Your equity is the market value of the Australian real estate you offer, less any existing mortgages or loans. You can offer more than one property to secure the loan against.
You can choose how much of your equity you want to use as security for your loan. If you choose not to use all your equity, it will reduce the maximum loan amount you can get.
To change the amount of equity used for your loan, you can make a request at any time. You need to use the Home Equity Access Scheme variation form (SA497). If you’re a member of a couple, your partner must also sign the form. They must do this even if they don’t own the property.
When you set up the loan, you need to pay some costs. But there’s no cost to you if either of the following occurs:
- a licensed valuer needs to assess the property at the start of the loan
- we do an assessment as some circumstances can affect property value.