Mortgage broker Subiaco

Character protection, and why it changes your plans

A large amount of Subiaco's older housing sits within areas where demolition is restricted and alterations are assessed against local character policy. Buyers regularly discover this after they have already imagined a knock-down-rebuild.

It rarely reduces the value of the house. What it does is change which finance product you need, because the project becomes a renovation and extension rather than a rebuild.

Renovation lending is more varied than most people expect. Some lenders will fund a substantial extension under a construction loan with progress payments, while others will only lend against the property as it currently stands.

Apartments, Subi East and buying off the plan

Redevelopment around the old hospital and oval sites has added a serious amount of apartment stock to Subiaco, and more is still coming. A lot of it sells off the plan, which is a different finance exercise to buying something that already exists.

The key point is that a lender values the property at settlement, not when you sign. If the valuation comes in under the contract price, you cover the difference in cash.

1. 1

   Get an indicative position before you sign

   Know what you can borrow and how a lender is likely to view the building. It is far cheaper to learn this before the deposit is paid.

2. 2

   Expect the pre-approval to expire

   Pre-approvals run for months, not years. On a build with a long completion, plan on being reassessed against whatever your circumstances look like then.

3. 3

   Hold a valuation buffer

   A shortfall between valuation and contract price is funded by you, not the lender. Keeping cash aside for that possibility is the whole insurance policy.

4. 4

   Reassess the lender at completion

   Policy, rates and exposure limits move over a long build. The lender that suited you at contract may not be the best one at settlement.

Established apartments are simpler, but still carry the size and complex-exposure rules that apply to any dense inner suburb. Send us the address and the internal area and we can tell you quickly which lenders are comfortable.

Who we tend to work with in Subiaco

Three groups come up repeatedly. Professionals buying close to the city, downsizers moving from a large family home into an apartment, and investors holding a Subiaco property for the long run.

The downsizer files are the ones people underestimate. Selling and buying in the right order, without ending up with two loans or nowhere to live, takes some planning and occasionally bridging finance.

Expat files come up more often in Subiaco than most suburbs, usually where someone has kept the family home and taken a posting abroad. Those loans exist, but the panel of lenders willing to write them is narrower and their rules on foreign income differ sharply.