Links Property Finance · Free calculator from a Sydney mortgage broker: How Much Can I Borrow? Borrowing Power Calculator

It gives you the right order of magnitude, not a number a lender will honour. Calculators cannot see your credit file, verify your income, or apply the specific policy of the lender you will end up with.

Use it to work out whether you are looking in the right price bracket, then get the figure verified before you make an offer.

Most often the assessment rate, the living-expense floor, or how they treat variable income. A lender that counts only half your overtime will produce a much lower number than one that counts most of it, on identical payslips.

That difference is the single strongest argument for comparing lenders rather than accepting the first answer.

Yes. Lenders assess the limit, not the balance, on the reasonable assumption you could draw the full amount tomorrow. An unused $20,000 limit can reduce borrowing power meaningfully.

Reducing or closing cards before applying is one of the few levers that works quickly, though it should be modelled first rather than done on instinct.

Yes: the compulsory repayment counts as a commitment against your income, though lenders treat it differently from ordinary debt, and the effect varies by lender and by how close the balance is to cleared. The HECS guide covers when clearing it early helps and when it does not.

Usually reducing or closing unused credit limits, clearing small high-repayment debts, and having variable income evidenced properly so a lender counts more of it.

Increasing the loan term also raises the figure but costs more over time. Which lever applies to you depends on your file, which is a thirty-minute conversation, not a calculator output.