Studio Home Loan

The process of talking out a loan for an apartment is quite simple, as long as the apartment in question has one or two bedroom, and is larger then 50 square M\meters. However this is not the case for a lot of inner city apartment and now with a growing population many apartment outside of the CBD are going towards the smaller studio or one bedroom style arrangements. 

So what do the banks defines as a Studio apartment? either;

1. less then 50 square meters of living space ( excluding parking or balcony) - Rate and LVR

2. No separate bedroom

3. Loft style apartments 

So why are the banks so tight on this great investment? 

Australian Lenders believe that smaller units are "unusual " properties and that there are less potential buyers that would be interested, resulting in a longer time to sell the units. 

We at shape home loans believe this is an outdated policy and thinking, one would just look at some of the new development recently in sydney and melbourne CBD to see that the younger generation prefer to live in smaller accommodation with facilities such as swimming pools and gym, as it's more affordable and usually closer to work. 

Having said that, there are still plenty of lenders who would provide finance on studio apartments, you will just have to know which questions to ask, how to phrase the answers and who to ask. This is where we come in. 

Don't speak to the lenders directly, if the loan gets declined- it could affect your credit rating. Let us do the homework for you first. 

Benefits:

·         Lower entrance price to buy

·         For investors, high rental yield 

·         High demand location

Points to Consider:

·         lenders will only lend up to max 75-90% of the property value 

·         Only take inconsideration 60% of the rental return as income 

·         Some lenders may not do the loan if they already have more then 20% of studio apartment in their books from the same building

·         Low capital growth

Update: July 2015- New banking LVR for smaller units ( Click here)