LMI Waiver For Professionals Sydney
Are You Eligible for an LMI Waiver as a Professional?
LMI waivers for professionals allow eligible professionals to borrow for a loan with a higher loan-to-value ratio (LVR) without paying costly lenders mortgage insurance (LMI). A typical loan requires buyers to provide a 20% deposit, but with an LMI waiver for professionals, this may be reduced to 5–10%.
For Sydney buyers facing some of Australia’s highest property prices, an LMI waiver can make it easier to enter the market sooner or increase borrowing capacity. These waivers are available to eligible professionals, including doctors, accountants, lawyers, engineers, IT professionals, dentists and many essential service workers, such as registered nurses and teachers. While eligibility varies by lender, many non-medical professions must also meet minimum income requirements in addition to profession-specific criteria.
Which Professionals Qualify for an LMI Waiver?
How Much Can I Borrow with an LMI Waiver?
LMI waivers typically allow eligible professionals to borrow up to a 90-95% loan-to-value ratio without having to incur LMI. This is higher than the 80% LVR that is often applied, and means that borrowing capacity will be greater. Eligibility for an LMI waiver is assessed on profession, income, and lender-specific criteria. However, the usual criteria of living expenses, current debt and credit history will also be considered in determining overall borrowing capacity.
What is Our LMI Waiver Process?
Step 1: Initial Eligibility Assessment
At our first meeting, we’ll confirm your professional eligibility for an LMI waiver, check you meet income and other criteria, understand your overall financial goals, and determine what sort of loan would suit you best.
Step 2: Evaluating Your Borrowing Capacity & Loan Structure
We’ll calculate your borrowing capacity based on income, expenses, debts and credit history, then look at how an LVR waiver applies to the loan structure and impacts how much you can borrow.
Step 3: Comparing the Market for Competitive LMI Waiver Options
We’ll review bank and non-bank lenders to find competitive options that offer an LMI waiver for your profession. We’ll compare repayments, total costs and features and provide recommendations to make choosing the right loan simple.
Step 4: Managing Your Application & Approval
It will be our job to take care of all the paperwork for LMI waiver eligibility, loan pre-approval and final approval. We’ll make sure everything is done right and in a timely manner, so you can purchase with confidence sooner.
Meet Our Expert Team
Some professions can skip Lenders Mortgage Insurance altogether, even with a smaller deposit. Our Sydney team helps you find out whether yours qualifies and puts the waiver to work for you.
Sydney Loan Calculators
Skipping Lenders Mortgage Insurance can open up what’s possible. Our free calculators help you estimate repayments and see how your borrowing power looks without that extra cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
An LMI waiver for professionals allows eligible borrowers to avoid paying lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI), even when borrowing more than 80% of a property’s value. It allows purchasing property with a smaller deposit, and can save thousands of dollars in LMI costs. However, eligibility depends on your profession and the lender’s criteria.
LMI waivers are typically available to professionals in occupations that lenders view as having strong earning potential or stable career pathways. The exact list of eligible professions varies between lenders, but commonly includes doctors, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, lawyers, accountants, engineers and finance professionals. Some major banks and specialist lenders also offer dedicated LMI waiver programs for eligible essential workers, including registered nurses, midwives, paramedics, police officers and school teachers.
Some lenders offer LMI waivers for eligible IT professionals, including cybersecurity specialists, data analysts, IT project managers, software developers, network engineers, systems architects and analysts. Eligibility may depend upon your specific role, income, employment status and the lender’s policy.
Lenders with LMI waivers will often allow eligible professionals to borrow up to 90–95% of a property’s value without paying LMI. The maximum value of the loan will also be determined based on income, expenses, existing debts and credit history.
Not all lenders offer LMI waivers for professionals, and different lenders offer them to different types of professionals, and under varying criteria. A mortgage broker can help you find lenders that offer an LMI waiver for your particular profession and circumstances.
In addition to standard loan application documents, you’ll typically need to provide proof of the required professional registration or membership, along with evidence of current, ongoing employment, and income.
Some lenders provide LMI waivers to professionals who have newly qualified, as long as they meet criteria for professional registration, employment and income. You’ll need to check eligibility with each specific lender.
No. An LMI waiver for professionals removes the need to pay LMI, but you still need to pay a deposit. However, the deposit required may be as low as 5-10%, instead of the more common 20% of purchase price.
Yes. In many cases, you can still choose features such as an offset account, redraw facility or flexible repayments, provided they’re available with your chosen loan product.