As banks tighten their lending standards, it is more important than ever to enlist the support of a home loan expert.

Lenders use a variety of criteria including your income, deposit, and the sort of place you are buying, to decide if you are eligible for a home loan.

But things have changed recently, and lenders are tightening the criteria they use when approving home loan applications.

As a guide, banks no longer rely on benchmark estimates of household expenses as they once did. Instead, these days a lender is likely to ask for detailed information about the actual living expenses you pay to be sure you can comfortably manage home loan repayments.

Your credit score matters too. A new system of credit reporting, in place since 1 July 2018, means lenders can see what type of credit accounts you have, your credit limit and whether you have been paying loans back on time. Yet more than six out of ten Australians aren’t aware that lenders are now sharing more of their personal financial data.

The upshot of all this is that it can be easy to underestimate exactly how much detail you need to provide a lender. Even more confusing, lenders often don’t make their loan criteria public so it can be hard to know what steps you can take to boost the likelihood of having your loan approved.

How your Aussie Broker can help

Speaking with your Aussie Broker at an early stage can clear the confusion.

To begin with, Aussie Brokers work closely with a wide selection of lenders so they are right across all of the ongoing changes – and the lending criteria used by each lender they work with.

Not only can your Aussie Broker help you select the right home loan for your needs, we can help you prepare long before you’re ready to apply for a loan.

Your Aussie Broker can provide a handy budget basics planner so you can see areas where you can cut back regular living expenses to increase your borrowing power.

We can also show how simple steps like reducing your credit limits, and paying off personal loans or other debts, can give your loan application an edge.

Checking your credit score

To know what lenders will discover when they check your credit score, speak to your Aussie Broker, who will be happy to lend a hand explaining easy ways to review your credit score.

First home owner grants and concessions

It can be hard to know exactly what financial support you’re eligible for if you’re a first home buyer. Your Aussie Broker makes it very straightforward by crunching the numbers to show what you’re entitled to in the way of grants and concessions.

Talk to your Aussie Broker to navigate tighter lender criteria and find the home loan that’s right for your needs.