What are Genuine Savings?

Many first home buyers can often get caught out with the concept of genuine savings.

When applying for a home loan, having a deposit that you’ve saved is something that most lenders like to see. When you are able to save, it demonstrates that you are able to handle your finances, which makes you someone a bank would like to lend money to.

If you are looking to borrow more than 90% of the value of the property, then genuine savings become even more important.

If you don’t have enough money in savings to use as a deposit, then there are loan products that you can still access. The most obvious is a guarantor loan, which is when another person (normally your parents) guarantee the loan using their own property. There are even some instances where a person has paid rent for a long period of time and a lender will consider that as savings. If you have equity in another property, this is often able to be considered a deposit as well.

However, what actually constitutes genuine savings is often not straight forward so it is important to have a discussion with your mortgage broker early in the home buying journey about your situation.

Using Short-Term Windfalls

Sometimes home buyers have received a large sum of money that they would like to use as a deposit. That might be something like an inheritance, a gift from their parents, a tax refund or the proceeds from the sale of an asset such as a car.

The way lenders assess genuine savings is based on how long the money has been sitting in your bank account. Therefore, you might be able to simply leave the money in your account and add to it for a period of three months and then the lender could very well consider that as genuine savings. The longer you have the money in your account the better.

Waiting To Buy

If you are in a position where you can wait a few months after receiving a significant sum of money you could potentially use those funds as a deposit and that will put you in a far better position.

• You will likely be able to access a wider range of lenders.
• If you can contribute more by way of savings, you could pay a lower amount of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (if you’re borrowing above an 80% LVR).
• You will likely be able to access a wider range of loan products, with higher LVRs.

Recently, the Federal Government has introduced the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which allows first home buyers to purchase a home with as little as 5% in genuine savings and not be required to pay LMI. In this case, the money you have saved on the LMI could well be used as a deposit.

There are a number of ways that home buyers are able to increase their genuine savings in the eyes of a lender so the best thing to do is to contact us, so we can assess your situation and match you with the right lender and loan product.

*This information is general in nature and does not take into consideration your individual circumstances. Please contact us for further information.