FREEDOM LEND
If you’re a good saver with a fair chunk of deposit, Freedom Lend can most likely offer you one of the sharpest rates in town. Its bread-and-butter product is Freedom Variable, which offers 1.99% on a loan-to-value ratio (LVR) of 60%.
While interest rates aren’t going to stay below 2% for long, Freedom Lend has a track record of providing very low rates for property investors willing to stump up as much as 40% of the deposit.
“Property investors are different to owner-occupied borrowers,” says the group’s director, Mark Huynh. “They can pretty much borrow funds from everyone, so they are looking for very competitive solutions.
“They want all the options, such as the redraw facility, the cheapest rate they can get and also a way to better manage the administrative side of the loan because they usually have property portfolios to look after.”
The Melbourne-based lender has ambitious plans and will broaden its products to reach overseas investors. Its global expansion is only matched by its dream to get a bigger slice of the self-managed super fund (SMSF) market, where it is steadily getting an increasing number of enquiries.
As an online lender, its shopfront is its website, which the group revamped last month. Huynh says the new platform will make it easier for borrowers to find information on the various products and apply for a loan online.
One of the biggest changes that new and existing customers can expect is Freedom’s upcoming auto-approval feature. “The loan applicant can have a quick understanding of where they’re at on the approval process within minutes of submission,” says Huynh.
The biggest drawcard is its suite of calculators under the one section of Freedom’s website. Most banks have calculators for stamp duty, mortgage repayments and borrowing power. With Freedom Lend, there are 24 calculators including “rent vs buy”, extra repayments and split loan calculators, which comes in handy specially for those who are looking to have some of their loan on fixed and the rest on variable.
Second-placegetter Firstmac was founded in Brisbane four decades ago and has now grown to manage more than $15 billion in mortgages. However, it doesn’t make its interest rates available on the website, which makes instant comparison hard for those who are shopping around for their property loan.
But it is worth a look for those interested in green home loans. New applicants can benefit from a lower upfront interest rate and a 0.6% discount for five years for buying or building an energy-efficient home. In the same vein, Firstmac also offers green car loans.
Illawarra Credit Union offers especially sharp rates, having also won Non-bank Home Lender of the Year (see page 56).