How long does a home loan process take?

This depends on lender to lender. Some lenders are incredibly fast and some are much slower. If you have a time sensitive settlement, we take this into consideration when choosing a lender and prioritising application. The single biggest factor that you can control in this process is providing all your documentation in a timely manner, and providing it as accurately as you can. Lenders love a quality application and that doesn't always mean the highest quality applicant, it means how well we put together your loan application and present it to the bank. As local mortgage brokers, located in Noosaville, Palm Beach, Marcus Beach, Yeppoon and Springwood, we know our surrounds like the back of our hands, but we need to get to know you. Telling us everything we need to know gets your application through faster and without surprises.

Do you get paid more by some banks than others?

Generally, no. Commission rates across most lenders are broadly similar. Where small differences exist, they are irrelevant to our recommendation. We are legally obligated to act in your best interests, regardless of what any lender pays us. At The Broker Society we take a broad approach to commissions. We do not pay commissions to people who refer you to us, and we do not accept payment for referrals we make to other businesses like accountants or financial planners. It is just how we choose to do business. We love connecting our clients with other great people we trust. Business owners we know personally who will take care of you. We do it because we genuinely want you to be looked after. Not for cash.

What do you do with our information?

Your information is handled with complete care and in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which you can read in full on our website. We only collect what is necessary to assess your situation and submit your application, and your data is never shared beyond what is required to progress your loan.

Why do you offer some lenders that we have never heard of?

This is one of the real advantages of working with a broker. The Australian lending market goes well beyond the Big 4 banks, and access to the full market is something you simply cannot get by walking into a branch. There are four main categories of lenders we work across: Big 4 (or the Big 5 now) — NAB, CBA, ANZ, Westpac, Macquarie. Second Tier — well known but smaller lenders such as ING, Suncorp and Bankwest. Non Conforming — lenders who specialise in unique situations such as low doc or alt doc loans, including Bluestone, Pepper Money and Resimac. White Label — lenders who source funds from major institutions and offer them under their own brand, often at more competitive rates because they have no branch network overhead.

How much deposit do I need to buy a home?

The standard deposit requirement is 20% of the purchase price, which avoids the need for Lenders Mortgage Insurance. However, there are pathways to purchase with as little as 5% deposit — including the Federal Government's Home Guarantee Scheme, which allows eligible buyers to purchase with a 5% deposit without paying LMI. We can assess which options you qualify for during your initial consultation. There are also other options for no LMI or lower deposits such as non conforming lenders which charge a Risk Fee, or LMI waivers for specialist industries like Dentists, Lawyers and Doctors.

What is the difference between pre-approval and full approval?

Pre-approval is a conditional assessment from a lender indicating how much they are willing to lend you, based on your financial position at a point in time. It gives you confidence to make offers on properties within your budget but is not yet formally approved. Full approval is issued once a specific property has been valued and all conditions have been satisfied — this is when the lender formally commits to funding your loan.

Can I get a home loan if I am self-employed?

Yes. Self-employed borrowers have strong options across our lender panel. Requirements differ from standard PAYG applications. Most lenders want to see two years of tax returns and financial statements, though we have access to many lenders that offer alternative documentation options for those whose financials don't reflect their true income position. We work with self-employed clients regularly and know which lenders assess this type of income most favourably. Truth be told, self-employed clients are where our speciality lays.

What is refinancing and when should I consider it?

Refinancing means replacing your existing home loan with a new one. Either with your current lender or a different one. People refinance for a range of reasons: to access a more competitive interest rate, release equity for renovations or investment, consolidate debt, or restructure a loan that no longer fits their circumstances. A good time to review your loan is every two to three years, or any time your situation changes significantly.

How many lenders do you have access to?

We work with a panel of over 40 lenders including major banks, second tier lenders, non-conforming specialists and white label products. This breadth of access means we can find solutions for a wide range of financial situations, not just straightforward applications.

What happens after my loan settles?

Our relationship does not end at settlement. We stay in touch with all of our clients to ensure your loan continues to work for you as your circumstances evolve. We conduct regular loan reviews, let you know when the market shifts in a way that may benefit you, and are always available when your situation changes and you need guidance.

What areas do you service?

We are an independent mortgage brokerage based in Noosaville with brokers across Queensland — meaning we have a genuine local presence in every market we serve. Kate Sadler is based in Noosaville and services clients across the Noosa region including Noosa, Noosaville, Tewantin, Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beach, Cooroibah, Weyba Downs, Noosa North Shore and the wider Noosa Shire. Kate and Jeane also cover the Noosa Hinterland including Cooroy, Cooroy Mountain, Doonan, Eumundi, Lake Macdonald, Pomona, Tinbeerwah and Verrierdale. Jeane Hofmeyr is based in Marcus Beach and services clients across Marcus Beach, Peregian Beach, Peregian Springs, Coolum Beach, Castaways Beach, Sunrise Beach and surrounding suburbs. Belinda Gough is based in Palm Beach and services clients across the Gold Coast including Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, Nerang, Southport, Currumbin, Elanora, Miami, Mermaid Beach, Broadbeach, Robina and surrounds. Tyler Auld is based in Loganholme and services Brisbane Southside including Springwood, Daisy Hill, Underwood, Rochedale, Calamvale and surrounding suburbs. Talia Ryan services Yeppoon, Rockhampton and the wider Central Queensland region. The Broker Society also helps clients right across Queensland and Australia, working remotely with clients in every state and territory.

She Didn’t Own a Home for Retirement… Now she will.

5 June

Written By Kate Sadler

How one Coolum Beach woman used her superannuation to build a plan for housing security in retirement and stopped being scared of what comes next.

Ange is 50 years old. She's divorced, renting in Coolum Beach, earning $70,000 a year working in the beauty industry, and raising adult children at home. By most measures, she's doing fine. But she'll tell you herself, she was terrified.

Not of today, she has a stable rental that she has been in for a long time, with a good landlord. But she was scared of what comes next.

Retirement. The years when she'd no longer have the income to cover rent, when the rental market would have no obligation to keep her, when the security she'd worked her whole life toward simply wouldn't be there. She hadn't been able to buy a home in her suburb or the surrounding areas, the deposit and income requirements were out of reach. And she wasn't sure what, if anything, she could do about it.

She came to us scared, nervous, and unsure where to start.

Within four weeks, she had a plan. And right now, she's waiting on settlement.

What Is an SMSF Home Loan — And Why Did It Make Sense for Ange?

A Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) can, under the right conditions, borrow money to purchase an investment property. The property sits inside the fund, is rented out independently, and the rental income, combined with ongoing superannuation guarantee contributions from the employer services the loan. Done correctly, it becomes a vehicle for building a property asset inside superannuation, one that the member can eventually access at retirement age.

For Ange, this structure solved a problem that traditional lending couldn't. She didn't have the deposit for a standard residential purchase in today's Sunshine Coast market. But she did have superannuation and a steady employer contribution stream, that, when mapped out properly, told a different story.

Working Backwards from Retirement

Ange's planned retirement age is 67. She works in the beauty industry and loves what she does, but she's realistic about physical longevity in that line of work. To build in a buffer, we structured the loan to a term of 65, ensuring the debt would be paid off before she stopped working, regardless of what happened along the way.

From there, we worked backwards.

We looked at her current super fund holdings, her income level, and her employer's superannuation guarantee contributions. We calculated what deposit was available inside the fund, what rental income a suitable property would realistically generate, and how much ongoing contribution would be needed to service the loan, while still leaving a buffer inside the fund for interest rate movements, council rates, maintenance, and other holding costs such as her life, income and TPD Insurances.

Alongside this, Ange's financial planner worked toward a parallel goal: ensuring she'd finish her working life with some surplus cash inside the fund as well. The property couldn't be the only asset. The plan had to be structurally sound, not just emotionally satisfying.

The numbers worked. Ange could buy a small unit in a beachside suburb further north, in today's money, at today's price with a clear road to having it fully paid off before she retired.

A Home She Can't Live In Yet — But Will

This is the part that trips people up when they first hear about SMSF property: the rules are strict, and they're non-negotiable.

While the property is inside the SMSF, Ange cannot live in it. It must be rented out at arm's length to an unrelated tenant, at market rent. She cannot use it as a holiday house, her children cannot rent it from her, and there are no shortcuts around this. The ATO takes SMSF compliance seriously, and so do we.

But here's what Ange does have. Once she reaches 60 and meets a condition of release whether that's retirement or another qualifying event, she can access the fund's assets. She could choose to move into the property and call it home. Or if she's still working at 65, it continues to generate rental income that supports her living costs. Either way, she has an option. A real, tangible one with her name on it.

She purchased the property in today's market at today's price. Every year between now and retirement is a year of loan reduction and potential capital growth. The asset is already hers, in the most meaningful sense.

Getting the Structure Right Before Spending a Dollar

One of the things we're most proud of in how we worked with Ange is the sequence we followed.

Setting up an SMSF costs money. You need a corporate trustee, a bare trust, an accountant to establish the structure, and ongoing compliance obligations once it's running. Before Ange spent a cent of that, we sat down and worked through her borrowing capacity options in detail. We needed to know whether the numbers were actually going to work, whether there was a property in her price range, in a location that made strategic sense, with rental income that would do what it needed to do.

Only once Ange had that confidence did she move forward with setting up the fund. Her accountant established the corporate trustee and bare trust. We provided a pre-approval through a specialist SMSF lender. And from there, she went property hunting with a real budget, real parameters, and a clear understanding of what she was looking for.

She found it. She made an offer. She's now formally approved and waiting on settlement.

The Part That Stays With You

Four weeks. That's how long it took from Ange's first meeting with her planner and accountant to having the information she needed to make a decision about her future. Not a vague idea. Not a 'maybe one day.' A concrete plan, a structure, a pre-approval, and a direction.

She came in scared. She left with clarity.

That's what good broking looks like, not just putting numbers into a calculator, but understanding what a client actually needs and working as part of a team to get there. We work alongside accountants and financial planners regularly in SMSF scenarios because the pieces have to fit together. Lending is one part of it. The tax and compliance picture, the investment strategy, the retirement projections, those pieces matter too, and they all have to work in concert.

This Isn't for Everyone

It needs to be said clearly: an SMSF property strategy is not the right move for most people. There are minimum fund balances to consider, compliance obligations that are genuinely onerous, and a long investment horizon required for the structure to make sense. The rules around related party transactions, tenancy, and fund management are strict and the consequences of getting them wrong are serious.

But for the right person, in the right circumstances, with the right team around them, it can be the strategy that changes everything.

Ange is the right person.

Sometimes Life Takes Things From Us

Divorce. Health challenges. Circumstances that shift the plan you had for yourself. Not being where you expected to be by now is not a personal failure, it's just life, and it happens to a lot of people who are quietly terrified of what it means for their future.

What matters is what you do from here.

Doing nothing means arriving at retirement in exactly the same position you're standing in today, just older. The property market won't have waited for you. Your super won't have stretched further than it does now. The window to act is the present, always the present.

Ange didn't wait. And because she didn't, she will have a home to go to when she's ready to stop working.

If this resonates with where you are right now, we'd like to talk.

We specialise in SMSF lending at The Broker Society, and we work closely with accountants and financial planners to help clients like Ange build strategies that actually make sense for their circumstances. We'll always be honest about whether it's the right fit for lenders before anyone commits to anything.

Reach out to our team in Noosaville, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Yeppoon (we work Australia wide with clients) to start the conversation.

thebrokersociety.com.au

*Name has been changed for client anonymity. This article is general information only and does not constitute financial advice. SMSF lending and property investment within superannuation involves complex regulatory requirements. Always seek advice from a qualified financial adviser, accountant, and licensed credit representative before making any decisions.

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