Home loans in Kew East
Bridging Loans Kew East
Your Mortgage Broker Kew East arranges bridging loans across Kew East and Boroondara, matching households with lenders whose peak debt policy fits their sale plan, publishing the fees, timelines and arithmetic that most broking pages leave out.
The Timing Problem: Buying Your Next Home Before the Old One Sells
You have found the house in Kew East, but your current one has not sold, and the agent wants a decision this week. That is a timing problem, and bridging finance exists to solve it, part of the broader home lending work we do.
Bridging Loans We Arrange
Bridging is not one product. Five structures cover what Kew East households actually meet, from a clean contract-backed sale to a build running long, and choosing the wrong variant is where these facilities first go wrong:
Closed Bridging Explained
A closed bridge is priced against a signed contract: the lender knows the sale date, the expected proceeds and the exit, so assessment is straightforward and the facility runs for six to twelve months before your purchase settles in full.
Open Bridging, No Contract
Open bridges carry no signed sale contract, which means the lender cannot see the exit, so expect stricter serviceability tests, a shorter maximum term, often around six months, and a plan to sell or refinance documented before approval is granted.
Downsizer Bridges
Downsizer bridging suits owners buying the smaller place first: the bridge covers the gap between purchase and sale, interest capitalises onto the balance instead of being paid monthly, and roughly forty per cent of Kew East dwellings are owned outright.
Construction Bridging
Construction bridging funds a new build while your existing home waits for a buyer, and because money releases in stages, interest accrues only on drawn amounts, keeping the overall carrying cost well below one lump sum drawn on day one.
Relocation Bridges
Relocation bridges handle a job move, covering the Kew East mortgage while you establish yourself elsewhere, and they suit households keeping the family home through transition, holding it until the timing, the market or the household is ready to sell.
Peak Debt and End Debt, Explained
Competitor pages stop at the term, so here is the arithmetic, labelled as an illustration with stated assumptions: you buy in Kew East for $1,600,000 with a new loan of $1,300,000, the selling home is owned outright and later sells for $1,150,000 with selling costs of about $35,000, and the bridge runs six months. Lenders run two numbers against that story:
Peak Debt
Peak debt is the total you owe at the worst moment, when both properties sit on your name and neither has sold: in the illustration above, that $1,300,000 is the peak, because the old home carries no mortgage at all.
End Debt
End debt is what remains once the sale settles: $1,150,000 received less $35,000 in agent and legal costs leaves $1,115,000, which pays the peak down to $185,000, and that surviving balance rolls onto a standard home loan at normal assessment.
Capitalised Interest
Interest on a bridge is usually capitalised, added to the balance monthly rather than paid from cash flow, so the longer the sale takes, the higher the end debt climbs, meaning the sale timeline matters more than any headline rate.
Serviceability at Peak
Lenders assess whether you could service the peak debt if the sale never happened, tested at a buffer above the actual rate, and a median household income of $2,490 a week comfortably supports bridge structures where the sums are tidy.
What the Bridge Costs When the Sale Drags
The bridge itself is not the expensive part; the delay is. Because interest capitalises, the real question is what six extra months does to your end debt, the refinance that follows and your options if the campaign disappoints. Four costs deserve a name:
The Cost of Delay
Every additional month adds a capitalised interest charge to the peak balance and pushes your end debt higher, so on the illustration above, a sale taking nine months instead of three means six months of interest folded into the balance.
Price Drift Risk
Price drift is the quieter cost: if the home you are selling was worth $1,150,000 when the bridge was set and the market softens before sale, the shortfall lands on your end debt and quietly reshapes the entire follow-on loan.
Extension Fees and Refusals
Extensions are not free: lenders charge a fee to extend a bridge past its original term, and some will not extend at all, forcing a rushed sale or a mid-bridge refinance, and both outcomes cost more than an extension fee.
When the Sale Stalls
If the sale stalls, the bridge turns into a problem to solve: sell at a discount, rent the place out and refinance onto an investment structure, or bring in a family member, each path carrying its duty and tax consequences.
How it works
Our Bridging Loans Process
Bridging timelines are real and checkable, not vague promises of a quick turnaround, and the stages below reflect how these facilities actually move from first call to the day the residual converts into an ordinary home loan:
- 1
Day One: The Sums
Day one is a strategy call where we run the peak and end debt arithmetic against your sale plan, test serviceability at the assessed peak, and tell you whether a bridge, a simultaneous settlement or waiting to sell fits better.
- 2
Days Two to Five
Days two to five: we shortlist lenders whose bridging policy actually matches your file, because maximum terms, capitalisation rules and whether an open bridge is offered vary widely, and we confirm indicative terms in writing before anyone lodges anything anywhere.
- 3
Lodgement and Assessment
Submission happens once your contract of sale, or your sale strategy where none exists, is documented alongside payslips, loan statements and identification, and full assessment after lodgement typically takes five to ten business days, with conditional approval usually arriving first.
- 4
Two Valuations, One Week
Two valuations are ordered, one on each property, generally returning within a week: the value on the home being sold sets the expected proceeds, and the value on the purchase confirms security, and a low figure reshapes the planned numbers.
- 5
Purchase Settlement and Capitalisation
Settlement on the purchase occurs with the bridge drawn as a single facility, and from that day interest capitalises monthly, so we diary your expected sale date and check at each milestone until the selling agent reports a signed contract.
- 6
Sale, Conversion, Review
After the sale settles, net proceeds pay the peak down and the residual converts to a standard home loan within four to six weeks, and we review the follow-on structure then, because borrowing sized mid-bridge rarely suits the long run.
Where Bridging Finance Gets Stuck
Bridges fail for predictable reasons, and almost none involve the lender being difficult. The facility is simple; the discipline it demands is not. We decline to lodge files carrying these four faults, because fixing them beforehand is far cheaper:
Hope Versus a Plan
The commonest failure is a bridge written against hope rather than a plan: no realistic sale price, no marketing strategy and no serious fallback, and lenders decline those files because the exit is the whole product, not paperwork for later.
One Income, Two Households
Serviceability fails when the peak debt is tested against one income covering two households: a new mortgage-sized repayment plus the old home's outgoings, and with a median mortgage repayment near $3,000 a month locally, doubling that exposure trips many assessments.
The Optimistic Appraisal
Valuations disappoint when a selling home appraises below the assumed figure, shrinking expected proceeds and inflating end debt, so we order comparable sales evidence before lodging and size the bridge to a conservative number, not the agent's most hopeful appraisal.
Contracts Crossing Badly
Timing breaks when contracts cross: the purchase settles before the sale does, no bridge sits in place, and a long settlement or a deposit waiver becomes the only lever left, which is exactly why approval in writing should come first.
Why Choose Your Mortgage Broker Kew East
Bridging rewards accountability, because a badly structured bridge is expensive to unwind, and a new brand carries no reviews to lean on, so here are the four checkable things we put on the table instead:
A Named, Verifiable Broker
A named broker with credit representative number 370592 owns your file from the first call to settlement, and you can verify that published number against the public registers before you share a single financial detail with our small team.
Panel Breadth in Bridging
Panel lending matters acutely in bridging, because terms differ more between lenders here than in almost any other product: one lender caps the facility at six months, another runs twelve, and we see the policy differences rather than the advertising.
No Cost to Most
For most borrowers our service costs nothing, because lenders pay commission on settled loans and we disclose those amounts in the Credit Guide, so you can see exactly how we are paid and what, if anything, comes from you directly.
Process Before Product
Process comes before product on every file: we publish the stages, the documents and the timelines on this page before you enquire, and the strategy call examines whether bridging is even the right structure, not which product to sell you.
Where we work
Areas We Service
Your Mortgage Broker Kew East arranges bridging finance across Kew East and nearby Boroondara and Banyule streets: Ivanhoe East, Bulleen, Balwyn North, Balwyn and Kew, with the same published process and arithmetic on every file.
Run the Peak Debt Numbers With Your Mortgage Broker Kew East Before You Sign Anything
Call (03) 9122 8521 for a free strategy call, or request a callback after hours, and we will run the peak and end debt arithmetic against your sale plan before you commit. No cost, no obligation, honest advice either way.
Questions answered
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a bridging loan cost in Kew East?
Costs include an application fee, a valuation on each property, and capitalised interest on the peak balance, so on our worked illustration a bridge carrying a $1,300,000 peak for six months adds six monthly interest charges to the end debt.
Can I get a bridging loan if my house has not sold yet?
Yes, that is an open bridge, approved against a documented sale strategy and stricter serviceability testing, though terms are shorter and the lenders offering them are fewer than for bridges backed by a signed contract.
What happens if my Kew East home sells for less than expected?
The shortfall lands on your end debt, lifting the balance that converts to the standard home loan, which is why we size every bridge against conservative comparable sales evidence rather than the agent's appraisal.
How long can a bridging loan run?
Most closed bridges run six to twelve months and open bridges shorter, and extensions are possible at some lenders for a fee, though every extra month adds capitalised interest and lifts the end debt carried forward.
Do I make repayments while bridging?
Usually no, because interest is capitalised onto the balance instead of paid monthly, protecting your cash flow during the overlap, though some lenders offer interest-only or full repayment options if you prefer keeping the end debt down.
Is a bridging loan better than a simultaneous settlement?
A simultaneous settlement avoids bridging fees when both contracts can be timed precisely, while a bridge buys flexibility when timing is uncertain, and we model both against your agent's likely campaign length before recommending either.
Mortgage broker for Kew East and the suburbs around it