Dual occupancy

What is a dual occupancy?

A dual occupancy is where there are two houses or dwellings on a single block of land. Common examples of dual occupancies include granny flats, small dual townhouse developments or rural blocks with two separate houses on them.

What is a duplex?

Duplexes are a type of dual occupancy, often with either two units on one block of land or with two houses that share a common wall. Duplexes can also be houses that have had extra walls & entrances put in to convert them into two separate units.

How much can you borrow?

First home buyer: 95% of the property value.

Investor: 95% of the property value.

Low doc: 80% of the property value.

Construction: 95% of the total cost of the land and contract price to build the duplex.

Discounts: Competitive professional package and basic loan discounts are available.

Note: The majority of lenders restrict the loan amount for duplexes to below 80% of the property value, or 60% for low doc loans. We deal with banks that are willing to consider lending more, depending on the location and value of the duplex.

Why are the banks so conservative?

Duplexes and dual occupancy loans are considered to be a higher risk by most lenders because fewer people want to buy two houses on the one block of land. This means that if you can’t repay your loan the bank will take longer to sell the property, or may have to sell for a lower price.

Because of this they tend to limit the percentage of the value of the property that you can borrow (known as the LVR) to protect themselves.