Home loans with part-⁠time employment: what income will count?

Yes, permanent part-time income can count.

I start with the ordinary hours your employer has guaranteed. I then check extra shifts, overtime, penalties and income from another job separately because the lender may not treat every part of your payslip the same way.

I supplied the permanent contract and 12 months of consistent payslips so the guaranteed hours could be assessed manually.

Nicole's $336k loan was unconditionally approved. Working 3 days a week was not the problem. The first calculation had put her income in the wrong category.

Paid leave, super, tax withholding, a payslip and an ongoing contract can support a permanent PAYG classification. Fewer weekly hours do not turn that arrangement into casual work.

If your hours are casual, use the casual employment guide. If the role has an end date, pays a day rate or uses an ABN, use the contractor income guide. If several income types overlap, use the income and employment home loan guide to see how each type may be assessed.

If you also earn bonuses or commission, identify those separately from your guaranteed part-time pay.

The base classification matters. CBA can verify a newly commenced employee with one recent payslip, or a contract plus the prior-year income statement. NAB can use an employer letter or contract before the first payslip. UBank explicitly accepts permanent full-time and part-time employees during probation. Bankwest can use one acceptable payslip for base full-time or part-time income.

Those are different ways to prove the income, not promises of approval. If the role itself is new or probation is the main concern, start with the new job and probation guide.

Consider a nurse with 30 guaranteed hours a week at $48 an hour, plus $12,000 a year in overtime and penalties.

The calculation changed how much of the extra pay counted. The job and payslip stayed the same. These examples show different treatments of the $12,000 variable income; they do not predict which figure a lender will accept.

The base pay and the extra pay answer different questions. A bank may use all regular overtime in some jobs, while another starts at 80% or less. It may also want a different amount of history from the time the overtime has actually been running.

Use the year-to-date calculator to estimate annual income from your payslip, then check how the lender treats each type of extra pay.

Moving from 5 days to 4 does not automatically stop a home loan. It does make the old year-to-date figure less useful on its own.

A payslip may contain income earned before and after the change. Annualising that mixed total can overstate what will continue. Establish the new ordinary base from the contract variation and a current payslip. Keep the earlier higher hours as history, rather than assuming they will continue.

If you have moved from casual work to permanent part-time employment, show when the change took effect and which hours are now guaranteed. Bring the new contract and a payslip for the current arrangement; keep the earlier casual history separate.

Do not ask an employer to promise future hours that are not agreed. A factual letter can confirm the current arrangement and effective date. The contract and actual pay should still support it.

Two part-time salaries should not be added together until each job has passed its own check.

Our second job home loan guide explains how lenders check the second role’s income, work history and hours.

Lenders set different limits on combined working hours. ING, Resimac and ME Bank cap combined work at 60 hours a week. People First uses 50 hours. Other lenders check how long you have held both jobs or whether you can keep working those hours, rather than publishing an hours cap. That is why a 55-hour week can be treated differently across lenders.

First I check whether the second income can be used. Then I check whether both jobs can realistically continue without turning every week into a grind. I would answer both before relying on the larger borrowing figure.

A second PAYG job and work you invoice through an ABN need different checks. If your extra earnings come from driving, deliveries or freelance work through an ABN, we need to assess the self-employed income separately from your part-time wage.

Keep the records for each income source separate and tell us when the work started. The self-employed home loan guide explains the evidence for business income. A recent strong month is not enough on its own to establish what income will continue.

For the broader timeline and document check, use the home loan job requirements guide.

I compare today's evidence with the next date that would change what the lender can assess.

A larger loan is not automatically the better answer. I would rather know which income is genuinely repeatable before building repayments around it.

If you work through a labour-hire or temp agency, the temporary or agency work guide covers the history and documents lenders ask for.

Hunter Galloway Finance Pty Ltd is Credit Representative 476903, authorised under Australian Credit Licence 389328. This page contains general information and is not a credit assessment, tax, employment or legal advice, or a promise of approval.

Client examples are based on real situations. Names and identifying details have been changed.