St.George home loans

St.George offers home loans that may be appropriate for first home buyers, refinancers, prospective house-builders, borrowers in need of bridging finance between home loans, property investors and more.

However, when it comes to what types of borrowers St.George lends to, there are a few points that prospective borrowers should keep in mind.

The first is that St.George has a minimum required loan-to-value ratio (LVR) of 95%, meaning youare unlikely to be approved for a home loan with St.George if your saved deposit is less than 5% of your total proposed loan size. Additionally, depending on the suburb a property’s located in, St.George may require a lower minimum LVR in order to reduce the perceived risk of lending against a property in that area.

St.George also likely won’t give you a home loan if you can’t repay your proposed home loan at a rate 3% higher than the advertised interest rate. This is because the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) requires all lenders to assess an applicant’s ability to service their proposed home loan in the event of interest rate hikes.

Yes, St.George provides home loans to first home buyers. While they don’t offer a specific first home buyer loan, they have several tools and resources available to help first home buyers navigate the process of buying a home for the first time.

Yes, St.George is one of the 33 participating lenders chosen by the Federal Government to offer the Home Guarantee Scheme. The Home Guarantee Scheme helps certain home buyers secure a home loan with a deposit smaller than 20%, without having to pay lenders mortgage insurance (LMI).

The Home Guarantee Scheme is made up of three separate initiatives:

• The First Home Guarantee, which allows eligible first home buyers to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 5%.
• The Family Home Guarantee, which allows eligible single parents to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 2%, regardless of whether they’re a first home buyer or not.
• The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, which allows eligible first home buyers to purchase homes in regional areas with a deposit of as little as 5%.

Applications for one of these schemes can only be made through a participating lender or a mortgage broker acting as an authorised representative of a participating lender.

Yes, you can switch your home loan to St.George from another bank by refinancing. Borrowers refinancing their loan with St.George can choose either a fixed or standard variable rate to switch to and can add an offset account to eligible loans.

Additionally, borrowers with St.George may be eligible for FASTRefi, which can cut the time required for settlement down to days instead of weeks.

St.George requires a borrower to take out lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) when the borrower’s deposit represents less than 20% of the total loan value; however, other circumstances may also necessitate the borrower paying LMI.

St.George allows borrowers to either pay their LMI upfront or roll it into their home loan, which is known as ‘capitalising’ your LMI.

As of May 31, 2024, St.George lists the following home loan fees and charges pertaining to its home loan products:

• Lending Establishment Fee: $600
• Document Processing Fee: $100
• Fixed Rate – Lock-In Fee: The higher of 0.15% of the loan amount or $500
• Annual Package Fee: $395
• Loan Account Fee: $8 per month
• Loan Discharge Fee: $350
• Missed Payment Fee: $15

Please note that not every fee listed will be applicable to every home loan offered by St.George. Check the Key Fact Sheet of any home loan product you’re looking at to see what fees you’d pay if you took out the loan in question.