Does your job change what you can borrow?
Sometimes, yes. A number of lenders treat certain occupations differently — most usefully by waiving lenders mortgage insurance at deposit levels where it would normally apply.
What this is actually about
Lenders mortgage insurance is normally charged when you borrow more than 80% of a property’s value. It protects the lender, not you, and on a typical loan it can cost many thousands of dollars.
A number of lenders waive or reduce that requirement for particular occupations — because those groups, as a whole, show lower default rates and more stable income. Where it applies, it either brings a purchase forward or reduces what you need at settlement.
It is not universal, and it is not automatic. Eligibility depends on the lender, your specific role and registration, your income and the loan itself. These policies change without notice. What follows describes what is sometimes available in the market — not what will be available to you.
How far waivers reach, by occupation
Across the lenders on our panel, this is the highest loan-to-value ratio at which at least one of them waives the insurance for each group — and, more usefully, the condition that most often decides whether anyone actually reaches it.
| Occupation | Waivers reach | What usually decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Accountants & lawyers | 95% | Full membership of a recognised body — associate and provisional do not count — plus a minimum income from the profession that rental and other income cannot be used to meet. |
| Doctors & medical professionals | 95% | Two tiers. The top rate is for doctors, specialists and dentists, and is capped by a debt-to-income test; most allied health sits a tier lower, and several lenders exclude particular allied health roles outright. |
| Engineers, IT & technical professionals | 95% | The top rate needs a degree-qualified main income earner on an owner-occupied purchase. The broader technical list sits a tier lower and asks for half your income from the profession and three years in it. |
| Nurses & midwives | 90% | Whether the lender includes nursing at all — several exclude it with no exception available. Those that include it want permanent rather than casual employment, and set an income floor. |
| Police & emergency services | 90% | The wording is literal: sworn, fully qualified, permanent full time. A probationary officer, or a partner on a fixed-term contract, can disqualify an application that otherwise fits. |
| Teachers & educators | 90% | Permanent employment, off probation, for every borrower on the loan. Owner-occupied purchases, and at some lenders established homes only. |
These are the ceilings that are broadly available, not the highest figure that exists anywhere. A higher rate is sometimes reachable through a narrower product — for a nurse or paramedic who holds a degree and is the main income earner on the application, for instance — and each page explains where that applies. Every figure is subject to the lender’s assessment of your circumstances.
Check which of these fit your situation The table shows how far each route reaches. The checker shows which conditions your own answers raise.
What nearly all of them have in common
The occupation gets you considered. These conditions appear across almost every one of these programs, and they are where an eligible applicant most often comes unstuck.
- Principal and interest. Interest-only is capped at a much lower ratio, or excluded outright, under most of these policies.
- No construction or vacant land under the great majority of them. That matters here more than almost anywhere, because so much of what is bought in Melbourne’s northern corridor is house and land.
- Owner-occupied purchases are the straightforward case. Investment lending is excluded under many of these programs and capped lower under others.
- Loan size and total exposure caps apply everywhere, and the range between lenders is very wide.
- Current registration or membership, evidenced — usually dated within the last twelve months, and in full rather than provisional or student form.
- Most lenders offer nothing at all. The list with no occupation-based waiver is considerably longer than the list with one, and at least one significant lender has withdrawn the policy it used to have.
Doctors & medical professionals
Medical professionals have access to lending policy most borrowers do not — waivers of lenders mortgage insurance at deposit levels where it would normally apply. The headline figures are widely quoted. The conditions attached to them are not, and those are what decide whether any of it reaches you.
Nurses & midwives
Nursing is the most divided occupation in Australian lending policy. Some lenders waive lenders mortgage insurance for nurses at up to 90%; others exclude nursing outright and will not consider an exception. Which lenders your application reaches decides whether the concession exists at all.
Teachers & educators
Several lenders waive lenders mortgage insurance for registered teachers at up to 90%. Qualifying is the easy part. The conditions attached — permanent employment off probation, owner-occupied purchases, and at some lenders established homes only — are what actually decide it.
Police & emergency services
Police and emergency services roles are recognised in essential worker lending programs by a number of lenders. The bigger variable, though, is how your shift allowances and overtime get assessed — and lenders differ on that more than on anything else.
Accountants & lawyers
Accredited accountants and legal practitioners are included in professional lending policy by a number of lenders, typically with professional body membership as the qualifying test rather than the job title alone.
Engineers, IT & technical professionals
Coverage here is narrower than for medicine or law, and much wider than most people in these fields assume — which is why almost nobody asks. There are three separate routes to a waiver, and they suit quite different people.
Not on this list? Two things are worth knowing. Occupation-based policy reaches further than most people realise — one lender’s list runs to architects, surveyors, geologists, commercial pilots and certified cyber security professionals, and its credit team can consider occupations that are not on it at all. Separately, a few lenders offer no-insurance pathways that ignore occupation entirely and reach 90% on a purchase. Missing every professional list does not mean paying the premium. It costs nothing to ask.
Have a question about your situation?
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Even if the answer is "wait six months", you will know why — and what to do in the meantime.