes that where the sale clears the whole position and no residual loan remains, no income documents are required, because there is nothing left to service. Where an end debt does remain, income evidence is assessed against that residual loan rather than against peak debt, on full documents or an accepted alt doc pack. The structure, and who it actually fits, is in bridging with no end debt.
Six to 12 months on most published non-bank products, with one publishing an interest budget period of up to 2 years, and one distinguishing 12 months for an uncontracted sale from 6 to 12 months once the sale is contracted. Bank bridging runs up to 12 months. Set the term from how long homes like yours are actually taking to sell rather than from how long you hope. What happens when it runs out is in bridging loan expired and not sold.
Faster than a bank refinance and slower than the advertised turnaround, because published numbers describe an indicative approval rather than money in a trust account. Between the two sit the valuation, formal credit approval, loan and mortgage documents, your signing and, where a mortgage is registered over either property, the existing lender consent. Ask for the file to be split into named dependencies rather than one number. The settlement clock is in what sets the settlement timeline.
Yes. A pre-approval is conditional on your position not changing, and for a self-employed borrower the things that move are the ones you control least: a weak quarter of trading, a new ATO arrangement, a fresh credit enquiry or a valuation that lands under. Do not take on new liabilities between pre-approval and settlement, and tell your broker early if the business numbers shift. What a decline looks like from there is in bridging loan declined.
It is a bridge where the sale will not clear the whole position, so a residual loan remains after settlement and becomes an ordinary home loan. That residual is what the lender assesses you for, on full income evidence or an accepted alt doc pack, because it is the debt you keep. A no end debt bridge is the opposite: the sale clears everything and there is nothing left to service. Both figures are worked through in the bridging finance guide.
The lender either extends on terms priced at that moment or the facility moves to its default rate, and no lender in the sample publishes a price for either. On a Code regulated facility a default notice generally has to allow at least 30 days to remedy before enforcement begins. Raise it before the maturity date rather than after, because your leverage is highest while the facility is still performing. The sequence is in bridging loan expired and not sold.
Cost, and the fact that the two charges that bite only apply when the plan slips. You pay interest on a larger balance while both properties are held, plus a percentage establishment fee that does not shrink with the term, plus the duplicate rates, insurance and levies no facility funds. If the sale lands under, your end debt rises dollar for dollar. What a cheap or slow sale does is in sold early or sold for less.
It depends on the purpose rather than the product name. A bridge over a home you will live in is consumer credit under the National Credit Code, so the lender must hold an Australian Credit Licence and belong to AFCA, and responsible lending obligations apply to the assessment. A bridge for a genuine business purpose written on a section 13 declaration sits outside the Code. Which lane you are in, and what each tests, is in bridging loans without a bank.
A declaration plus one supporting document, on most published packs. On the products read on 15 September 2026 that document is an accountant letter, the last 2 BAS, or 3 to 6 months of business bank statements, and the declaration is either a borrower repayment declaration or a declaration of financial position. One lender requires its own accountant letter template if that route is used, so a pack built for one lender will not automatically satisfy another. The full set is in the income documents guide.
Sometimes, and often without current returns. Less than 2 years of trading removes some products but not every published alt doc route: one non-bank publishes a second self-employed tier at more than 12 months ABN and more than 6 months GST registration where its main tier requires more than 24 months. On returns, the alt doc packs on this page accept a declaration plus BAS or bank statements instead of lodged returns, which is the point of them. The documents are listed in the income documents guide.
Your end debt rises dollar for dollar, and where the sale will not cover the payout figure the difference has to be funded before settlement or settlement does not complete. Raise it as soon as offers point below the payout figure, because the options narrow the closer you get to the date. What the lender does next, and what it does to the facility, is in sold early or sold for less.
Fact verification log
Every figure and quotation on this page was read at its own source, and the lender product entries were re-read on 15 September 2026. Entries record what was read, what was confirmed, what was narrowed and what was deliberately not shipped. The lender product entries and current prudential settings are high-churn and carry a tightened review interval. A five-seed multi-provider query run on 14 September 2026 was also used as a gap test; the additions from that pass are recorded at L24 to L28.
- L1. No end debt, no income documents. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, read 14 September 2026. ORDE’s published residential bridging page states “No end debt? No income documents required” and publishes no repayments during the bridging period because interest is met from the Interest Budget. It also publishes loans up to $5m, up to 80 per cent LVR, Full Doc and Alt Doc for end-debt servicing, 12 months for uncontracted sales and 6 to 12 months for contracted sales. The page does not state the denominator beside the 80 per cent figure, so none is invented here. Published product position, subject to credit assessment. ORDE Financial, bridging.
- L2. Brighten end debt, Alt Doc pack and current product-page conflict. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. Brighten’s current bridging page publishes no repayment during the bridging period, no income documentation where there is no end debt, and for Brighten Boss Prime an active ABN for at least 2 years, GST registration for at least 12 months where turnover exceeds $75,000, a Borrower Income Declaration plus one of the Brighten template accountant’s letter, 6 months BAS or 3 months business bank statements. CURRENT SOURCE CONFLICT: the product summary publishes max loan $15m and peak debt at or below $5m with max 80 per cent LVR, while the FAQ on the same page still states $2m at 80 per cent or $5m at 70 per cent. The guide reports the conflict and instructs the reader to confirm the current product guide rather than choosing a figure. Brighten Connect, bridging loan.
- L3. Two self-employed tiers. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. MA Money publishes Prime self-employed at ABN more than 24 months and GST more than 12 months, and Near Prime at ABN more than 12 months and GST more than 6 months. Alt Doc is one income document from an accountant letter, last 2 BAS or 6 months business bank statements, plus a Declaration of Financial Position. The page publishes capitalised interest, terms of 6 to 12 months, loans from $200K to $5M peak debt and up to 80 per cent LVR. Prime credit policy states paid defaults up to $500 in aggregate may be considered. The page carries no visible effective date, recorded as a limitation. MA Money, bridging loans page.
- L4. No repayments, and a conversion at expiry. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, read 14 September 2026. “No repayments are required during the bridging period” with “future interest payments incorporated into the loan amount”. Interest budget period “set to suit applicants requirements (maximum 2 years)”. Where there is to be residual debt, terms can be provided up to 30 years on principal and interest. Lite Doc: “Borrower repayment declaration PLUS one of the following; accountant’s letter, BAS or Trading Statements”. Maximum loan to value ratio 80 per cent to $5,000,000, 75 per cent to $10,000,000, and to $50,000,000 on application. NARROWED: the page does not state a business activity statement period, so no period is attributed. NOT SHIPPED: this lender’s published variable and comparison rates were read this build and are deliberately not published on this page, because no table on this page compares pricing and a “from” rate on a page read under time pressure invites being read as a rate you will get. La Trobe Financial, bridging loan.
- L5. National median time on market. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, re-read at source 14 September 2026: “Homes took a median 35 days to sell over the 3 months to July”. Cotality Monthly Housing Chart Pack, published 14 August 2026. Shipped as a marketing-period median only, explicitly not the time from listing to settlement. NARROWED: the chart pack does not publish a combined capital cities or combined regional breakdown in the article body, so neither is stated here. NOT SHIPPED: capital city day counts circulating in search panels are attributed to sources that do not publish the series, and the superseded April 2026 quarter figures that previously sat in this section have been removed. Cotality Monthly Housing Chart Pack, August 2026.
- L6. Market direction, prose only. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, read 14 September 2026, with a date correction: the article is dated 1 September 2026, not 31 August. “The proportion of capital city suburbs recording a fall in home values more than doubled through winter, rising from 45.8 per cent in autumn to 93 per cent”, with prices falling in almost every capital city. Used once, to support the direction-of-travel sentence. Qualifier: conditions at a point in time, not a prediction. Cotality, Monthly Housing Chart Pack.
- L7. Bridging finance, the regulator’s definition. CONFIRMED VERBATIM. “Short-term finance that covers the period between buying a new property and selling your existing property”. Glossary entry last updated 1 October 2019, read 14 September 2026. Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Moneysmart glossary.
- L8. Serviceability buffer of at least 3.0 per cent. CONFIRMED VERBATIM. Under Attachment C of Prudential Standard APS 220 Credit Risk Management, authorised deposit-taking institutions “must apply a buffer over a loan’s interest rate of at least 3.0 per cent, unless determined otherwise by APRA”. Guide effective 19 June 2025, read 14 September 2026. Shipped with all three qualifiers adjacent: it binds authorised deposit-taking institutions rather than every funder, the regulator reviews and has changed it, and it is never a rate the borrower pays. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, APG 223.
- L9. High loan to value ratio lending. CONFIRMED VERBATIM. “APRA has not formally defined ‘high LVR lending’, but experience shows that LVRs above 90 per cent (including capitalised LMI premium or other fees) clearly expose an ADI to a higher risk of loss.” Guide effective 19 June 2025, read 14 September 2026. Shipped with the qualifier that it is guidance to lenders about their own risk, not a promise about borrower access. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, APG 223.
- L10. Valuations are to a professional market value standard. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, sections 3.0 and 5.6, effective 1 January 2025, read 14 September 2026: “the primary role for Members is to advise the market value of the asset(s) for mortgage and loan security purposes”, and the valuer must comment on any difference between their value and the sale price. NARROWED: the source contains no comparison between a valuation and an agent’s appraisal, so no such comparison is attributed to it; that point is made in this page’s own voice. Australian Property Institute, ANZVGP 112.
- L11. Conventional settlement periods and cooling off. CONFIRMED VERBATIM, both jurisdictions, read 14 September 2026. New South Wales: settlement “usually takes place around 6 weeks after contracts are exchanged” and a “5 business day cooling-off period after you exchange contracts”, page updated 22 September 2025. Queensland: settlement is most commonly 4 to 6 weeks after both parties sign and mostly falls within a range of 30 to 90 days, page updated 3 November 2020, which is the oldest source cited on this page and is flagged as such. Both states are named in full and the page states that other states and territories must be confirmed. New South Wales Government; Queensland Government.
- L12. Excluded on purpose: the fire-sale buffer percentage. NOT SHIPPED. A fixed percentage buffer applied to the existing home circulates in search panels answering the valuation question. Its grounding is broker marketing pages rather than a lender’s published policy or a professional standard, so no buffer percentage is stated anywhere on this page. The qualitative point is made instead.
- L13. Excluded on purpose: external dispute resolution figures. NOT SHIPPED. No compensation cap, dispute timeframe or complaint-outcome figure appears on this page. The regulation question is handed to the bridging finance hub, and nothing was invented to fill the gap the hand-off leaves.
- L14. Bank-versus-non-bank repayment shortcut removed. NOT SHIPPED AS A MARKET RULE. Current major-bank bridging material, read at source 14 September 2026, states that no repayments are required during its bridging period and that interest is capitalised, which disproves the earlier shortcut that bank bridging should be described as monthly interest-only while non-bank bridging is capitalised. The guide now treats repayment method as product-specific and keeps the lender comparison focused on the four non-bank products in scope. The bank is not named and no link is given, per L29.
- L15. Practitioner description, unverified by design. The arrival routing, the borrower-word to lender-word translation, the fundable-against-conversation assessment, the settlement-day handover, the seven-line derivation order, the accountant message, the first-week ordering, the auction sequencing and the three worked sequences are descriptions of how these files run in practice. They cite no source because none is claimed, they state no rate, ratio, fee or approval time, and they should be read as practitioner judgement rather than as verified fact.
- L16. Scope: what this page answers and what it still hands off. This guide now answers the immediate buy-before-sell version of deposit funding, cash-to-settle, existing-mortgage treatment, security acceptability, failed-exit options and the post-sale handover because the multi-provider fan-out run showed those questions sit inside the same customer decision. It still hands the deep document-by-document income calculation to the low doc income-documents and self-employed home-loan guides, detailed cross-collateralisation mechanics to the dedicated security guide, and the full tax treatment to the reader's accountant. The page answers first, then hands off depth rather than forcing a click for the first useful answer.
- L18. The National Credit Code test, read at source. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026, page modified 1 August 2025. The regulator publishes four conditions for the Code to apply to a credit contract entered into on or after 1 July 2010: the lender is in the business of providing credit, a charge is made for providing it, the debtor is a natural person or strata corporation, and the credit is provided wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household purposes, or to purchase, renovate or improve residential property for investment purposes, or to refinance credit previously provided for that purpose. The same page states the Code does not apply to certain loans including low-cost short-term credit of less than 62 days, and records that the Code carries hardship provisions and default notice requirements and that the licensing regime makes membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority mandatory. ADDED THIS REVIEW: the regulation and expiry sections previously stated the conditional position without a source. Australian Securities and Investments Commission, National Credit Code.
- L19. Excluded on purpose, now with evidence rather than absence: per-city selling times. NOT SHIPPED. A five-provider retrieval sweep run on 14 September 2026 against this question returned no Australian source publishing a days on market series by capital city and property type with a stated methodology. What it did return was residential property price index methodology, which measures prices rather than selling time, and weekly auction clearance releases, which measure something else again. The national median at L5 therefore remains the only figure on this page, and the instruction to take a local figure from comparable sales stands.
- L20. Read about, not read at source, so not shipped. Two items surfaced this review and neither appears anywhere on this page because neither was opened at its own source: a professional indemnity note on timing issues between deposit bonds and contracts of sale, which would strengthen the deposit bond row in the alternatives table, and a prudential item on debt to income limits, which if live would bear on the peak position. Both are recorded here as leads rather than omitted silently, and both require a read before any claim is made from them.
- L17. Two questions added 14 September 2026, and where they came from. The entry question, whether you have to sell before you buy, and the expiry question, what happens if the house does not sell in time, were added after a read of the pages currently answering this topic in Australian search results on 14 September 2026. Both are the questions those pages are asked most and answer for a salaried borrower. Provenance is recorded as competitor question-set corroboration rather than People Also Ask capture, because no machine-readable question data was available on the date of this review. The expiry answer restates only what is already sourced at L4 and adds no new claim.
- L21. APRA high-DTI limit and owner-occupier bridging exemption. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. APRA’s high-DTI lending limit took effect from February 2026 and limits ADIs to 20 per cent of new owner-occupied and investment mortgage lending at DTI of six times or more, measured separately, while owner-occupier bridging loans are excluded. APRA confirmed on 28 May 2026 that the mortgage serviceability buffer remains 3 percentage points. The guide states both together so the exemption is not misread as an exemption from ordinary credit assessment. APRA, activating DTI limits; APRA, 28 May 2026 macroprudential update.
- L22. Main-residence overlap and absence rule. CONFIRMED from Australian Taxation Office material, re-read 14 September 2026. A new and old home can both be treated as the main residence for up to 6 months where the stated conditions are met. A former home can generally continue to be treated as a main residence for up to 6 years while used to produce income, or indefinitely while it is not used to produce income, subject to the taxpayer’s choices and the main-residence rules. Shipped only as a tax issue to take to an accountant, not as tax advice. Australian Taxation Office, treating former home as main residence.
- L23. Company and trust borrower eligibility is product-specific. CONFIRMED by current public criteria, read 14 September 2026. Bridgit publishes that company or trust applicants may be eligible with individual guarantors, while a major bank’s current bridging product states it is not available for residential lending originated under family or company trusts. The FAQ therefore says "sometimes" and tells entity borrowers to check eligibility before signing in an entity name. Bridgit, eligibility; the bank is not named and no link is given, per L29.
- L24. Existing-mortgage portability and security substitution. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. One major bank publishes that eligible borrowers can keep an existing home loan while substituting the new property as security, preserving the loan balance, rate, repayments and linked offset features; where the new property is bought before the old one sells, a new bridging loan can sit around the port and the bridge is then closed once the sale completes. A second major bank separately publishes that eligible borrowers may be able to keep the same home loan by swapping the property used as security. These are lender-specific options, not a universal right. Neither bank is named and no links are given, per L29.
- L25. Self-employed income can follow different evidence routes. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. MA Money's Residential & Vacant Land Rate & Product Guide dated 26 August 2026 publishes Full Doc self-employed income at 100 per cent of profit before tax less non-recurring income, specified add-backs where the company is not trading at a loss, Alt Doc at 100 per cent of taxable income per accountant letter, criteria for trust income, 100 per cent share-dividend and trust-distribution treatment, and assessment of tax liabilities or ATO payment arrangements using the actual repayment amount. Its current bridging material allows ATO and private-debt consolidation on Near Prime but not Prime. Brighten separately publishes a director-wage route using payslips, salary-credit bank statements and an accountant's confirmation of business profitability. These are lender-specific policies, not a universal industry formula. MA Money, Residential & Vacant Land Rate & Product Guide, 26 August 2026; Brighten, director-wage case study; MA Money, bridging loans.
- L26. Security type and postcode change bridging availability. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. Brighten publishes houses, apartments and townhouses in category 1 and 2 locations for its bridging product. ORDE's May 2026 broker guide publishes category 1 and 2 locations and permits vacant land as partial security during the bridging period subject to an additional pricing loading. MA Money's current postcode tool returns location-specific maximum loan and LVR settings, including for bridging. No common acreage or specialised-property rule was found in the public material used for this build, so none is invented. Brighten Connect, bridging; ORDE Broker Product Guide, May 2026; MA Money, postcode lookup.
- L27. Cash-to-settle and capitalised costs. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. A major bank publishes that upfront costs such as stamp duty and legal fees may be included in its bridging loan subject to available equity. ORDE's May 2026 broker guide publishes that its valuation fee is payable before the valuation is ordered, demonstrating that some cash can be required before the facility is final. The guide therefore separates gross facility size from usable settlement proceeds and asks for a sources-and-uses worksheet rather than treating approval as proof that settlement cash is solved. The bank is not named and no link is given, per L29. ORDE Broker Product Guide, May 2026.
- L29. Two banks read at source and deliberately not named. The portability, security substitution, cash-to-settle and failed-exit findings above were each read on the relevant bank’s own published page on 14 September 2026. Neither bank is named anywhere on this page and neither page is linked, because the house rule on lender names admits no citation carve-out and an outbound URL carries the name whether or not it is rendered. The claims are therefore stated at class level, as current major-bank published material. Nothing was softened, dropped or invented to achieve that: the mechanisms and the distinctions are exactly as read.
- L30. Cluster hand-offs not yet linked. Three questions on this page are ceded in part to dedicated pages elsewhere in the bridging cluster, covering the cost of holding two homes, what happens at expiry, and the full inside-against-outside comparison for the National Credit Code. No links to those pages appear here because their published addresses could not be verified on 14 September 2026, and an unverified internal link is not shipped. Wire them at the next review once each is confirmed live.
- L28. Failed exit, default and hardship. CONFIRMED, read 14 September 2026. A major bank’s current bridging page states that if the property is not sold within its 12-month term, next steps may include helping arrange the sale, applying a higher default interest rate or adjusting the rate to remove a discretionary margin. AFCA states that borrowers in financial difficulty should contact the financial firm promptly; if a hardship request is declined, not answered or enforcement continues, AFCA may consider a complaint. AFCA publishes possible remedies including extending the contract term, postponing repayments and changing repayment arrangements, while its default-judgment guidance shows that options narrow materially once enforcement has advanced. The bank is not named and no link is given, per L29. AFCA, financial hardship complaints; AFCA, default judgment and financial difficulty.
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