Mortgage broker Shenton Park

The established streets, where the land does the valuing

Most of the older part of Shenton Park was subdivided long before the war, and the houses on it are brick-and-tile bungalows and Federation homes, a good number extended at the rear in the past few decades. The lots are the point. Nearly all of the value sits in the land rather than in the building standing on it.

A valuer reflects that by weighting the block and the street far more heavily than the kitchen. It is why a careful renovation on one of these houses does not always return what it cost, and why two similar homes a few streets apart can produce quite different figures.

The suburb also sits inside the City of Subiaco, and parts of it carry local character controls on what can be demolished or altered. That is a planning question with a finance consequence, because it decides whether your project is funded as a purchase or as a staged construction facility.

Montario Quarter, and buying into a brand-new estate

The redevelopment of the former Shenton Park Hospital site brought vacant lots, townhouses and apartments to a suburb that had been fully built out for decades. It is a genuinely different purchase to anything else here, and the finance follows suit.

A vacant lot is usually a land loan first and a construction loan second, drawn down in stages against a fixed-price builder contract. A completed townhouse or apartment is a home loan, but one assessed against the building as much as against you.

1. 1

   Check whether the lot has a registered title

   Lots in a new release can sell before titles issue, and many lenders will not settle until they do. A long delay can outlast your approval and your rate lock.

2. 2

   Fund the land, then fund the house

   Some lenders assess and price the land loan and the construction facility as one package, and others treat them as two separate applications. Which approach you get changes the deposit and the paperwork.

3. 3

   Price the estate design guidelines into the contract

   New estates commonly set rules on materials, height, fencing and finishes, and meeting them costs real money. Have that in the build contract rather than finding it after the land settles.

4. 4

   Expect the valuation to be struck at settlement

   On an off-the-plan townhouse the lender values the property when it completes, not when you sign. Any gap between that figure and the contract price is yours to fund in cash.

• How many loans the lender has already written in the same estate or complex, which some cap
• Whether the lot or the strata lot has a registered title yet
• Minimum internal living area on the smaller apartments, commonly measured excluding the balcony and car bay
• Strata or community scheme levies, counted as a commitment when your borrowing power is worked out
• A valuation struck at completion rather than at the contract date

Concentration is the item almost nobody has heard of. A lender that has already lent heavily inside one development can decline a perfectly good application simply because of where the property sits, and that policy varies by lender and changes without notice. It is worth checking before a deposit is paid rather than after.

What Shenton Park clients come to us for

The work splits along the same line as the suburb. Owners of established homes refinancing, releasing equity or extending, and buyers taking on something new at the top of the suburb.

There is a third group as well, because the QEII hospital precinct is a few minutes away in Nedlands. Several lenders will waive lenders mortgage insurance for eligible medical professionals borrowing a high proportion of the value, though the occupations on the list and the terms attached to them differ sharply between lenders.

• Home loans for buyers competing for the older houses around Lake Jualbup and Rosalie Park
• Construction finance for a build on a Montario Quarter lot, drawn down in stages
• Refinancing and equity release once an extension is finished and the value reflects it
• Development finance where an older lot supports more than one dwelling
• Commercial loans for the small business premises near the station and the village shops
• Expat home loans for owners keeping a Shenton Park house through a posting overseas

Whichever half of the suburb you are buying in, the useful question is the same. Which lenders are comfortable with this specific property, and what does that do to what you can borrow and what it costs.