Investment loans
Investment loans built for the portfolio, not just the purchase.
The wrong loan structure costs investors more than the wrong rate. We set up investment lending so this purchase works, and the next one is still possible: equity release, offsets in the right places, and lenders chosen for how they treat rental income.
Rated 5.0 from 261 Google reviews · Brisbane finance brokers
- Structure first: interest-only vs P&I, offsets, splits, and keeping deductible debt clean
- Lenders picked for investor policy: rental income shading, portfolio limits and trust lending differ wildly
- Equity release from your home or existing properties to fund the deposit
Why structure beats rate for investors.
Two loans with the same rate can behave completely differently at tax time and at the next purchase. Keeping investment debt separate from personal debt protects deductibility; putting the offset against the right loan saves non-deductible interest first; and choosing a lender that shades rental income at 80% versus 70% can be the difference between approval and decline on property two.
We set the structure with your accountant's tax advice in view, and if you don't have one, LINK Advisors is down the hall.
Using the equity you already have.
Most investors fund their deposit from equity rather than savings: lenders will typically lend against your home up to 80% of its value without LMI, releasing the deposit and costs for the investment purchase. Structured properly, the released equity is investment debt (clean for tax), and your home stays un-cross-collateralised with the new property.
A worked example: equity into deposit.
An example with checkable arithmetic. Your home is worth $900,000 and you owe $450,000. Most lenders will lend against it up to 80% of value without LMI: 80% of $900,000 is $720,000, so your usable equity is $720,000 minus the $450,000 you owe, which is $270,000.
That's enough to fund a 20% deposit plus purchase costs on an investment property around $650,000 (a $130,000 deposit, plus stamp duty and costs), set up as a separate investment split rather than a top-up tangled into your home loan, with the new property financed on its own. Whether the servicing supports it is the second half of the assessment, and the borrowing power estimator gives you the first read.
How lenders read an investment application.
Investment serviceability has more moving parts than owner-occupier lending, and every lender sets the dials differently. Rental income is counted but shaded, typically 70-90% of the lease, to allow for vacancy and costs. Your existing debts are assessed with APRA's roughly 3 percentage point buffer on top of actual rates, which bites hard once you hold several loans. Some lenders add back negative gearing benefits; others don't. Some cap their total exposure to one borrower or postcode; others welcome portfolios.
The practical consequence: the same investor with the same properties can be at their ceiling with one lender and have room for two more purchases with another. Sequencing lenders across a portfolio (using the strict ones early, saving the generous ones for later) is one of the most valuable things an investment broker does.
Who investment lending suits, and who it doesn't.
Property investment works when the holding costs are boring: rent arrives, the gap between rent and repayments fits your budget with margin, and a vacancy or a rate rise is an annoyance rather than a crisis. Investor loans generally price a little above owner-occupier loans, rental income gets shaded, and properties cost money in years they don't grow.
It suits investors with stable income, a cash buffer and a timeframe measured in years. It doesn't suit borrowing to the ceiling with no buffer, or buying for a tax deduction the numbers don't otherwise support. We show you the full holding cost before you commit, including the boring lines: insurance, rates, maintenance and management.
Common investor mistakes.
The expensive ones are structural, made at settlement and discovered years later:
- Cross-collateralising: letting one lender secure everything, which hands them control of your equity and your exit
- Pointing the offset at the investment loan while non-deductible home debt still exists
- Mixing private and investment borrowing in one loan, muddying deductibility forever
- Maxing out at a single lender instead of spreading across policies
- Buying property two with no plan for how property three will service
Why LINK Advance.
Portfolio thinking.
Every loan is set up with the next purchase in mind: serviceability, equity and lender spread.
Investor policy knowledge.
Rental shading, interest-only appetite, trust and company lending. We know which lender wants your deal.
The group behind it.
Accounting (Advisors), strategy (Wealth) and property management (Living) under the same roof when you want them.
Repriced every six months, on every loan.
Rate drift compounds across a portfolio: half a percent on four loans is real money annually. We review the whole book each year and go back to the lenders that have moved.
Your broker, not a call centre.
Hugh, Callum and Jacob write every loan themselves: the person who meets you is the person who structures the deal, drives the approval and reprices your rate every six months after settlement. That's why 262 Google reviews name them personally.
Meet the team →What investors say about it.
Reviews from clients who came in to buy an investment property.
Thank you to Jacob for his exceptional service in helping us secure our first investment property. He was fast and efficient and made sure we understood everything along the way. 10/10 would recommend Jacob and the Link Advance team. Awesome work guys!!
Jacob and the team at LINK Advance made buying our investment property quick and painless. Would recommend
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the team at LINK for all your help with our investment property. We honestly could not have done it without you. Your communication, support and knowledge throughout the entire process were outstanding and you made what could have been a very stressful experience feel smooth and manageable. We are so grateful for all of your hard work and would highly recommend LINK to anyone looking for guidance and support.
261 Google reviews at 5.0. Read them in full, filtered by what people came in for.
Frequently asked questions.
Interest-only or principal and interest for an investment loan?
Interest-only maximises cash flow and keeps repayments deductible-heavy, but costs more over the loan's life and reverts to higher P&I repayments later. P&I builds equity and usually prices lower. The right answer depends on your cash flow, tax position and strategy. It's a numbers conversation, not a default.
How much deposit do I need for an investment property?
Typically 20% plus costs to avoid LMI, or 10-12% paying it. Most investors fund this from equity in their home rather than cash. If your home has grown in value, you may need little or no cash savings at all.
Can I use my SMSF to buy an investment property?
Yes, through a limited recourse borrowing arrangement, a different loan type with its own lenders and rules (and around 20-30% deposits). That's our SMSF lending specialty; see the SMSF loans page, and LINK Wealth handles the strategy side.
Will lenders count my rental income?
Yes, but shaded: most count 70-90% of the rent to allow for vacancies and costs, and policies differ on short-term letting. Which lender you pick materially changes your borrowing power; that's a big part of the broker's value for investors.
Do investment loans have higher interest rates?
Generally yes: investor loans price somewhat above equivalent owner-occupier loans, and interest-only adds a little more. The spread varies by lender and moves over time, which is one more reason the comparison matters. Structure can claw some back: pricing improves at lower LVRs, and packaging with your other lending sometimes helps.
How many investment properties can I finance?
There's no fixed limit; the ceiling is serviceability under the assessment buffer, and it arrives sooner than most investors expect. Pushing past it is about lender selection (policies on rental shading and existing debt differ widely), structure, and sometimes lenders who assess portfolio investors more commercially. The order you use lenders in matters.
Should I buy in a trust, a company or my own name?
That's a tax and asset-protection question for your accountant (LINK Advisors, if you don't have one), but it changes the lending too: fewer lenders finance trusts, some price them differently, and guarantees are required from directors or beneficiaries. Decide the structure before the pre-approval, not after; changing mid-purchase means starting the application again.
What is cross-collateralisation and why avoid it?
It's when one lender takes multiple properties as security for the same lending. It feels convenient and usually costs you later: the lender controls valuations across the lot, selling one property can trigger a revaluation of the rest, and moving lenders becomes surgery. Stand-alone loans with deposits raised by equity release keep control with you. It's our default structure for investors.
Your broker for life.
One broker, 35+ lenders, in competition for your loan.
Most home loan broking is paid by the lender, not you. Tell us what you're planning and a broker will call to map your options. No obligation.
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Level 1, 57 Berwick Street, Fortitude Valley 4006
5.0 · based on 261 Google reviews