See How Lenders
Actually Decide
What You Can Borrow
Plain-English guides to how Australian lenders really assess your income, assets, debts and the property — so you know where you stand before you apply.
Free, private, and no credit check.
The Core Idea
Most people are told:
“You can borrow X”
Very few are told:
why.
Model Mortgages breaks lending down into the five things lenders actually assess — so you can see what's driving your outcome.
The five things every lender checks — your income, expenses, deposit, the property, and your borrower profile.
See how small changes — like closing an unused credit card — can lift what you're able to borrow.
The Five Assessment Pillars
Get these five right and you borrow more, on better terms. Get one wrong and it quietly caps you.
Income & Serviceability
Whether your income can sustain repayments under lender stress conditions — not just at today's rate. Includes shading and net calculations.
Expenses & Commitments
How lenders measure outgoings — including benchmark figures that replace what you spend. Includes HEM, existing debts, credit limits.
Assets & Equity
Whether your deposit is genuinely usable, and how capital position affects leverage. Includes genuine savings, LVR buffers.
Security & Collateral Risk
How the property shapes what lenders offer — independent of income. Includes property dimensions, regional postcodes, and valuation risk.
Borrower Profile & Policy
How employment, residency, structure, and credit score interact with lender settings. Includes expat, corporate trustee, credit conduct.
What most people miss
“Two people can look identical on paper... and get completely different outcomes.”
Why?
This site shows you those differences.
The Canonical Lending Questions
Beneath every lending decision is a set of recurring assessment questions — applied consistently by lenders regardless of borrower type, loan purpose, or property value. Model Mortgages documents ten of these clusters.
Start With Your Situation
Select your specific pathway profile to load the optimized case settings.
About This Site
Model Mortgages was founded and is authored by Virginia Graham Riches. With a career spanning over two decades in the Australian finance industry—from working as an ANZ dealer to operating as a specialist mortgage broker since 2004—Virginia created this platform to bridge the information gap between lenders and borrowers.