Can I take out a loan against my home’s equity?

When you take out a loan to buy a home, you’re investing in an asset whose value may increase over time. Meanwhile, your regular principal and interest repayments slowly but surely pay off the loan. This growing difference between the value of your home and the outstanding loan amount is called home equity, which can also be a valuable asset. For instance, you could leverage your home’s equity as a deposit to help you purchase a second property, or use the equity to perform renovations on your current property. 

You can take steps to grow your home equity, such as making larger or additional repayments, or renovating your home to increase its value. But before you go about making the most of the equity in your home, you may need to get a formal property valuation done.

How does a loan against home equity work?

Before you can take out a loan against home equity you’ll need to work out the equity you’ve built in your home. Suppose you bought a home currently valued at $500,000 and you still owe $100,000 on the home loan. The present equity in your home is calculated as the difference between these two figures and amounts to $400,000.

However, many lenders will only allow you to access what they call usable equity, which is where you maintain an 80 per cent Loan to Value Ratio (LVR). So in the previous example, the lender would require you to keep 20 per cent of the property value ($100,000) in the home, leaving you with $300,000 of usable equity to work with. Some lenders may allow you to access more if you pay Lender’s Mortgage Insurance (LMI). You can then apply to release this usable equity by refinancing your mortgage.

Once you refinance and access your equity you can then use it as a deposit for a new property purchase. You will then have a second mortgage on your new property. Still, your current property will also be linked to it due to using the equity as the deposit. This means if you default on your second mortgage you may risk losing both properties. 

Another way to use your equity is to invest in the stock market or other investments. You could also use this equity to renovate your home, which can help increase the home’s value and, consequently, the home’s equity. Depending on the scale of your renovation, you could use the equity to apply for a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), which may charge less interest.

However, you should remember that before a lender will approve an application to refinance a home loan to access your equity, they will need ot conduct a valuation of the property to accurately determine your usable equity.  Requesting your own separate professional valuation can help you get some idea of your home’s worth before going to the lender. You could also consider getting an appraisal when renovating your home to give you an idea of how much value the renovations may add.

How can I build up my home’s equity?

While your home equity will grow as you repay your home loan, you can take steps to increase it further. One option is to make larger or additional mortgage repayments, increasing the equity by bringing down your debt. However, you should check if your lender allows these sorts of additional or extra repayments or if you’d need to pay additional fees for doing so. 

Having an offset account may also help you increase the equity in your home. The funds in your offset account are included when calculating your interest charges, meaning you may pay less interest over the life of your loan. And as a smaller percentage of each mortgage repayment will be made up of interest charges, you'll effectively be paying extra towards reducing your home loan principal, shrinking your debt faster and building your equity. You’ll need to make sure all of this is possible with your lender before using an offset account to help increase your equity.

You can also grow your home’s equity by taking steps to improve the home’s worth by doing renovations. You may need to check with your current lender to make sure that the renovations don’t affect your loan terms. A change in your home’s worth implies a change in the security against your home loan, which may concern the lender.  

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