If you are moving house, home loan portability gives you the option to take your current loan with you.
By keeping your loan from one property to the next, you won’t have to go through the process of refinancing and you can save on establishment costs like application and valuation fees, government charges and potential exit fees (banned on loans taken out after 1 July 2011).
If you have a fixed rate home loan, then loan portability could save you the significant break costs that may be charged for altering your loan before the full term. It also entitles you to retain existing facilities like your ATM card, Offset account and cheque book.
Some mortgages include portability and others provide it as an option. Often there are restrictions in place that determine in what circumstance portability can be used.
Home loan portability rules
As your mortgage broker, we can advise you of how these rules vary from lender to lender. For example, there are often restrictions concerning the values of the new and old property, as well as the settlement dates on the two properties.
There will also be various fees and charges for transferring the loan to the new property. This means that portability might be a valuable feature if you expect to move home frequently, but in other circumstances it may end up costing the same as refinancing.
Give us a call and we can discuss your specific situation. We can tell you whether portability will add value to your home loan and may even be able to negotiate with the lender for portability fees to be waived.
