In most cases, we do not charge our customers for our services. This is because we usually receive a commission from a lender when a loan settles. It is only in unusual situations where we won’t receive a commission that we consider charging a fee to our customers, and we will always advise if that is applicable upfront.
Also, no extra fees are applied if you choose to use a broker instead of applying to a lender directly.
Lenders have many names for the different fees you can be charged, but generally they fall under the following headings:
- Application Fee (or establishment fee) – usually around $600
- Valuation Fee (generally one valuation is included in the application fee, so it is rare for an additional charge to be incurred) –usually around $220
- Settlement Fee (this is usually designed to cover the lender’s legal costs in setting up your loan) – usually between $100 and $220
- Lender’s Mortgage Insurance Fee (this is insurance designed to cover the lender if you default on your loan. It is usually only applicable when you borrow more than 80% of a property’s value, or when you are applying for a low doc loan, and is a one-off cost charged to you at settlement of your loan) – varies depending on your loan amount and percentage borrowed
- Rate Lock Fee (payment of this fee locks in your interest rate prior to settlement if you are applying for a fixed rate loan) – varies from lender to lender, but usually around 0.15% of your loan amount
Many loans will also incur a monthly or annual fee on an ongoing basis, which should be factored in when you are choosing your product and lender.
If you are purchasing a property, you will likely encounter a number of government charges. These include stamp duty, transfer registration and mortgage registration fees. The stamp duty amount is based on the purchase price of the property. The transfer registration fee is also based on the price of the property, but is generally considerably smaller than the stamp duty amount. The mortgage registration fee is a specified fee, usually less than $300.
If you are a first home buyer purchasing an existing property for $500,000 or less, you may be eligible for a discount on your stamp duty cost. In some states you receive a complete waiver of the cost. Similar discounts and waivers can also apply to a purchase of a vacant block of land (which you intend to construct on and live in).
Government charges are specific to the state in which your property is located, so please contact us to check what is applicable to you.
Generally the largest expense when you refinance your loan is your existing lender’s payout cost. Often this will comprise an administration fee called a ‘discharge fee’, and in some cases a Deferred Establishment Fee (DEF) or Early Repayment Fee (ERF) as well. These costs can sometimes make refinancing a fairly expensive exercise, so you should contact your existing lender to find out these costs, so that they can be factored into your decision-making. We will only recommend a refinance if the benefits outweigh these costs.
See here for more information on refinancing.