What is a mortgage?

A home loan, or “mortgage”, is a loan advanced to you by a lender/financial institution in order for you to buy a property. The home loan is secured against your property, so if you can’t continue to pay the loan, your lender may require you to sell the property to settle the debt.

Typically, a home loan will be over a 25 or 30-year loan term, with regular repayment amounts that you pay fortnightly or monthly to pay off the loan over the contracted term.

Given property prices in Australia, a home loan is realistically the way by which the majority of people will afford to buy a house.

To find out exactly how much you can afford to borrow on a home loan, use our handy home loan borrowing calculator.