Home loans for accountants
Accountants sit in an unusual position: better placed than most to understand a lender's arithmetic, and often worse placed to satisfy it. The structures that serve a practice well, trusts, service entities, retained profits, minimised drawings, are precisely the structures a credit assessor slows down on. Several lenders extend professional concessions to qualified accountants, and the eligibility lines differ meaningfully between them.
Where the professional policies apply
A number of lenders extend professional benefits beyond medicine, and qualified accountants appear on some of those lists. The benefit is usually the same shape: borrowing at a higher loan-to-value ratio than standard policy allows, with lenders mortgage insurance waived, alongside professional package pricing and fee waivers. Which qualifications count, CA, CPA, IPA, whether practising membership is required, and how many years post-qualification, varies by lender and changes over time. It is confirmed against current written policy rather than assumed from what applied to a colleague two years ago.
The structure problem, stated plainly
The tax outcome and the borrowing outcome pull in opposite directions. Income distributed through a trust, profits retained in a company, drawings kept deliberately low: each is defensible tax planning and each reduces the income a lender can see. Some lenders will look through to the underlying profit; others assess only what reaches you personally. The trust and company borrowing guide covers how the structures are actually assessed.
Partnership and practice income
Partners in a firm are usually assessed on distributions plus any salary, with two years of evidence preferred and the trend mattering as much as the total. Practice owners are assessed as self-employed borrowers, which brings add-backs into play: depreciation, interest on debts the new loan will clear, genuine one-off costs, and sometimes voluntary superannuation above the guarantee. The self-employed income calculator shows the three readings a lender might take of the same figures.
Timing the loan around the financial year
This is the practical advantage accountants have and rarely use: you know what the accounts will say before anyone else does. Involving a broker before the year is finalised means the trade-off between a lower tax bill and a higher borrowing figure is a decision rather than a discovery. Once the financials are lodged, the options narrow to whichever lender reads them most generously.
What usually decides an accountant's file
Four factors that move the outcome more than anything else on the application.
Eligible professional lists commonly reference CA, CPA or IPA membership and sometimes years post-qualification. The lists differ by lender and are checked against current policy, never assumed.
Whether a lender looks through to company or trust profit, or assesses only personal drawings, can change the borrowing figure by a very large margin on identical accounts.
Depreciation, refinanced interest and genuine one-off costs are commonly added back. Which ones, and whether super counts, is lender-specific. How the readings differ.
Where a waiver applies, a smaller deposit can be enough. Where the loan is large, debt-to-income policy becomes the binding constraint instead. Large loans and high DTI.
Financials not lodged yet?
That is the useful moment. Charles can show what different treatments do to your borrowing figure before the year is finalised.
Accountant home loan questions
Do accountants get LMI waivers?
Some lenders extend professional concessions to qualified accountants, including borrowing at higher loan-to-value ratios with lenders mortgage insurance waived. It is not universal, the eligible qualifications and membership requirements differ between lenders, and the policies are updated periodically. It is worth checking before saving toward a twenty per cent deposit, because the waiver may mean you never needed one.
I am a partner in a firm. How is my income assessed?
Generally on your distributions plus any salary component, supported by two years of evidence and the partnership's own financials. Lenders differ on how they treat a rising trend, whether they average the two years or use the latest, and how they handle retained amounts. Those differences are usually worth more than any rate negotiation.
Does running my income through a trust hurt my borrowing?
It can, and it depends entirely on the lender. Some assess only what is distributed to you personally, which can make a profitable practice look modest. Others look through to the underlying profit where the structure is documented and you control the entity. Matching the file to a lender that reads your structure properly is the core of the work.
Should I lodge my tax return before applying?
Usually yes, since most lenders want the most recent financials, and an unlodged return raises questions. The better question is what goes into it. Deliberate choices about depreciation, super contributions and drawings all affect the assessable figure, so the conversation belongs before lodgement rather than after.
I have just started my own practice. Is it too early?
Not necessarily. Some lenders assess self-employed applicants on one year of financials where the ABN has been registered longer and the rest of the file is strong, and alt-doc routes exist where the paperwork lags a genuinely sound business. The one-year scenario works through how such a file is placed.
Related guides
General information only, not credit or financial advice. Professional lending policies, eligible occupations and loan-to-value thresholds vary by lender and change over time. Eligibility is confirmed against current lender policy in an assessment; nothing on this page is a promise that any lender will approve any application.
Your structure should not cost you the house.
Twenty minutes with Charles: how your entity and income read to different lenders, and which of them read you most fully. Free, no credit check.
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