Home loans for nurses and 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.
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Roles lenders commonly consider
- Registered nurses
- Enrolled nurses
- Nurse practitioners
- Midwives
- Clinical nurse specialists and educators
Nursing is the most divided occupation on the panel. Several major lenders exclude nurses from their medical waiver entirely, one of them with a stated no-exceptions rule, while others include registered nurses and midwives at up to 90% under essential worker or health professional programs — usually with an income floor and a requirement for permanent rather than casual employment. Which lenders are approached decides whether the concession exists at all.
Check which waivers fit your situationA few questions — your role, how you are employed, what you are buying.
The LMI question
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.
Nursing is where lenders disagree with each other more than for any other occupation, and it is worth being blunt about that, because the disagreement is the single most useful thing to understand.
Some lenders exclude nurses outright
Several of the largest lenders offering medical LMI waivers do not include nurses at all. One states plainly that no exception can be considered. Another accepts registered medical practitioners only, and answers the question about other health professionals with a flat no. A third accepts physiotherapists but not nurses.
If your application goes to one of those, the concession does not exist — not at a lower LVR, not with more income, not with a note from your employer.
Others include nurses at up to 90%
Other lenders include registered nurses and midwives in a second tier of their health professional policy, or in a dedicated essential worker program, generally reaching 90% of the property value without the premium.
Where they do, the conditions matter as much as the eligibility:
- An income floor. One lender requires a minimum combined income from the nursing qualification specifically. Another sets a minimum for a single applicant and a higher combined figure for a couple, with the eligible applicant needing to earn most of it.
- Permanent employment. Casual and probationary employment is not accepted under at least one essential worker program — a real constraint in a workforce with a great deal of agency and bank work.
- Loan size caps, which on essential worker programs are noticeably lower than on medical ones.
- Owner-occupied purchases at some lenders, with refinancing, construction and investment excluded.
The degree route to 95%
Worth knowing because almost nobody mentions it: a couple of lenders run a broader professional product reaching 95% for degree-qualified professionals who are the household’s main income earner, and they state explicitly that a nurse with a degree can use it instead of the 90% essential worker version.
That is a meaningfully better outcome, and it turns on two things people rarely think to raise — whether you hold a degree, and whether you are the main income earner on the application.
The federal employer route
One more, and it is genuinely obscure. One lender excludes nurses from its medical waiver but runs a separate program for employees of federal government departments at certain classification bands. A nurse employed by a federal health department at one of those levels can qualify under that program, at the same lender that would decline them under the medical one.
A nurse employed by a state health department cannot. Same job, different employer, different answer.
These policies change without notice, and eligibility is always determined by the lender. Nothing here means a waiver will be available to you.
The part that usually matters more
Most nurses do not earn a flat base salary. Total income typically includes:
- Base rate
- Shift penalties — afternoons, nights, weekends
- Public holiday loadings
- Overtime
- On-call and recall allowances
- Extra or bank shifts beyond contracted hours
- Qualification and specialty allowances
For many nurses, penalties and overtime are not a small top-up. They can be a substantial proportion of what actually lands in the bank each fortnight.
Lenders treat this very differently. Some apply heavy shading to allowance and overtime income. Others accept a much higher proportion, on the reasonable view that shift work in nursing is not occasional overtime — it is how the job is structured, and it is not going away.
The gap between the most and least accommodating lender on this point can be a very large difference in borrowing capacity. For a nurse whose penalties are a meaningful share of income, this is worth considerably more attention than the LMI waiver.
What helps
- Payslips showing year-to-date totals, not just the current period
- Twelve months of history where possible
- A clear picture of what is regular versus genuinely one-off
- Your employment contract, particularly if it specifies rostered shift patterns
Part-time, casual and agency
Nursing has more varied employment patterns than most professions, and lender policy has partly caught up.
Permanent part-time is generally straightforward. Extra shifts on top are usually assessable with a history.
Casual requires more history — commonly six to twelve months, sometimes longer. Continuity matters: several years nursing across different employers reads very differently from a short casual history.
Agency work is assessable with many lenders where the pattern is consistent. Documentation matters more here.
Returning from parental leave is a common situation and one where lender policy differs sharply. Some lenders will assess on your return-to-work income before you have actually returned, with a letter from your employer confirming the arrangement. Others will not. If you are planning a purchase around a return to work, this is worth checking early.
The public sector question
Many nurses work for public health services, which brings a few practical advantages:
- Employment stability is viewed favourably
- Salary packaging is common in the public health sector. Lenders differ in how they treat packaged benefits — some add them back to assessable income, some ignore them entirely. If you salary package, this is worth raising specifically, because it can be worth a meaningful amount
- Enterprise agreement pay progression can sometimes support an assessment where a pay increase is contractually scheduled
Being realistic
An LMI waiver reduces a cost. It does not change what you can afford to repay.
Nursing income is reliable, but it is not unlimited, and borrowing at a high loan-to-value ratio means a larger loan and less buffer if values move. The concession is genuinely useful — it is not a reason to borrow more than is comfortable.
Worth a conversation if
- You have been saving toward a 20% deposit and have not checked whether you need it
- A significant part of your income is penalties and overtime
- You are part-time, casual or agency and have been told you are hard to lend to
- You salary package and are not sure whether it is being counted
- You are planning a purchase around returning from parental leave
Checking costs nothing and does not affect your credit file.
Common questions
Can nurses get a home loan without paying LMI?
Some lenders extend lenders mortgage insurance waivers or discounts to nurses and midwives, generally under essential worker or health professional programs. Availability, maximum loan-to-value ratios and income requirements vary between lenders and change without notice. It is not universal, and it is not guaranteed to be available to you — but it is common enough that it is worth checking before assuming you need a 20% deposit.
How is my shift penalty and overtime income assessed?
This varies more between lenders than almost anything else, and for many nurses it matters more than the LMI question. Some lenders count a conservative proportion of shift allowances and overtime; others accept a much higher proportion where there is a consistent history, particularly in an industry where the income is clearly ongoing rather than occasional. The difference in borrowing capacity between the most and least generous lender can be very substantial.
I work part-time and pick up extra shifts. Does that count?
Generally yes, though the treatment differs. Most lenders want to see a consistent history — typically six to twelve months, sometimes longer. Casual and bank shifts on top of a permanent part-time role are usually assessable with some shading. Bringing accurate payslips and a year-to-date summary makes a real difference to how this is assessed.
Does agency or casual nursing work make it harder?
Harder, not impossible. Lenders generally want to see a longer history for casual income — often twelve months in the same role or industry. Agency work with a consistent pattern is assessable with many lenders. Continuity of profession matters: if you have been nursing for years, moving between employers is viewed very differently from someone new to the workforce.
Do these programs apply to enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing?
It depends on the lender. Registered nurses and midwives appear on the widest range of lender lists. Enrolled nurses are included by some. Assistants in nursing and personal care workers are less commonly included in profession-specific policy. The lists are specific rather than general, so the answer depends on which lenders are approached.
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.