Deposit: You need to have at least 5-10% of the property price. Most of the lenders require you to have it as your genuine savings, i.e. you should have accumulated your deposit through regular deposits into a savings account over a period of 3 to 6 months.
Home loan costs: Getting a home loan isn’t all about the interest rate. There are other additional costs such as stamp duty, registration fees, transfer fee, conveyancing charges among others.
First Home Owners Grant (FHOG): It is a one-off government grant designed to help first home buyers to get into the property market. The grant amount varies with the state.
Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI): If you borrow more than 80% of the property value, then you’ll have to pay LMI as a one-off fee to the lender.
Standard documents: You will need to provide certain documents as evidence of your income such as payslips, tax returns etc.
Here are the main extra costs that generally need to be paid upfront:
Lender’s fees - As these fees vary from lender to lender, please confirm the costs involved with your mortgage before you sign up with a lender.
Property valuation fees - Generally, these fees don’t exceed $300 but this may vary between lenders. Some may even get it done for free.
Stamp duty - This tax is charged by the state governments on the purchase price of a property. It varies according to the state you’re buying in but on average it costs about 3% to 5% of the property value.
Registration of transfer fees - These fees may not be the same in every state. They cover the registration of your property ownership with the relevant state office.
Inspection costs - These costs may vary depending on whether you have building and pest inspections undertaken and the extent to which they’re required.
Legal fees / conveyancing fees - You can ask your solicitor or conveyancer about the fees they’ll charge you to manage the conveyancing costs required for your new property.
Council rates - You’ll need to pay rates to your local council. These vary from council to council and state to state.