Steve and Claire recently worked with a young couple who were unsure of where to start to secure funding to buy their first investment property together. One applicant is an Australian citizen, however the other is a UK citizen in Australia which added a level of complexity to the deal, as did the fact that the couple had just relocated to Australia and were in probation periods in their roles. They also knew their level of deposit would likely mean entering Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) territory to further complicate the deal.
The Venro Process
The couple moved to Australia permanently in 2022 ready to start building their property portfolio. With the Permanent Residency Visa still pending approval, Venro worked with the client’s solicitor and accountant to obtain advice around the best way to structure the deal to avoid additional stamp duty and tax implications for the clients. The solution was to have the property owned solely by the Aussie citizen but both clients on the loan. We managed to prove the benefit of having both clients on the loan but the property owned by one applicant because both clients will receive rental income from the property.
The couple had less than a 20% deposit which meant LMI applied, and they were also seeking interest only repayments to enable them to commit the least amount of monthly cash flow to the debt to focus on building up their savings for the next property purchase. Both of these factors added further complications to the deal.
But wait, there’s more… the valuation and building & pest report highlighted some issues to the property which meant the valuation report returned a value $30k lower than the purchase price on the contract of sale. Knowing the bank will only lend up to a maximum 90% LVR including LMI against the lower value of the contract of sale or valuation, meant our clients potentially had to contribute even more of a deposit. Venro managed to negotiate a settlement adjustment which meant their contribution amount remained the same.
Venro secured the couple a loan with a big four bank and throughout the process solved the issues of a non-citizen borrower, investment loan with LMI and interest only repayments, settlement adjustments and applicants on probation.
The results
We were delighted to secure finance approval for them with 14 days to spare in their finance period, ensuring we were ready for settlement in plenty of time, even with the back and forth with their solicitor and lender over the settlement adjustment (which included re-assessment, re-approval and new documents, all within two weeks of settlement).
The biggest benefit to our clients was that they managed to secure the property they wanted with their preferred lender and settlement went off without a hitch.
“We had a great experience with the Venro team. From start to finish they were brilliant – true experts at their craft and extremely friendly and personable too. They made the whole process of our first ever property purchase easy, and we had complete peace of mind. From the first conversation, Steve invested far more time than other brokers had to understand more about our goals and situation. And then Claire steered us through to settlement seamlessly.
Cameron Robinson
We will continue to work with the Venro team and recommend them to others.”