Stress-free home loans for the self-employed

Being self-employed doesn't mean that you can't own your home. The big banks can make it difficult for self-employed workers to get a home loan, often requiring them to jump through extra hoops or labelling them as too high-risk. As a non-bank lender, we specialise in self-employed home loan options. We're here to help those with non-standard incomes – including those with only 6 months of ABN and GST registration.

We take a careful look at both your personal and business cash flow to ensure that you can comfortably make your regular home loan repayments. Depending on the level of documentation that you can provide, self-employed borrowers generally fall into two categories: full doc or alt doc.

There are two types of income documentation options available: full documentation (Full Doc) or alternative documentation (Alt Doc).  

For Full Doc:

• Last one or two years’ tax returns and notice of assessments, or  
• Last one or two years’ financial statements executed by a registered tax agent or accountant  

For Alt Doc:

• Evidence of GST and ABN registration for at least 6 months, and  
• Declaration of financial position plus one of the following: 

• • 6 months of business bank statements, or 

  • 6 months of lodged Business Activity Statements (BAS), or  

  • Pepper Money accountant’s letter (eligibility criteria apply).  

Please note: the exact documentation required will be dependent on a full review of your situation. 

For a full breakdown of what’s needed and when, check out our home loan application checklist – it’s a simple way to feel confident and prepared.

If you work for yourself or fall under the category of “self-employed”, applying for a home loan can be quite a challenge even with regular income. All lenders will need to establish your income, assets, savings, and financial capacity to pay back a loan before considering your application. They may also look at the financial position of your business. Unfortunately, many mainstream lenders, like the banks, see self-employed people as high-risk borrowers. But this does not necessarily mean you cannot qualify for a home loan. When you're self-employed, you might need to look beyond the big banks to the non-banks like us at Pepper Money for a lending solution.

Here are some tips and tricks to help get your loan application approved.

On some of our loan options, we offer finance up to 95% of the purchase price, meaning you can start to look at buying a house once you've saved at least 5% of the purchase price. The deposit amount needed may also depend on the property and area you’re looking at purchasing.

Remember, you’ll also need funds to be able to cover any loan fees, stamp duty and other government charges. These can’t be added to your home loan balance.

The interest rate offered, and fees and charges will depend on our assessment of a number of factors at the time of application including:

• The amount of your deposit or existing equity (if refinancing)
• Nature of the security property (or the property you have equity in if refinancing)
• Loan to value ratio (LVR)
• Your income
• Credit history
• Any assets you own
• Any liabilities or credit obligations
• Chosen repayment type – paying off interest-only, or principal and interest
• The purpose of the loan – if it’s for an owner-occupier or investment property

Find out your indicative interest rate and estimated repayments^˅, or even apply online if eligible, all in just a few easy steps.

Certain Pepper Money fees can be added to your loan balance, while others will need to be paid upfront – fees that can be added include establishment or application fees, as well as risk fees or lender protection fees. A small admin fee will be added to your loan each month. 

Take a look at a summary of our home loan fees.   

The fees that can’t be added to your loan balance include solicitor fees along with local and state government taxes and levies – these are usually paid upon settlement.

Your Pepper Money Home Loan Journey – from application to actual settlement – can take up to six weeks – this is the typical timeframe for a home purchase, however, the process may be quicker if all the necessary documentation is provided sooner. 

Delays in decisions are most commonly caused by incorrect or missing documentation. 

Learn more about the Pepper Money Home Loan application process or for more information, speak to our helpful team on 137 377.

Our home loan borrowing capacity calculator asks a few easy questions (personal and financial) to calculate an estimate of how much you may be able to borrow with us at Pepper Money. After finding out how much you could potentially borrow, you can then either speak to our helpful lending team about your situation or continue to get an indicative interest rateˇ online.

See how much I can borrow

We’re one of Australia's leading non-bank lenders! 

We were established way back in 2000 to help Australians achieve their financial dreams by providing flexible financial loan options that could factor in the ups and downs of real life. Since then, we’ve become one of the largest, most trusted, and award-winning non-bank lenders in Australia and New Zealand.