What are the real costs of buying a home?
When people buy a property, they often don’t consider all the extra costs on top of the purchase price. This oversight could reduce your deposit and push you into a higher interest rate. Alternatively, it can push you into financial distress if monthly payments have to include unexpected ongoing costs.
Use our Property Buying Cost calculator to quickly factor all the costs of buying a property into your budget planning, then use it as a checklist to avoid upfront cost surprises and manage ongoing expenses.
Property Buying Costs FAQs
Yes. Upfront costs, along with the home purchase price, can be factored into your home loan. Just bear in mind this will reduce the percentage value of your deposit, which may trigger other considerations.
For example, $100,000 may equal 20% deposit on a $500,000 purchase price, but it becomes less than 20% deposit if you add upfront costs to the purchase price. This may affect a few things, like the eligible interest rate or lenders mortgage insurance. One remedy to such side effects is to top up your deposit.
Need help understanding fees? Research the navigating home loan fees guide or call us for a real chat.
Yes, in most cases, lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) can be avoided if your deposit exceeds 20%, but if you capitalise upfront costs into your home loan then your deposit may fall below 20% and trigger LMI.
For more details, read the lenders mortgage insurance article or call us for a real chat.
Yes, in most cases, you will need to pay stamp duty, but it varies state by state and property value. It may even be exempt in some instances or you could get a grant towards it in others.
To learn about stamp duty, research the stamp duty explained guide or call us for a real chat.
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