Bridging Visa Home Loans: What’s Actually Possible

A home loan on a bridging visa is difficult but not impossible. Most banks decline because a bridging visa has no fixed end date to assess against. A small number of specialist lenders will consider it case-by-case, usually at lower lending ratios, weighing the visa application sitting behind it.

What you can buy on a bridging visa

A bridging visa holder is a temporary resident, so the federal ban applies: from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029, established dwellings are off-limits to purchase in your own name. New dwellings, off-the-plan property and vacant land you commit to building on remain available, each requiring FIRB approval before contract.

Many people on bridging visas are waiting on a partner visa. If your partner is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen and you buy together as joint tenants, the spouse exception applies — no FIRB approval, and established homes are back in reach. That single fact changes the whole strategy for a lot of couples, and we walk through it in detail in our guide to mixed-visa couples buying property.

What lenders will offer

The underwriting problem is not the bridging visa itself — it is uncertainty. Every other visa gives the lender an expiry date to anchor to; a bridging visa gives them an open-ended “until your application is decided”. Credit assessors struggle to price that, so most mainstream lenders simply decline.

The lenders that will look at bridging visa applicants are specialist and non-bank lenders, and they assess strictly case-by-case. Expect lower maximum lending ratios, a larger deposit requirement, and questions about the substantive application behind the bridging visa — what visa you have applied for, what stage it is at, and how strong the application looks. A bridging visa attached to a well-progressed partner or skilled PR application reads very differently from one attached to a contested matter.

Typical maximum LVR: Often 60–80% among the specialist and non-bank lenders that will consider bridging visa applicants; mainstream banks generally decline.

As at July 2026. Lender policies change without notice and every application is assessed case-by-case.

The sequencing question

If your substantive application is a partner or skilled PR application, the most valuable conversation is often not “which lender will take me?” but “should I buy now, buy jointly with my partner, or wait for the grant?”. Each path carries different FIRB, duty and lending consequences, and the right order depends on your application stage, your deposit and the property you want. That is a structuring conversation to have with a broker before you start inspecting homes.

The costs

Buying in your own name as a temporary resident means the FIRB application fee — indicatively around $15,100 for a purchase up to $1 million (confirm the current fee at firb.gov.au) — plus, in Queensland, Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty (AFAD) of 8% on the foreign buyer’s share of the purchase. On bridging-visa timelines those costs deserve extra scrutiny, because your status may change before settlement.

Run your own numbers with the foreign buyer duty calculator, and see our guide to FIRB approval for home buyers for the application process itself.

The PR horizon

For most bridging visa holders, the PR horizon is the substantive application itself — commonly a partner visa (leading to the 801 or 100) or a skilled permanent visa. Because the grant may be months away rather than years, the sequencing conversation matters more on a bridging visa than on any other subclass: buying now as a temporary resident and buying after grant can be tens of thousands of dollars apart.

Permanent residence changes everything at once: the FIRB requirement disappears, AFAD disappears, established homes come back into reach, and 5% deposit schemes open up to eligible buyers.