Where the deposit comes from
The most common route to a first investment property purchase in Brisbane is to use equity in your existing home. You can generally borrow up to 80% of your home's value less what you owe, and utilise that as the deposit without touching your savings.
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You can also dip into your cash savings. It's straightforward, but you will need more than you did as an owner-occupier, since investment lending sits at tighter loan-to-value ratios and no first home buyer scheme applies.
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If you choose to use equity to buy an investment property, the setup matters more than the amount. A separate split, secured only against your home, keeps the two properties independent. Tying both to one lender under shared security is faster to arrange but much harder to undo when you want to sell or refinance one of them. At The Queensland Mortgage Company, we set up standalone facilities wherever the lender allows it.
Why two lenders will quote you hundreds of thousands apart
Rental income helps, but not at face value. Most lenders count around 80% of expected rent to allow for vacancy, management and maintenance. They then assess your repayments at a buffered rate well above the real one.
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Every lender applies those assumptions differently, which is why identical paperwork produces borrowing figures hundreds of thousands apart. Finding the lender that reads your position most favourably across a panel of more than 60 is what our Queensland-based investment property loan brokers do best.
The Queensland costs that catch first-time investors.
This is where local insight earns its keep, because two of these barely exist in southern markets.
Insurance
In North Queensland and cyclone-exposed coastal areas, building and landlord insurance can run to multiples of a Brisbane premium. It is a holding cost, and a large one, so it belongs in your numbers before you buy.
Body corporate
Coastal and inner-city units carry levies that can quietly eat a yield that looked strong on paper. Sinking fund contributions on older complexes are the ones that surprise people.
Land tax
Queensland's threshold is generous for individuals, but a second or third property can take you past it.
Lender appetite by postcode
Several lenders cap LVRs in smaller regional and mining-affected towns, and some will not fund serviced apartments or short-stay complexes at all. We check the address against lender policy before you sign.
Structure decisions we will walk you through
Your accountant should have a view on both. Our mortgage brokers will give them the loan numbers and structure whatever they recommend.
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End-to-end care, from first call to annual review
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The Queensland Mortgage Company gives you one contact throughout, and our mortgage brokers structure your first investment loan with your second purchase already in mind. Clients who come back to us in three years should be buying, not untangling. No cost for the first conversation.
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Interest-only or principal and interest
An interest-only investment loan lowers your holding cost while you build, and investment interest is generally deductible where principal is not. The trade-off is that the balance does not reduce.
Where your offset sits
Holding surplus cash against your home loan rather than the investment loan is usually better for tax. Getting this wrong at the start can be incredibly difficult to fix later.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, and significantly. Many lenders will not accept short-stay or holiday income for serviceability, and some decline serviced apartments outright regardless of the numbers. If a Gold Coast or Cairns short-stay property is what you have in mind, raise it on the first call.
It can. Lenders include property outgoings in your assessment, so a premium several times the Brisbane equivalent reduces the surplus they will lend against. Get a real quote rather than an estimate because the difference is often large enough to change your budget.
Yes. Levies are treated as an ongoing cost against the property's income, so a high-levy complex assesses worse than a house with the same rent. It is one of the reasons two properties at the same price can produce different approvals.
No. The home concession requires you to occupy the property as your residence, so an investment purchase attracts full transfer duty. Budget for it in cash at settlement because it cannot be added to the loan.
