Buy before you sell, with a costed way out
Bridging finance carries two properties for a defined window. It solves a real problem and it exposes you to two loans at once, so the exit has to be planned before the facility starts.
When bridging is the right tool
And when a long settlement or a deposit bond would do the same job for less.
You found the right property first
The classic case. Your current home has not sold, the new one will not wait, and the alternative is losing it. Bridging buys you the window.
Selling into a slow market
If your property may take months, bridging avoids accepting a low offer under time pressure. The interest cost is often less than the discount you would otherwise take.
Downsizing
Common for retirees moving to something smaller. Serviceability can be limited, but peak debt is low relative to the combined value, which many lenders will accept.
Building while you still own
Carrying an existing mortgage plus a construction facility. Longer and more complex than a standard bridge, and only a handful of lenders will do it.
What a six-month bridge costs
Buying at $1.2m with an existing property worth $900,000 and a $320,000 mortgage remaining on it.
Indicative only, as at March 2026, assuming the existing property sells at $900,000 within six months. If it sells for less or takes longer, both interest and end debt increase. Lending criteria, fees and charges apply.
The risk worth naming
Bridging is the product where a broker earning a commission has the clearest conflict. We price the downside before the upside.
We read the credit policy, not the rate sheet
Specialist lending is decided on policy detail — how a lender treats retained profits, whether a corporate trustee is acceptable, what liquidity an SMSF must retain. We track those rules across the panel and check them before we submit.
The file is built for the assessor
A complex file presented well is often approved where the same file, submitted raw, is declined. Financials, structure diagrams and a written explanation go in with the application, not after a query.
We tell you early when the answer is no
If your file will not place at a sensible rate, you will hear that in the first conversation rather than after three weeks and a credit enquiry. That honesty costs us applications and keeps our approval rate where it is.
Accreditation across the specialist panel
SMSF, commercial, bridging, alt-doc and credit-impaired funders each require separate accreditation and volume to maintain. We hold and use all of them.
- —The existing property sells for less than the valuation assumed
- —The sale takes longer than the term and interest keeps capitalising
- —Peak debt exceeds 80% of combined value and the facility is declined
- —End debt fails serviceability even though peak debt was approved
- —End debt tested for serviceability first — it is the number that has to work
- —A conservative sale price used in the model, not the agent appraisal
- —A costed fallback agreed before drawdown, including what a price reduction means
- —Long settlement or deposit bond considered first — they are often cheaper
Understand → Compare → Apply → Settle
Tell us the whole story
Including the decline, the credit event or the structure you think is a problem. Nothing is placed until we understand it.
Credit impact — noneStructure and match
Financials reviewed, the entity structure confirmed, and the file matched to funders whose policy it genuinely fits.
Credit impact — soft enquiry onlySubmit with the argument attached
The application goes in with financials, add-back workings and a written explanation for the assessor.
Credit impact — enquiry recordedSettle
Specialist files run longer. We manage valuations, legal review of trust deeds and the settlement booking.
Credit impact — account reportedTest the end debt before you commit
Model repayments on the end debt position, check LVR against combined security, and estimate stamp duty on the purchase.
Usually not. Most bridging facilities capitalise interest onto the balance so you are not funding two mortgages out of cash flow. The trade-off is that the debt grows each month, which is why a short, realistic term matters more than the rate.
Interest continues to capitalise and most lenders will require you to reduce the asking price. Extensions are possible but expensive. This is the scenario we model at the outset — if you cannot live with the twelve-month version, the bridge is the wrong tool.
Peak debt is generally capped at eighty per cent of the combined value of both properties, and the end debt must pass normal serviceability on its own. Plenty of applicants clear the peak debt test and fail the end debt test, so we check that one first.
Sometimes. Renting means two moves, storage and the risk of buying back into a rising market. Bridging means interest on peak debt for a few months. On a six-month window the numbers are usually closer than people expect — we run both.
Frequently. A long settlement negotiated with the vendor, a deposit bond, or a simultaneous settlement can achieve the same outcome with no bridging interest at all. We look at those before recommending a bridge, which is not what a lender-paid product sale would do.
Find out whether you need a bridge at all
Twenty minutes and we will price the bridge, the long settlement and the sell-first option side by side — including the version where your property takes a year to sell.