Investment property refinance

Yes. An investment loan can be refinanced to another lender or repriced with your current one, in the same way an owner-occupier loan can. It is a fresh assessment rather than a transfer, so the lender re-checks your income, the rent and every other loan you hold. Approval depends on the lender's policy and your circumstances.

It could, and that depends on your current rate, the balance, the term remaining and the switching costs. We model it with your real numbers and show the comparison, including the total cost over the life of the loan rather than only the monthly repayment. If it does not stack up, we tell you to stay where you are.

Often yes, subject to lender approval and a valuation supporting the equity. Releasing equity means increasing the loan on the property you own to fund the deposit on the next one. Servicing is assessed again on the larger loan and the new loan together, so the limit is usually your income rather than your equity.

Yes, and generally at a discount rather than in full. How hard each lender shades it varies across the panel, which is one reason the same investor gets very different borrowing figures from different lenders. A current lease and a managing agent statement are what the lender wants to see.

It depends on what you want from the property. An interest-only repayment covers the interest and nothing else, so cash flow improves and the balance does not move. The catch arrives at the end of the period, when the full balance has to be repaid over a shorter remaining term and the repayment jumps.

Tax treatment follows what borrowed money is used for rather than what secures it, so releasing equity for a private purpose is treated differently to releasing it for an investment. That call belongs with your accountant. We structure the loan around their advice, usually by splitting new borrowing from the existing balance so the purposes stay separate.

Cross-collateralisation is one loan secured over more than one property, which ties those properties together whenever you sell, refinance or borrow again. A refinance is the natural point to separate them. Whether that is worth doing depends on the equity in each property on its own, and on advice from your accountant.

When the rate gap is too small to cover the switching costs, when break costs on a fixed rate outweigh the benefit of leaving early, when the valuation would land below what you are expecting, when your income or the rent has changed recently and servicing would not pass yet, or when you are about to sell the property anyway.