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Free calculator

Know the real number before you buy.

Find the price you can actually live with, and see what it really costs to own before you commit. One number is all you need: what you can pay each week, fortnight or month.

Find my price

Built for NSW home buyers. Every assumption is editable.

Working backwards

What can I actually afford?

It finds the highest price that fits your number, then tests it against rate rises. Stretch to the bank's max if you want to. Just know what the rates, insurance, maintenance and bills add before you do. The defaults are typical Sydney numbers. Change any you know.

1 My number
2 My cash and deposit
3 Costs of owning
Step 1

The number I can live with

Everything in. Mortgage, rates, insurance, maintenance and bills.

Sets typical Sydney running costs in Step 3. Change any you know.
$
Pick the amount you could hand over every week, fortnight or month and still live the way you want. Switch between the three and the number converts. What you're renting for / saving now is a clue, not the answer.
% p.a.
Set to a typical rate for a new loan with a 20% deposit. Leave it unless a broker has quoted you one.Most people don't know their rate yet, so we've put in 6.25%. That's about the middle of what lenders are offering a buyer with a 20% deposit as at September 2026. If you're borrowing more than 80% of the price the calculator adds a loading on top. If a broker has already quoted you a rate for your deposit, type it in and tick the box that appears here.
years
Step 2

My cash and deposit

What I've got, what I want to keep aside, and how I'll handle the deposit.

Unlocks the government deposit scheme and the NSW stamp duty break.
$
Savings, gifts you've actually received, grants already approved, and sale proceeds you're confident of. Not money you're hoping for.
Under 20% and the bank makes you pay for insurance that protects them, not you. Going for 20% usually means a lower price, but a cheaper loan and cash left in the bank. That's the point of working backwards. A set amount does the same with your own figure: that much goes in, the rest stays in the bank, and if it's under 20% of the price the insurance and rate loading apply.
$
Left in the bank after you buy. That's about 3 months of your number.This is money for the house and for life. Three months of your number is a starting point, not an emergency fund. If your income stopped, you'd need the groceries, the car and the kids covered too.

Bank pre-approval

Optional
$

It doesn't change your price. The results just show the gap between what the bank would lend you and what your number actually carries.

Buying and moving costs

One off amounts
$
$
Budget for more than one. You'll probably miss out on a place before you win one.
$
$
$
This could include a buyer’s agent fee. Maybe even the one you found on Instagram.
After keeping $15,000 aside as a buffer, $235,000 is available for stamp duty, buying costs and the deposit. Stamp duty is worked out at the price found. Everything after stamp duty and costs goes into the deposit. The bank needs at least 5%.
Step 3

Costs of owning

Yearly costs. These come out of your weekly number before the mortgage does.

Home ownership costs

Annual amounts
$
$
$
$
Low-rise about $3k to $5k a year, mid-rise with a lift $5k to $8k, high-rise $8k plus.
$
Averaged out. It might be $1,000 one year and $9,000 the next. Typically less for a unit, since strata covers the building.
$
Pool upkeep, gardening, pest control, gutter cleaning, alarm monitoring. The stuff nobody mentions at the open home.

Household running costs

Annual amounts
$
$
Of $1,500 a week, about $279 goes to the ownership and household costs in Step 3. That leaves $1,221 a week for the mortgage.
Working backwards from my number

You could look at homes up to about $1,000,000.

Highest price that fits$1,000,000

What that purchase looks like

Loan$0
Deposit$0
Stamp duty$0Legally called transfer duty
Cash kept aside$0

If interest rates rise

The same number buys less when rates go up. Buy under the buffered price and a 1% rise still fits your number. The bank tests you at 3% above your rate, so this is the kinder test.

Buy under the buffered price and a 1% rise still fits your number.

At the entered rate$0
Rate +1%$0
If you buy at the top price$0/wk
Price with a 1% rate buffer$0
$
$

Where the week goes at the top price

How your number is split at the highest price that fits.

Mortgage repayments$0
Council and water$0
Insurance and strata$0
Maintenance and other ownership costs$0
Household running costs$0
Total weekly home budget$0

Where the money goes

Mortgage0%
Other ownership costs0%
Household running costs0%
Deposit treatmentStandard home loan

Got your number? See what it actually buys.

Send me the number, the suburb and what you want. I'll send three properties that fit, or the closest thing if nothing does, with a line on why each one is there.

See what fits
Why backwards

The bank tells you what it will lend. It doesn't tell you what the house costs to run.

The usual method takes the biggest loan on offer, adds your savings and calls the total your budget. Then the rates, insurance, maintenance and bills land on top, and you find out what you've signed up for after settlement. This calculator puts those costs in first, so the price you see already has them covered. It's not about hamstringing yourself. Sydney is competitive and plenty of people stretch. It's about knowing exactly what the stretch costs before you make it, so you go in with your eyes open.

The usual method takes the biggest loan on offer, adds your savings and calls that the budget. The running costs land on top after settlement. This puts them in first. Stretch if you want to, but know what it costs before you do.

Your number comes firstPick the amount you are comfortable with each week, fortnight or month, all in. The bank's max, or well under it. Your call, as long as it's a number you've actually looked at.
Costs come off before the mortgageRates, insurance, maintenance and bills are taken out of the weekly number first. What is left carries the loan.
Cash and deposit set the ceilingStamp duty, buying costs and your buffer come out of your funds. The rest is deposit, and your deposit plan caps the price.
Rate rises are testedSee what the same weekly number buys if rates rise 1%, and a buffered price to search under.
Important

This is a budgeting estimate, not financial advice.

The calculator uses the figures entered and simplified assumptions. It does not assess borrowing capacity, loan approval, eligibility for grants or concessions, or whether a purchase is affordable for a particular household. A lender may approve less, or more, than the price shown here.

  • The price found is the highest purchase price where the weekly cost of the mortgage plus the ongoing costs entered stays inside the weekly number, and where the cash left after stamp duty, buying costs, any buffer and any mortgage insurance paid from cash covers the deposit. With “as much as I can” that deposit is all of that cash (the bank needs at least 5%); with “enough to dodge mortgage insurance” the deposit is exactly 20% of the price and any spare cash stays in the bank; with “a set amount” the deposit is the dollar figure entered (it must be at least 5% of the price), any spare cash stays in the bank, and mortgage insurance and the rate loading apply if it is under 20%. The mortgage is worked out on principal and interest repayments over the loan term entered, at the rate entered plus any loading described below. A second price is shown for a rate 1% higher, worked out the same way, and the two are presented as a range. The range is a guide, not a guarantee.
  • NSW general stamp duty rates (legally called transfer duty) are based on Revenue NSW rates for contracts dated from 1 July 2026. Rates and thresholds can change.
  • When eligibility is confirmed, the calculator applies the NSW first home buyer full exemption up to $800,000 or the statutory concession above $800,000 and below $1 million. Eligibility and the final dutiable value must still be confirmed with Revenue NSW and the buyer’s solicitor or conveyancer.
  • For a standard loan above 80% LVR, the calculator adds a mortgage insurance allowance that rises with the loan to value ratio: about 1.2% of the base loan up to 85% LVR, 1.8% to 88%, 2.4% to 90%, 3.2% to 92% and 4.2% to 95%. The insurance is added to the loan only as far as 95% of the price; any remainder is treated as paid from cash. Premiums vary by insurer, lender and loan size, so this is an approximation, not a quote. Replace it with the lender or broker’s figure before acting.
  • For a standard loan above 80% LVR the calculator also adds a rate loading of 0.25%, and 1.00% above 90%, on top of the rate entered, worked out on the loan before any mortgage insurance is added. These sit in the middle of the LVR bands published by a handful of Australian lenders in 2026 (roughly 0.20% to 0.55% for 80 to 90%, and 0.50% to 1.25% above 90%) and are a planning assumption, not a quote from any lender. No loading is applied on the government scheme or family guarantee paths, or when the user confirms the rate entered already includes their deposit loading. If a mortgage insurance waiver is ticked, insurance is removed up to 90% LVR only, the rate loading still applies, and eligibility must be confirmed by the lender. Some lenders also reduce or remove the rate loading for waiver-eligible professions; the calculator does not assume this, and a quoted rate can be entered with the “already includes my deposit loading” box ticked instead.
  • If a pre-approval amount is entered, it is shown next to the loan your weekly number carries as a comparison only. It does not change the price found, and the calculator does not check whether any lender would approve the loan shown.
  • The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme is only modelled as a budgeting pathway. Its price cap is applied as a limit on the price found, the minimum deposit is 5% (2% for the single parent stream), all cash left after the buffer, stamp duty and buying costs goes into the deposit in the same way as “put in everything”, and the loan term is capped at 30 years. Eligibility, valuation, participating lender requirements and loan approval must be confirmed by the lender.
  • A family guarantee is modelled as the guarantor’s property standing in for the deposit, so the buyer can borrow the price plus stamp duty and buying costs with no mortgage insurance. Any cash left after the buffer reduces the loan. Lenders differ on what they allow, and the guarantor takes on real risk. Both the guarantor and the buyer should get independent legal and financial advice.
  • The buffer is the cash you’d like left over after you buy, entered as a dollar amount or as months of your weekly number, and set aside from the funds available before anything else is worked out. It can never be more than the funds available, so if funds are reduced below it the buffer reduces with them. It is a budgeting choice, not a lender requirement.
  • Displayed figures are rounded. The “every extra $100 a week” and “every extra $10,000 saved” lines simply re-run the same estimate with that one change. They show what a change would do to the price, not whether you should make it.
  • Foreign purchaser surcharges, government grants and property specific adjustments are not calculated automatically.
  • Insurance, maintenance, utilities and other ownership costs vary by property and household. The defaults are typical Sydney figures for the property type selected, and the maintenance figure is an average across years, not what any one year will cost. Replace them with real quotes where you can.
  • Check the numbers with a broker, lender, solicitor or conveyancer before acting.