Public Servant Home Loans Canberra
We read how your Canberra APS engagement is actually structured, find the lenders whose policy treats it best, and check whether an LMI waiver is available on your specific role. It costs you nothing, because the lender pays us, and on the same salary that lender choice can change what you can borrow substantially.
Up to 90%, no LMI
What a professional waiver is worth where the lender covers your occupation. The lists differ sharply between lenders and change without notice. Nobody qualifies automatically.
Lender policy, current at August 2026
What We Sort Out For APS Staff
We read how your employment is actually structured, identify the lenders whose policy treats that structure favourably, and prepare the application to suit. Where an occupation-based LMI waiver might apply, we check it against each lender’s current list rather than assuming it.
If you are ongoing, this is usually straightforward. If you are non-ongoing, on contract or engaged through an agency, it is the whole job. Your file can be a comfortable approval at one lender and a decline at another on identical income, so choosing correctly is what we are here for.
How Lenders Will Read Your APS Income
If your position is ongoing, a lender reads it as stable PAYG employment, which is the most straightforward income there is to assess. Probation is usually no barrier either, particularly where your role continues previous work in the same field. So for you the work is mostly getting the file clean and the lender sharp rather than arguing your income.
A lender assesses your allowances and overtime separately from your base salary, and this is where lenders diverge: some count them in full, some at a proportion, some not at all without a long history. For Canberra applicants that single policy difference is often worth more than any rate discount. If a meaningful share of what you earn comes from allowances, which lender we send you to directly changes what you can borrow, so we ask for the full income breakdown rather than the headline figure.
Higher duties is the one we always want you to raise with us explicitly, because it is so common across the Canberra APS. It is often temporary and lenders take sharply different views on counting it, so we would rather put it forward with the right supporting evidence to a lender that accepts it than have an assessor find it unexplained in your payslips.
If You Are Non-Ongoing, On Contract Or Labour-Hire
This is where a generic broker page stops being useful to you. A lender assesses your non-ongoing or contract engagement on a different footing from an ongoing role, and it commonly wants demonstrated history: prior contracts, evidence of renewals, or a stated intention to renew from your employer. We work out which of those you can supply and build the application around it.
Labour-hire is the hardest case we handle in Canberra. If you are engaged through an agency rather than by the department directly, many lenders treat your income as casual and want six to twelve months of history before counting it at all, and some want longer. A few read a long-running agency placement far more favourably, and identifying those lenders for you is most of the value here.
Timing is something we can use on your behalf here. Applying immediately after a renewal with the new contract in hand presents completely differently from applying in the last two months of a term with nothing signed, so where your renewal is close we will often tell you to wait a few weeks. That advice costs you nothing and is frequently the single biggest improvement available to your file.
Whether You Can Avoid Paying LMI
Some lenders waive Lenders Mortgage Insurance for particular occupations, which would let you borrow up to 90% of a Canberra property value with no premium payable at all. Where it applies to you it is worth a substantial sum on a single purchase, so we check it on every file rather than only when asked.
Two things get misunderstood and we would rather set your expectations honestly. The lists differ sharply between lenders and change without notice, so an occupation covered by one lender this quarter may not be covered by another or by the same lender next quarter. And being a Canberra public servant does not qualify you automatically. The lists are built around specific professional categories, which can include senior government roles alongside legal, accounting, medical, finance and technology occupations, but each lender defines its own eligibility rather than covering a sector.
That is why you will not find a list on this page. Publishing one would be out of date within months and would raise an expectation we could not stand behind. Instead we check your specific role, classification and qualifications against each lender’s policy as it stands on the day you apply, and tell you plainly whether a waiver is open to you or not.
What We Check On Your Employment
In roughly the order these change the answer on a Canberra application.
- Engagement type
- Ongoing, non-ongoing, contract, or labour-hire through an agency. This has more effect on the outcome than the salary figure does.
- Length of history
- Time in the role and time in the sector. Continuity of work matters more than continuity with one employer for most lenders.
- Income composition
- Base salary, allowances, higher duties, shift work and overtime. The proportion that is not base salary is the part lenders differ on.
- Probation status
- Often acceptable, but not universally, and the position is different for an ongoing appointment than for a new non-ongoing one.
- Occupation waiver eligibility
- Whether your specific role appears on a given lender’s professional list. Checked at the time, never assumed.
Buying In Canberra While On Probation
If you have just moved departments or agencies you are probably inside a probation period, because that is normal here and every move can start a new one. It is not the barrier you may have been told it is, and we would rather check than have you postpone a purchase unnecessarily.
Most lenders will consider you as an ongoing employee on probation, particularly where your new role continues similar work in the same field. Some require the probation to have finished, and a few take a harder line where your move also crossed from one employment type to another. So we match you to a lender whose policy fits your exact situation instead of testing the market with your credit file.
What we will ask you for is your employment contract and evidence of the continuous work history behind it. A clean run of prior service in the same field carries considerable weight with an assessor even when your current position is only weeks old, and presenting it that way is our job rather than yours.
From Employment Check To Settlement In Canberra
We spend longer on step one than on a standard Canberra application, because what we find there decides everything after it.
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Employment and income review
Engagement type, contract terms, renewal history, and the split between base salary and allowances. Bring the contract, not just payslips.
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Lender matching
Against policies for your engagement type, plus a check of current professional waiver lists for your specific role.
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Capacity across the shortlist
Run through several lenders. The spread on non-ongoing and labour-hire income is wide, and it is worth seeing the range.
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Pre-approval
Lodged with the lender that reads your employment most favourably, not simply the cheapest advertised rate.
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Contract to settlement
If your engagement is due for renewal during the process, tell us. Lenders can re-verify employment right before settlement.
Worth having to hand: your employment contract or letter of engagement with its end date, two recent payslips, and your APS classification and level. On a non-ongoing or labour-hire engagement the contract matters more than the payslips, because the end date is what a lender prices your income on.
Public Servant Home Loans Questions
Do lenders favour APS and Commonwealth employment?
Ongoing APS employment reads to a lender as stable PAYG income, which is the most straightforward case there is to assess, so it is treated well. It does not attract a special product or an automatic discount. The advantage is in how reliably the income is accepted, not in a concession attached to the sector.
How is non-ongoing or contract income assessed?
On a different footing from ongoing employment. Lenders commonly want demonstrated history: prior contracts, evidence of renewals, or an employer statement of intention to renew. Policies vary widely, so the same file can be approved comfortably at one lender and declined at another.
Can I borrow while on probation?
Usually yes for an ongoing appointment, especially where the role continues similar work in the same field. Some lenders require probation to have finished. Have your employment contract and your prior work history to hand, because continuity in the sector carries real weight.
Do public servants get an LMI waiver?
Not automatically. Some lenders waive LMI up to 90% for particular occupations, and senior government roles appear on some of those lists alongside legal, accounting, medical, finance and technology occupations. The lists differ between lenders and change without notice, so we check your specific role against each lender’s current policy at the time you apply rather than relying on a list. That is why we publish none here.
How is labour-hire income treated?
Often as casual income, with six to twelve months of history required before it counts, and some lenders want more. A minority read a long-running agency placement considerably more favourably. Identifying those lenders for you is the main value we add in this situation.
What does it cost me to have my employment reviewed?
Nothing. We are paid by the lender that writes your loan and we disclose that payment to you in writing before you proceed. The employment review, the lender matching and the waiver check cost you nothing, including where the outcome is that you should wait a few weeks for a contract renewal before applying.
What do you need from me to start?
Your employment contract rather than just payslips, because the engagement type and any end date are what drive the assessment. Add your last two payslips, three months of statements and your card limits, and if you are on contract or through an agency, a record of prior engagements and renewals. That is enough to give you a borrowing range and the lenders that suit your engagement.
Have Your Employment Type Assessed First
If you are non-ongoing, on contract, engaged through an agency or inside a probation period, your contract tells us where you actually stand: the lenders that read your engagement best, a realistic borrowing range, whether an LMI waiver is open on your role, and whether you should apply now or wait for a renewal. Public servants across Canberra can have that done at no cost, before anything goes near a lender.
Ask about public servant home loans
Nothing here touches your credit file.