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Last Updated: 1st March, 2024

What is a temporary worker?

A temporary employee (also called: temp or seasonal worker) is usually contracted to a business through a third party staffing provider. The duration of the role can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

Most temporary workers are young travellers, students, freelancers or recent graduates who prefer a degree of flexibility.


How Do Lenders View Seasonal Income?

Lenders consider someone in temporary or seasonal employment a higher risk than someone in a full-time, permanent position.

Seasonal workers will need to establish a reliable income with evidence that they’ve worked for the same employer for the past two years, even if it’s for only part of the year. A letter from your employer that indicates you’ll be hired the next season will be required.

Seasonal or temporary workers with a stable situation usually have an excellent chance of approval. Unfortunately, if we can’t establish a stable income, then there’s little chance of approval.

To verify your income, you’ll need to provide:

  • Two years’ tax returns or recent payslips
  • Letter from your employer.

Our expert mortgage brokers specialise in unusual employment home loans. Call us on 1300 889 743 or fill in our free online assessment form to find out if you qualify for a home loan.


How long do I have to be working?

The vast majority of lenders will require a 12-month employment history in your current job before they can consider you for a home loan.

This can be problematic if you’ve just started a job but we can help!

We know of lenders that will accept a shorter employment duration.

Please fill in our free assessment form or call us on 1300 889 743 to speak with a mortgage broker that specialises in arranging loans for temporary employees and agency workers.


Have you worked in your job for less than 12 months?

Although you’ve just started a new job, you believe you’re in a strong financial position and you think you’ll be able to support a home loan.

One of our lenders only requires a 3-month employment history as long as you have a track record of study or employment in the same field.

  • If you have a stable income that’s regular e.g. a set weekly salary, we may be able to help you get a loan if you’ve been in your job for just one day!
  • If you have a fluctuating income then a 3-month track record is required so that the lender can complete an annualised Year To Date assessment of your income.

Please call us on 1300 889 743 to discuss your situation or complete our free assessment form today!


Which lenders can help?

Non-bank lenders tend to be more conservative with lending to temp and agency employees.

The exception to this would be non-bank or specialist lenders. Hoever, these lenders are more expensive than the rest.

Luckily, a couple of our banks are happy to consider these applications as long as their other home loan criteria are met.

To determine which banks will approve your mortgage, please contact us on 1300 889 743 or complete our free assessment form today.


What do the lenders think?

To a lender, an agency worker or someone in temporary employment represents a higher risk than a full time permanent staffer.

Their guidelines are designed to stop you from getting a home loan!

If they see payslips with a recruitment agency’s letterhead, that’s usually enough to get your home loan declined!

Are the banks right in thinking that all agency and temp workers are the same? No!

If you’re in high demand industry, you can leave your job and have a new one by that afternoon!

Some lenders know this and can take this into consideration when approving your home loan.


How can I get approval?

In most cases, we can look at the track record of income you’ve received in the last year and use this to assess your loan.

In other cases, if you can prove that your employment is ongoing, there’s no reason why you can’t get a home loan while working for an agency.


What is an agency worker?

An agency worker is someone who’s hired on a temporarily. They generally go through an intermediary such as a recruitment agency.

The employer will pay the recruitment agency, who’ll then pay the agent/temporary worker, a salary or wage.

There’s generally a large number of temporary or temp staffing jobs across many fields, including:

  • IT
  • Hospitality
  • Mining
  • Healthcare

If you’re an agency worker and are looking to finance a home, investment or construction project, please fill in our free assessment form or contact us on 1300 889 743.

Our team of specialists can help you apply with the right lender who can approve you the first time round!


What is a temporary worker?

As the name implies, a temporary worker isn’t committed to full-time employment and only works in a job temporarily.

There are many employment types where workers are only needed for a short period. These employment types include:

  • Contract workers
  • Freelancers
  • Casual staff
  • Seasonal basis

These workers can be found across many industries but seasonal workers are more common in the agricultural sector.

However, temporary workers are also common in many professional fields such as:

Duration of agency/temporary employment

The length of employment varies according to industry.

Whilst some may only be employed on a cyclical basis, others may work on large contracts and projects and some may be employed part-time or full-time.


What benefits can I receive?

Most temporary employees don’t receive any employment benefits, unless they’re working on a more permanent basis.

However, some employers offer health care and other benefits that are inclusive in the salary package.

Salary sacrificing comes with its own set of the lending policy so speak with a mortgage broker about improving your borrowing power.


Advantages & disadvantages of agency work

There are many advantages to agency work, including employment flexibility and the option of trying out various different employers, rather than committing to full-time work.

In addition to this, employment is abundant, and labour is in short supply.

However, there are disadvantages!

If you’re switching from temp job to temp job constantly, your bank will have trouble with your home loan application.

Our mortgage brokers can help!

Call us on 1300 889 743 or complete our free assessment form to get expert advice from our specialist team!


Which loan types are available?

All loan types are available, including professional packages, basic loans, lines of credit, 100% offset accounts and fixed rates.


How much can I borrow?

You can borrow up to 90% of the property value.

If you’re in a strong financial position and have been in your current role for 6-12 months, we may be able to help you obtain a 95% home loan.


What can I use the loan for?

Home/renovation use, investing, purchases, refinances and construction are all acceptable loan purposes.


Who is this loan for?

This home loan is for:

  • Agency employees/temporary workers with a history of employment in other temp jobs, or
  • Temp/agency workers that have just started in a permanent position are all eligible for home loans.

If this sounds like your employment situation, please fill in our free assessment form or call us on 1300 889 743 to speak to a specialist mortgage broker.


Who is this loan NOT for?

This home loan isn’t for temporary workers with no ongoing history of work.

Unfortunately, if we can’t show that you can always earn a good income, there’s little chance that your home loan will be approved.


Apply for a home loan

Agency employees usually have a high chance of getting their home loan approved if submitted to the right bank.

Temp workers may have to provide additional documents but, provided that their situation is truly stable, they usually have an excellent chance of approval.

Complete our free assessment form or call us on 1300 889 743.

Speak to a mortgage broker who specialises in dealing with lenders that will consider applications from agency or temp workers.