About canweaffordit.com.au

What it does

Buying a home involves up to ten upfront costs, each set by a different body: the lender, the state revenue office, the mortgage insurer, the conveyancer, the land registry. This site puts them in one calculation, from government and openly licensed data, and shows the formula behind every figure.

The standard affordability benchmark is housing costs of no more than 30% of gross household income. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare counts lower-income households paying more than 30% of gross income in rent as in rental stress. The map colours every suburb against that 30% line for your income.

Home loan rates come daily from the Consumer Data Right feed of each lender in the CDR register (banks, credit unions, building societies and some others); rents from state rental-bond data; duty, tax and grants from the revenue offices and the ATO. The data sources page lists each one with its licence and when it was last updated.

Who's behind it

Why we built this

A repayment figure on its own leaves out stamp duty, mortgage insurance and the APRA serviceability buffer, and says nothing about which suburbs a budget reaches. Every calculator here includes them.

The site is funded by advertising, a few paid guides, and referral fees where an agreement with a provider exists; each paid link is labelled. Payment never changes a figure, a ranking or what is shown. The methodology page sets out the rules.

This site shows the figures for first home buyers, investors and renters, including unfavourable ones. Examples: a suburb out of reach, a $20,000 LMI premium, or a negatively geared property running a $1,200 monthly cash deficit before any tax benefit.

How our calculators work

Every calculator uses a documented formula. Every output traces back to a clear mathematical model. No proprietary algorithms.

The 30% income rule

Our affordability scoring uses the standard 30% gross income benchmark endorsed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the ABS, and most state housing affordability frameworks. A suburb is classified as:

• Affordable if the estimated mortgage repayment (or median rent) is below 30% of gross household income
• Moderate stress if housing costs fall between 30% and 50% of gross household income
• Severe stress if housing costs exceed 50% of gross household income

The 30% threshold is a widely used heuristic, not a financial safe harbour. It does not account for household size, other debts or living costs. The raw dollar figures are shown alongside it, so the result is not a single percentage.

The 80% LVR model

Buy affordability defaults to an 80% loan-to-value ratio (LVR), a 20% deposit. At or below 80% LVR, most lenders do not require Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). Above 80% LVR, LMI applies. It can add $5,000 to $35,000 or more to the purchase cost, depending on loan amount and LVR.

Lower deposit scenarios (5%, 10%) show the LMI cost and the higher monthly repayments. Under the First Home Guarantee (formerly FHLDS), eligible buyers can purchase with a 5% deposit and no LMI. The federal government guarantees up to 15% of the loan. The calculator models this scheme.

Stamp duty methodology

Stamp duty ("transfer duty" in most states) uses the official rate schedules published by each state and territory revenue office. Separate rate tables:

• NSW, Revenue NSW
• VIC, State Revenue Office Victoria
• QLD, Queensland Revenue Office
• WA, WA Department of Finance
• SA, RevenueSA
• ACT, ACT Revenue Office
• TAS, State Revenue Office Tasmania
• NT, NT Revenue Office

First home buyer concessions and exemptions vary by state, property type, property value and buyer circumstances. They are modelled separately and applied from your inputs. The Methodology page documents the specific rules and thresholds applied in each state.

Mortgage repayment formula

Monthly repayments use the standard amortisation formula:

M = P × [r(1+r)ⁿ] / [(1+r)ⁿ − 1]

Where M is the monthly repayment, P is the principal (loan amount),r is the monthly interest rate (annual rate ÷ 12), and n is the total number of monthly payments (loan term in years × 12). Every major bank and financial calculator uses this formula. The inputs behind every figure are shown.

Our data sources

All data comes from Australian government bodies or openly licensed public datasets. No data from commercial real estate platforms. No scraping, and no republishing in breach of any terms of service.

Complete dataset inventory, with source URLs, data licences, update schedules and last-updated timestamps: Data Sources page.

Our commitment to transparency

Transparency is not a marketing claim for us. It is a structural constraint we build to. Every figure on this Site must trace back to a documented formula, a cited government source, or a stated assumption. If you can't verify how a number was produced, we shouldn't be showing it.

This means we make deliberate choices that sometimes make our tools look less impressive:

• We show costs, not just benefits. Every mortgage calculator shows the total interest payable over the life of the loan: which, on a 30-year $700,000 mortgage at 6.5%, is more than $840,000 in interest alone. Banks don't typically highlight this figure.
• We model LMI and show it explicitly. If you input a deposit below 20%, we calculate the estimated LMI premium and add it to the total cost of purchase. This is a real cost that is often buried or ignored.
• We show the APRA serviceability buffer. Lenders are required by APRA to assess whether borrowers can afford repayments at 3% above the loan rate. A borrower approved at a 6.5% rate must demonstrate they can service at 9.5%. We model this in our borrowing capacity calculator.
• We label estimates as estimates. Every calculator output is clearly labelled as an illustrative estimate. We display the assumptions used interest rate, loan term, deposit percentage, so you can adjust them and understand the sensitivity.
• We link to the data source. Where possible, we link directly to the government page or dataset from which each figure is sourced, so you can verify it yourself.

We also acknowledge the limits of what we can calculate. Your individual borrowing capacity depends on your credit history, employment stability, other debts, and the specific assessment criteria of each lender, none of which we can access. Our estimates are a starting point, not a final answer. The final answer comes from a licensed mortgage broker or lender.

Our principles

Coverage, 15,000+ Australian suburbs

Our suburb database covers more than 15,000 Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions and suburb-equivalents across all 8 states and territories, drawn from the ABS 2021 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). This is the same geographic framework used by the ABS for Census data, property price statistics, and government reporting.

For each suburb, we model buy affordability (based on median dwelling value and median household income), rent affordability (based on ABS rental data where available), and first home buyer scheme eligibility (based on state-specific property price caps for the FHBG, RFHBG, and state grant programs).

Suburb-level median dwelling values are updated periodically from the ABS Residential Property Price Indexes and supplementary data. Where suburb-level data is unavailable, we use the most granular available geographic aggregate (typically SA3 or SA4 level). The data freshness indicator shown on each suburb and calculator page shows the date of the most recent data update.

What we are not

canweaffordit.com.au is not a financial advice service. We do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) or Australian Credit Licence (ACL). We cannot recommend specific loan products, investment strategies, or whether any particular property represents good value for your circumstances.

We are an information and education platform. The appropriate use of our tools is to build your understanding before you engage with licensed professionals mortgage brokers, financial advisers, accountants, solicitors, who can give advice tailored to your individual circumstances.

For our full legal disclaimer including limitation of liability and governing law, see the Disclaimer page.

Contact

Questions, data corrections, feedback, or media enquiries: contact us here.

Privacy-related matters (access requests, correction requests, complaints under the Privacy Act 1988): privacy@canweaffordit.com.au

Advertising and partnership enquiries: advertise with us.

If you believe any data on this Site is inaccurate or out of date, please get in touch. We take data quality seriously and will investigate and correct any verified errors promptly.