Private first mortgages for Australian property

Security types and LVR

Archer writes first mortgages against residential, commercial and vacant land security, and the LVR band follows the security type rather than the product. The card is organised that way on purpose: recovery value is a property question, not a product question. The bands below apply across the branded suite.

The policy edge cases a bank declines and Archer underwrites

The policy edge cases a bank declines are mostly timing and paperwork, not credit. A bank decline is the output of a formula applied at scale. It is not a statement that the file is bad, and on a well-secured deal with a real exit it frequently is not.

• Recently self-employed. A borrower in the first two years of trading, where bank serviceability requires financials that do not yet exist.
• ATO arrears with a plan. Acceptable where there is an evidenced payment plan, or where the debt is repaid at settlement.
• Mixed-use security. A property that does not sit cleanly in a residential or a commercial box.
• Complex group structures. Trusts and multiple entities that a branch-level assessment cannot follow.
• A deadline. An auction or a contracted settlement running tighter than a bank's assessment cycle.

What is offered here is real underwriting on policy edge cases, which in practice means a BDM reads the file and gives a position quickly, including a fast no with a reason where the answer is no.

What it costs and how fast it settles

A first mortgage costs an interest rate set by security type and LVR, an establishment fee and the third party costs, and it settles within 5 business days on a clean file. Indicative terms typically come back the same business day. Complex files run one to three weeks, and on most of them the valuation, not the credit assessment, sets the date.

1. 01
   Scenario in, indicative terms out

   Same business day, given a security address, a loan amount, the purpose and the exit.
2. 02
   Formal submission and credit approval

   Two to five days from submission to a letter of offer. A file that arrives complete is assessed faster than one assembled in stages.
3. 03
   Valuation and legals

   A full independent valuation from an approved panel valuer, dated within 90 days at credit approval and within 120 days at settlement.
4. 04
   Settlement

   Within 5 business days on cleaner files. Complex files run one to three weeks.

What is not part of that timetable is a first mortgagee consent step, because there is no prior mortgagee to consent. That is one practical reason a first mortgage settles faster than a second over the same property, and it is worth weighing where the existing loan is being repaid anyway.

The complete card of pricing by security and LVR is published in one place and kept current, rather than restated here where it would drift. All pricing is indicative and subject to credit approval.

First or second

A first mortgage is the right structure where the existing loan is being repaid anyway, and a second is the right structure where an existing first is worth keeping, typically a fixed rate below today's variable. The difference is not the borrower, it is what happens to the loan already on title. Where the decision is genuinely open, this first mortgage compared with a second sets out the recovery position, the pricing difference and the consent step that only applies to one of them.

The questions brokers ask