Never too old for a mortgage The Age Discrimination Act prevents lenders and brokers from treating older home loan applicants differently from younger buyers, and the big four banks say there are no age restrictions or health assessments for first-home buyers.
If you can demonstrate an ability to repay the loan before you're 75 years old, they will consider your application no matter your age! For example, if you needed to borrow $300,000 and were 50 years old, the standard 30-year mortgage term could be reduced to 25 years and your loan would be approved.
Home loans for borrowers over 50 (or even 60) are harder to get. Lenders view older borrowers as higher risk – but you can still get a loan.
Lenders can't turn you down because you are older, but they will assess your age and your years left in the workforce. There is no maximum age limit set for getting a home loan – in fact, people aged well into their 60s and even older may be approved for a home loan.
Age doesn't matter. Counterintuitive as it may sound, your loan application for a mortgage to be repaid over 30 years looks the same to lenders whether you are 90 years old or 40.
If you have a clear plan for how you'll pay the mortgage and you have a good credit score it may be possible for you to get a standard residential mortgage with a 25-year term. Of course, the shorter your mortgage term, the less interest you'll probably pay overall.
If you're like most people, paying off your mortgage and entering retirement debt-free sounds pretty appealing. You should aim to have everything paid off, from student loans to credit card debt, by age 45, O'Leary says.
The latest lending indicators from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that the average mortgage size (for owner-occupier dwellings) was $585k in May 2022.
If you're receiving a Centrelink benefit, your home loan application will be processed the same as any other: you save a deposit and then borrow money from the lender, which you pay back with interest. However, not all lenders accept Centrelink payments as income and those that do, have a stricter application process.
A lender generally can't deny your loan application or charge you higher interest rates or fees because of your age. This rule applies to various types of lenders when they're deciding whether to give credit, such as an auto loan, credit card, mortgage, student loan, or small business loan.
In practice, too, lenders have to be sure that you can reasonably repay the loan. If you're 45-50years of age or over and you can't demonstrate how you will be able to repay a 30-year loan, there is a good chance your application will be knocked back.
The average age to buy a home is between 31 and 33, and most people who buy homes are married and have two forms of income. The average price for a home in all of Australia is $595,873. This roughly translates to about $1,898 per month in repayments.
Most mortgages in Australia have a loan term of between 20 and 30 years, though it may be possible to choose a home loan with an even longer term of up to 40 years, which could have benefits and drawbacks.
For example, if you're currently 50 years old and don't plan to retire until you're 70, it should be relatively straightforward to be accepted for a mortgage, even with a 25-year term. But if you're 55 and plan to retire at 60, lenders may be more comfortable offering you a shorter 10- or 15-year mortgage term.
It's never too late to invest in property
So, with at least 10 to 15 years of working life still in front of most 50-year-olds, property is still an exceptional investment to consider.
Age Pension age
65 years and 6 months, if you were born between 1 July 1952 and 31 December 1953. 66 years, if you were born between 1 January 1954 and 30 June 1955. 66 years and 6 months, if you were born between 1 July 1955 and 31 December 1956. 67 years, if you were born on or after 1 January 1957.
On 1 December 2022, a one-off $4,000 income credit was added to the Work Bonus income bank of those at least pension age and in receipt of an Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment or certain Veterans entitlement. Prior to 1 December 2022, the Work Bonus income bank was capped at $7,800.
We include most real estate you own in your assets test. The only real estate asset we don't include is your principal home.
It's recommended to have a net worth of six-times your annual income at age 50. This figure is based on a popular savings chart from Fidelity.
Assuming that the average mortgage age in Australia starts somewhere between 25 and 34 years, then to work out the average age to pay off a mortgage in Australia, you just need to add a 25 to a 30-year term. This would make the average age to pay off a mortgage in Australia between 50 and 64 years.
According to data on 78.2 million Credit Karma members, members of Generation X (ages 43 to 58) carry the highest average total debt — $61,036.
It might make sense, for example, to put the money into paying off your mortgage early if you struggle with keeping money in the bank. Your home can be a forced-savings tool, and making extra mortgage payments can save you thousands of dollars in interest over time, plus help you build equity in your home faster.
The Cons. Higher interest rate: With a 30-year mortgage, most borrowers will have a higher interest rate than shorter-term fixed-rate mortgages. The longer a lender has to wait to be repaid, the bigger they deem the loan a risk, so they charge higher interest rates.
If a shorter term makes repayments too expensive, consider the longer 30-year term. If interest rates go up later, your repayments will increase more if you have a shorter term, so make sure you consider rate rises when you budget for your mortgage.