Home loans for 491 visa holders

What lenders look at

A 491 application gets the same questions as any other: income, living expenses, debts, deposit and credit file. On top of that come the visa questions, and those decide which lenders will look at the application at all.

FIRB and the established-home ban

For FIRB, a 491 holder is a temporary resident, and temporary residents are foreign persons. Spending more than 200 days a year in Australia does not change that. Two rules follow from it.

You need approval before you buy. FIRB approval is needed for a new dwelling or for vacant land, and on vacant land the home must be finished within four years. There is an application fee, set by the price (see the FIRB fees page). If the developer holds a New or Near-New Dwelling Exemption Certificate for the project, you don’t need your own approval for a home in it. Ask the developer for a copy before you sign.

Established homes are off the table for now. Foreign persons, including temporary residents, are generally banned from buying established dwellings from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029. The ban was due to end on 31 March 2027 and was extended in the 2026-27 Budget. Its exceptions are commercial, such as large redevelopments, so they don’t help someone buying a home to live in.

What you can buy is a new home sold for the first time, an off-the-plan apartment or townhouse, or vacant land to build on. If you later move out, keep in mind that foreign owners pay an annual vacancy fee when a home isn’t lived in or genuinely available to rent for at least 183 days a year.

If your spouse is an Australian citizen or permanent resident and you buy together as joint tenants (not tenants in common), you don’t need FIRB approval. Whether that exemption also covers an established home during the ban isn’t settled in the guidance we checked, so confirm it with FIRB before relying on it.

Duty, concessions and grants in each state

The state the property is in decides the duty, not the state that nominated you. What the 491 changes is your status: states that charge a foreign buyer surcharge treat temporary visa holders as foreign, and most first home concessions need at least one buyer who is a citizen or permanent resident.

Deposit and LMI

The 5% Deposit Scheme is closed to you while you hold the 491. Every applicant must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the home loan date, and a couple with one temporary-visa holder doesn’t qualify, even if permanent residence has been applied for. Help to Buy is for Australian citizens only.

That leaves a standard home loan. Lenders that accept 491 applicants often set a lower maximum loan-to-value ratio (LVR) than for citizens, and the lenders mortgage insurer may have its own rules for temporary residents. In practice, plan on a larger deposit than a citizen buying the same home, and on lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) if you borrow more than 80% of the value.

Your savings also have to cover costs a citizen doesn’t pay. In the NSW scenario below, surcharge purchaser duty and the FIRB fee add $74,100 before transfer duty is counted.

We don’t publish a maximum LVR for the 491 because it differs by lender and changes during the year. At your consultation we check the current limit for your situation with the lenders on our panel.

Condition 8579 and where you can buy

Condition 8579 says that while you are in Australia you must live, work and study only in a part of Australia that was a designated regional area when your visa was granted. Designated regional areas are all of Australia except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Wollongong and the Illawarra are in Category 2, the cities and major regional centres.

For a home loan, that has three effects:

• The condition is about where you live, work and study, not where you own property. But the home you buy to live in has to be in a designated regional area, and lenders assess it that way.
• A move to a Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane job breaches the condition and puts the 191 at risk. It also changes the income the lender assessed.
• Some lenders lend less against homes in small regional towns. We check the postcode against lender policy early.

Here are the NSW postcodes Home Affairs lists. For other states, use the regional postcodes page linked in Sources.

Moving from the 491 to the 191

The Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa, subclass 191, is the permanent visa for 491 and 494 holders. You can apply after holding the 491 for at least three years and complying with its conditions. You need ATO notices of assessment for three income years, and there is no minimum income requirement.

When the 191 is granted, the home loan picture changes:

• You are a permanent resident, so you no longer need FIRB approval and the established-home ban no longer applies to you.
• In NSW, surcharge purchaser duty no longer applies once you meet the 200-day residence test, and the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme and First Home Owner Grant open up if you are a first home buyer.
• The 5% Deposit Scheme becomes available, provided everyone on the loan is a citizen or permanent resident.
• More lenders will consider the application, and many assess permanent residents the same way as citizens.

Some 491 holders plan for a 189 instead. If your last substantive visa was a 491, Home Affairs requires you to have held it for at least three years before applying for a 189. For visa strategy, speak to a registered migration agent. We look at the lending side.

Whether to buy now or wait is a trade-off between renting for longer and paying the extra costs of buying as a foreign person. We work through both with your own numbers.

Documents checklist

Expect the standard list below. On a 491 application lenders read the visa grant notice closely for condition 8579 and the expiry date, and they want to see the FIRB approval before settlement.

• Passport
• Visa grant notice
• VEVO check showing visa conditions and expiry
• Recent payslips
• Employment contract or employer letter
• Bank statements showing savings and deposit source
• ATO notice of assessment or income statement
• FIRB approval letter, or the developer's New or Near-New Dwelling Exemption Certificate
• Contract of sale showing the property address in a designated regional area
• Partner's documents too, if you are both on the loan

This list is common lender practice, not a government rule. Each lender sets its own requirements, so we send you a checklist for the lender we recommend.

Illustrative scenario: a new townhouse in regional NSW

A couple both hold 491 visas: one was nominated by NSW, the other is the secondary applicant. They live and work in a city in the Hunter region, inside a designated regional area, and have held the visa for two years. Neither has owned property. They have found a new three-bedroom townhouse, sold by the developer, and have saved a 20% deposit.

The table compares buying now, on the 491, with buying the same home after both have been granted the 191.

Common mistakes