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How long does it take to get a home loan approved?
Disclaimer
This article is over two years old, last updated on August 3, 2022. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent home loans articles.
Getting a home loan approved could be a short and simple or lengthy and complex process, depending on your application and your financial situation. While the average time from home loan application to formal approval and settlement can take between four and six weeks, some mortgage lenders advertise that they can approve a home loan in as little as 10 minutes.
How can you get a fast home loan approval?
The more work a lender needs to do checking a home loan application, the longer it may take to get approval. Simpler and more straightforward applications may take less time to get a tick. The closer you are to an “ideal” borrower, the quicker a lender may be able to approve your mortgage application.
Different lenders have different borrowing criteria, but are often looking for:
- Payslips showing a strong and steady income from a steady fulltime job you’ve held for some time
- A deposit of 20 per cent or more made up of genuine savings e.g. money earned from your job and put into a savings account or term deposit
- Bank statements showing reasonable household expenses
- Buying an established property
- Buying a home to live in as an owner occupier
- An excellent credit score
A relatively straightforward home loan application could receive preapproval in an hour and formal approval in one to three days in some cases.
Some newer mortgage lenders and fintechs such as Unloan claim to be able to use technology to approve home loan applications in as little as 10 minutes. Of course, this requires a borrower to fulfil these lenders’ eligibility criteria, so access to these quick turnarounds could be limited. For example, at the time of its launch, Unloan was limited only to borrowers refinancing existing home loans and did not offer conditional approvals or home loans for new purchases.
Australia’s four biggest banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac – often set the standard for banking services in this country. This includes providing home loans and assessing home loan applications.
How long does ANZ take to approve a home loan?
When it comes to ANZ, it takes anywhere between 15 to 18 business days to approve a home loan from the day of the application to approval, depending on your documentation.
If you opt for the Quick Start home loan option, you’ll need to fill out a form with basic details. During this stage, you don’t need to add any supporting information. An ANZ representative will then call you within 48 hours. The representative will help take your application forward, including assessing all relevant information, documentation and conducting a credit check.
How long does the Commonwealth Bank take to approve a home loan?
A Commonwealth Bank home loan application can be completed in between 15 minutes and 48 hours. Once your documents are submitted, you could be approved in as little as 60 minutes.
However, many loans take up to 4-7 business days to be assessed, depending on their complexity and how quickly you’re able to provide the necessary information.
How long does NAB take to approve a home loan?
It can take about 20 minutes to apply online for a NAB home loan. The time to get conditional approval from NAB could be just a few hours, or as long as a few weeks, depending on your circumstances.
That said, in May 2022 NAB announced that customers applying for a NAB home loan through a broker were getting the green light in half the time they were just six months prior, receiving unconditional approval in less than 2 days on average. Around 35% of eligible NAB customers were being unconditionally approved in less than an hour.
How long does Westpac take to approve a home loan?
Completing an online home loan application with Westpac usually takes under half an hour to complete.
It’s possible to receive conditional approval in 1 business day, and in 2022 it was reported that Westpac’s loan application-to-approval time dropped from an average of 9.6 days to about six days in its own channels in February.
What slows down home loan approvals?
If a lender needs to spend a lot of time and energy checking the details of an application, it may take longer to be approved. Lenders need to assess whether you can afford the home loan’s repayments, if your debt-to-income ratio is too high, as well as the risk of you ending up in financial stress. Lenders also need to consider their own financial risk, such as if the value of the property will be enough to secure the loan in case you end up defaulting on your repayments.
Some of the factors that could potentially complicate a home loan application and lead to a longer approval time include:
- Borrowing more than 80 per cent of the property value, requiring Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)
- Paying a deposit using money that isn’t genuine savings
- Applying for a large home loan e.g. more than $2 million
- Already owing money on car loans, credit cards etc.
- Borrowing with a guarantor
- Purchasing something other than a typical established property e.g. property off the plan, rural property, vacant land, heritage-listed property etc
- Your income coming from sources other than full-time employment e.g. self-employment, investments etc.
- Being in a new job and still on the probationary period
- Buying a property that requires a full valuation
- Buying a property to rent out as an investor
- Applying with a bad credit score
If you’re not sure whether you’ll be able to get a home loan application approved in a timely fashion, or if you’d like some help getting your documents in order for a more efficient home loan application, you could consider contacting a mortgage broker.
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