Home LoansMakeMyLoan brokers compare dozens of lenders and owe you a Best Interests Duty — your bank doesn't.
You have run our borrowing capacity calculator and it gave you a number. Before you start browsing listings at exactly that price, it is worth understanding what the number is, what it is not, and how to turn it into something a lender will actually stand behind.
A borrowing power result is an estimate of the largest loan a typical lender might approve, based on the income, expenses and debts you entered. Behind the scenes it mirrors what lenders do: it converts your gross income to net, deducts living expenses and commitments, applies a serviceability buffer of around 3 percentage points above the assumed rate, and solves for the loan size where the surplus runs out. It is a genuine model of the process — but it runs on unverified inputs and generalised policy, so treat it as a well-lit ballpark, not a promise.
The result is not pre-approval, not an offer of credit, and not a guarantee that any specific lender will lend that amount. Three things separate a calculator from a real assessment:
If you want the full picture of what happens inside the real version, read how banks assess serviceability.
If your result feels low, these are the levers that genuinely move it:
Equally, the real assessment can come in under your calculator result if:
A good habit: re-run the calculator with pessimistic inputs (expenses a little higher, bonus income excluded) and treat the range between the two results as your realistic zone.
Free, instant, and no details required — see roughly what lenders could approve for you.
The maximum a lender will approve and the amount you should borrow are different questions. The assessment buffer gives you some protection against rate rises, but it does not know your plans — a career change, a child, a renovation, single-income years. Many borrowers deliberately set their budget below their maximum so their repayments stay comfortable, not merely serviceable. A useful sanity check is the repayment as a share of your take-home pay: if the buffered repayment would leave you with no room to save, absorb a bill shock or enjoy your life, the fact that it technically services is cold comfort. Use our repayment calculator to translate any loan amount into weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayments and stress-test them against your actual life.
When you are ready to firm the number up, the path looks like this:
When you are ready, you can start an application online and we will take it from the calculator result to a lender-verified figure.
The two classic errors run in opposite directions. The first is treating the number as gospel and signing a contract at your theoretical maximum before any lender has verified anything — risky, especially at auction where there is no finance clause. The second is giving up because one calculator produced a low number, when a different lender's policy might treat your situation far better. Both errors have the same fix: verify the estimate against real lender policy before you act on it. Our guide to application mistakes covers the broader traps.
A calculator result is the start of the conversation, not the end. Contact us and we will pressure-test your number against real lender policy — or apply online when you are ready to move to pre-approval.
It is a reasonable estimate if your inputs are honest and complete, but it runs on generalised policy and unverified numbers. The real figure depends on lender-specific rules about income shading, expenses and debts, and can land above or below the calculator's answer.
Each calculator embeds different assumptions — the buffer rate, expense benchmarks, how bonus or rental income is treated, and how credit cards are assessed. Different assumptions, different answers. The spread between them is itself useful information about how policy-sensitive your situation is.
Not necessarily. The maximum is what a lender judges you can service with a buffer — it is not a recommendation. Many borrowers set their budget below the maximum so repayments stay comfortable through rate rises and life changes.
Gather your documents, get matched to a lender whose policy suits your profile, and lodge a pre-approval application. The lender verifies your income, expenses and credit file and issues a conditional approval, typically valid for around three months.
You can, but it is risky — particularly at auction, where contracts are usually unconditional. A calculator result is unverified. Pre-approval, while still conditional, is a far stronger basis for making offers.
This article is general information only and doesn't consider your personal objectives, financial situation or needs — it isn't personal credit advice, and lending criteria, rates, fees and government schemes change. Before acting, speak with a licensed MakeMyLoan broker or credit representative who will assess your circumstances and provide a credit guide before any credit assistance is given.
