ING Home Loan Review 2026

You can link one Orange Everyday account as a 100% offset for each eligible loan split. Money in the offset reduces the balance charged interest while remaining available to spend.

The catch: you do not get a group of separate offset accounts attached to the same split, and the loan has a $299 annual fee.

There is no monthly or annual loan fee, but there is also no offset account. This can suit someone who will not keep enough savings in an offset to justify paying for it.

The catch: the minimum total borrowing is $150k.

ING offers fixed terms from 1 to 5 years. Keep extra repayments below $10k in total in each fixed-rate year to avoid its extra-repayment break-cost rule. Paying $10k or more, selling or refinancing during the fixed term can trigger break costs.

ING’s detailed warning uses $10k or more, even though its headline says up to $10k. Check with ING before making a large extra payment. Extra repayments cannot be redrawn during the fixed term, and the fixed loan has no offset.

Planning a renovation? ING may release up to $150k in one payment for non-structural work when the total loan stays at 90% of the property value or less. Structural renovations, a new granny flat, business use and money for living expenses need another lender or loan structure.

ING also has a separate Green Upgrade Loan for eligible existing customers funding approved energy improvements. Check the project, loan balance, property value and current offer before relying on it.

The loan cannot be used to release extra cash or combine other debts into the home loan. ING also limits who can help and what the guarantor can offer as security.

You must be able to afford the repayments using your own income. The guarantor is responsible for an agreed part of the loan, not the whole amount.

Our guarantor home loan guide explains how a guarantee works, the risks for your family and how it may be removed.

ING does not automatically rule out a guarantor because they are retired. It looks at their age, assets and how they could repay the guaranteed amount if ING ever asked them to. This may help when a retired parent owns their home but receives the age pension.

The CBA and Bankwest policies reviewed for this guide were stricter when government benefits were the guarantor's only income.

ING limits its guarantor loan to a spouse or de facto partner, parent, grandparent, sibling or child. You cannot use cash or a term deposit instead of property, and the loan is not available for construction.

NAB and Macquarie do not offer this type of parent-backed guarantor loan through the broker channel.

Before anyone agrees to guarantee the loan: the guarantor should get independent legal advice and understand the maximum amount they could be responsible for, plus how the guarantee may later be removed.

ING may count the income you will earn after returning to work. You need to show the return date, role, hours and pay. ING will also check whether your savings and other income can cover the period before your normal pay starts again.

Our parental leave home loan guide explains the return-to-work evidence and savings to prepare.

• Have your employer confirm the return date and ongoing pay.
• Show the leave payments or other income you will receive before returning.
• Allow for childcare and other expenses once work resumes.

ING checks how much of your income it can count, your debts and living costs, and whether you could manage repayments if rates rise. Here is how that can affect your borrowing limit.

ING may leave your HELP repayment out when working out how much you can borrow. You'll need a current ATO record showing a balance of $15k or less, plus enough savings left after your deposit and buying costs to cover that balance in full. ING needs to verify those savings.

If you owe $12k, for example, you'd need at least $12k left once the money needed to complete your purchase is accounted for.

Before paying extra towards HECS, I'd compare your borrowing power and the savings you'd have left under each option. Your compulsory HELP repayments still continue even if ING leaves them out of its home loan calculation. Our HECS and home loan guide explains the options.

How much you can borrow depends on your income, credit history, postcode, property and any LMI requirements. Some higher-risk postcodes may be capped at 90% for an owner-occupied purchase.

ING also compares your total debt with your gross annual income. This is called debt-to-income, or DTI. For example, $600k of total debt against $100k of gross annual income is a DTI of 6.

ING generally wants total debt to stay below 8 times gross annual income.

The limit tightens. ING generally wants total debt to stay below 6 times gross annual income.

For credit cards, ING uses the card limit, not what you currently owe. A large existing mortgage, investment debt or unused card limit can reduce the amount ING will lend, even on a strong salary.

ING also assesses repayments using the higher of 5.50% or 3% above the actual rate. This is a safety test, not the rate you will pay.

ING can use up to 95% of standard rent, or 85% in a postcode it sees as higher risk. The catch is that rent cannot make up more than half of the total income ING uses in the application. It also ignores Airbnb, Stayz and other short-term or holiday rental income.

ING may look generous when you check one property's rent, then become restrictive once rent dominates the household income it can use. Investors with several properties should compare borrowing capacity before choosing it.

When you borrow more than 90% of the property value, ING generally wants at least 5% of the purchase price to come from genuine savings.

An acceptable rental history can help show a regular saving habit. It does not give you the cash for a deposit: you still need funds for the purchase and its costs.

Signed an off-the-plan contract more than 12 months ago? If the property has increased in value, ING may use the current valuation and lend up to the agreed purchase price while staying inside its usual limits on the share of the property value you can borrow. That growth may do part of the deposit work.

Using the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme? ING is not currently listed as a participating lender. If the scheme is part of your plan, compare the current participating lenders before choosing a bank.

Work in medicine or another high-income profession? ING has no professional LMI waiver for any profession. Compare the deposit, LMI cost and full loan result rather than assuming your profession receives special treatment.

A 5% deposit does not always mean you have enough to buy. You also need money for purchase costs and any shortfall if the valuation comes in below the price.

Send us the address and contract early, plus any strata or letting agreement. We’ll check whether ING accepts the property, especially for apartments, acreage or anything with a management agreement.

Check the strata letting rules. An apartment can look standard but still fall outside ING's rules if the by-laws or management agreement restrict owner use or require holiday letting.

Our apartment loan guide explains how size, building type and use can affect lending.

Ask about application, settlement and discharge costs as well as the ongoing fee. A fixed loan can also have break costs if you repay early or change the loan.

ING’s public broker website showed the following assessment times on 11 September 2026. These apply to complete applications and exclude valuation wait times.

We’ll check the current ING broker service levels against your finance deadline and allow time for the valuation, missing documents and any follow-up questions.

In our experience, eligible Broker Express files can move faster than the standard ING broker path. We’ll check whether your application is eligible, particularly if an auction is close or your contract has a short finance deadline.

We’ll explain whether your ING pre-approval has been fully assessed and what conditions remain. A fully assessed result gives you more confidence that your finances fit, but ING still needs to accept the property and valuation. We’ll work through the outstanding loan conditions with you before you commit to an unconditional purchase.

What customers said in 2026: ING recorded 92.1% home-loan customer satisfaction in Roy Morgan's May 2026 results, the highest result reported in ING's announcement. See ING's announcement and survey details

The lender pays us commission, which we disclose before you proceed. Hunter Galloway is independently owned.

We compare more than 30 lenders and must act in your best interests. Our Brisbane team can compare ING with other lenders and explain which options fit your situation. Read more about how we review lenders