Junior Doctor Saves $50k LMI

Asha is a doctor 4 years out of medical school, Ahpra registered since 2019 and working as a Principal House Officer (PHO) in a Brisbane public hospital. Her partner Dev is an accountant on $116k. First home buyers, living in Brisbane's inner south-east.

Buy a home to live in on Brisbane's bayside at around $1.4m with less than a 20% deposit, using a doctor LMI waiver.

LMI waiver lists are written in job titles. CBA's list covered interns, residents and registrars. A PHO isn't in an accredited training program, so CBA read Asha as outside all three.

They went to CBA first because it was their own bank. CBA approved the loan but declined the waiver on 7 August 2024, which left about $50k of LMI on the approval. Finance was due at 5pm on 9 August. An earlier attempt at ANZ at 95% hadn't got there either.

Jayden, one of our mortgage brokers in Brisbane, didn't take one bank's reading of a job title as the answer. He escalated at CBA with the Queensland Health career structure and Asha's medical officer award contract.

At the same time he lodged a backup with NAB on 8 August, because NAB's waiver wording covered junior doctor titles that CBA's didn't. NAB approved on its first assessment, before the deadline, with a $1.4m valuation matching CBA's and a rate that beat St George and Westpac.

CBA's senior product manager allowed the waiver on 12 August anyway. By then the NAB approval was in hand and the clients stayed with it.

A $1.227m NAB loan with no LMI, about $50k saved against the CBA approval. Settled mid-October 2024.

Rates are the rate at approval on the date shown. They are not current offers.

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