Moving from Sydney or Melbourne to Brisbane: get the loan sorted in the right order

Sell first, buy first, or rent in between. Pick the order before you pick the house. The bank assesses the plan you'll actually follow, not the one you hope for.

If you are renting now rather than selling, the same logic applies to when your lease ends, what your pay looks like after the move and how much cash you can keep for the purchase.

The first 4 numbers I would want are what you still owe, a realistic sale price after selling costs, what your pay looks like after the move, and the Queensland buying costs on the place you want.

1. Before you resign or accept a Brisbane role: send us your job plan in writing and your current loan details, so we can check them with the lender.
2. Before you list the old home: ask a conveyancer in that state for the sale timeline, the discharge and the likely costs.
3. Before you make a Brisbane offer: get current duty and buying cost estimates, the exact loan assessment and contract advice from Queensland professionals.
4. Before you pick a bridging loan: test it against a slower or lower sale, and check the deposit cash is there when it falls due.
5. Keep a separate buffer for short term accommodation, overlapping repayments, storage, repairs and surprises at settlement.

Once the sale settles and the old loan and selling costs are paid, you know your budget to the dollar. You avoid 2 mortgages, as long as the settlement dates line up. The cost is that you may need a rental, storage or a second move in between.

Before you agree to dates, get the solicitors or conveyancers on each side to map out both settlements. Our mortgage discharge guide covers closing the old loan.

The bank looks at your current loan, the new purchase, the likely sale price, the most you will owe at the peak and what is left once the old place sells. The questions worth asking are how the interest is handled during the bridge, how long you get to sell, which documents the lender needs, and what happens if the sale takes longer or comes in lower. I would only go ahead if the plan still works on a cautious sale price, with the selling costs taken out and some cash left over.

We had a Brisbane couple, Adrian and Joanne, who found their next home before selling. At the peak they would owe about $1.65m across 2 properties worth around $2.45m, with the debt expected to drop to roughly $550k after the sale. The first branch assessed the $1.65m as if it were a permanent 30 year loan and the move looked impossible.

Assessed properly, on the debt that would remain after the sale with the bridging interest added to the loan for a 6 month sale window, the peak facility was approved. The old home sold 8 weeks later for $1.12m and the debt settled at about $530k. Same people, same houses; the difference was which number the lender was asked to test.

One thing to separate early: the contract deposit and the money due at settlement are 2 different problems. Do not assume a bridging loan will release cash on the day the seller wants the deposit. Confirm where it is coming from and when it is due before you sign.

A deposit bond is a guarantee rather than cash, it needs the seller's agreement, and it does not replace the money needed at settlement. Our bridging loan guide explains the loan itself and the risks to compare.

This buys you time to test the commute, settle into work and look at homes properly. Add rent, temporary accommodation, storage, removalists and a second move to the budget. Keep records of the sale proceeds and anything you spend from them, so we can show the next lender where your deposit came from and how much is left.

If you are renting in Melbourne or Sydney now, you may still owe rent after you move. If you buy in Brisbane before that lease ends, we put the old rent and any lease costs still owing, the new mortgage and your other commitments into a written assessment of the overlap before you make an offer. Check the notice period in your lease, because the rent does not necessarily stop on the day you leave.

If your timing allows, the cleaner option is usually to sell first or rent for a few months. You know exactly what cash you have, and you are not carrying 2 loans while the old place sells. Buying first can still work, but I would want the numbers to hold up with a slower sale before we go down that path.

One interstate move involved 2 applications: a refinance to release equity from the existing home, then a loan for the new purchase. The lender required the refinance to settle first, and until that money was available the purchase loan could not draw down.

We got the discharge paperwork underway with the conveyancers and lender weeks ahead, and tracked the first approval, discharge and loan documents so the next step could move as soon as its conditions were met. That dealt with the timing risk; it was not a guarantee of the purchase settlement.

A pre-approval is not a guarantee of the final loan. As MoneySmart explains, the lender still assesses you and the property before final approval. If you change employer, start a new role, go remote or keep the same job from Brisbane, tell us so we can update the lender before you rely on the earlier figure.

There are really only 3 versions of this, and they need different evidence.

• New job in Brisbane. Keep the signed contract, the start date, the salary and any probation terms. A job you have already started and one that starts after settlement are treated differently, so tell us which it is.
• Same employer, transferring or working remotely. Ask for a letter confirming the role, employment type, salary, usual hours, relocation date, work location and that remote work is approved. The letter explains the plan; it does not guarantee approval.
• Variable pay. If part of your income is overtime, commission, allowances or contract work, we check what evidence each lender wants and how much of it they will count, because lenders treat future start dates and probation differently. Our new job home loan guide covers the income evidence to get ready.

I had a couple, Jacob and Natasha, moving from a regional mining town to the coast with a budget somewhere between $950k and $1.2m. He earned about $175k plus FIFO bonus and allowances; she earned about $86k in a job that had to either transfer or go remote. Two things made it work.

We split his pay into base, contractual allowances, reimbursed expenses and bonus, and matched each part to the lenders that would count it. And we got written confirmation that her job continued after the move before anyone relied on her income. The fallback, if the bonus or the remote role could not be used, was a purchase at the lower end of the range rather than no purchase at all.

If both of you are changing jobs, give us a separate timeline and income documents for each person. We will map out when you resign, when the new job starts, when the first pay comes in, when the old home lists or sells, and when the Brisbane loan is due to settle. If the plan changes, tell us, because an estimate built on your current job may no longer fit. Our borrowing power guide explains the other costs and commitments that move the result.

A couple moving interstate had a first assessment that did not cover the loan they needed; the gaps were gross versus net income, HECS, other commitments and missing rental evidence for the home they were keeping. We went through the calculation with the lender's credit team, supplied updated payslips and the rental evidence, and the lender issued conditional approval without them cutting their purchase price.

On another interstate purchase, a credit check flagged a card limit nobody had accounted for, which cut the borrowing figure and held up conditional approval. A zero balance did not fix it; the lender needed the closure paperwork or a written undertaking to cancel it by settlement.

Planning the move before you have a Brisbane address? Book a free assessment with your job details, current loan statement and expected sale price. We can compare selling first with buying first before you commit to either.

Your Brisbane budget needs the deposit plus transfer duty, registration fees, legal and search costs, inspections, insurance, lender charges, the move and a buffer. Queensland's home concession on transfer duty can be available even if you have owned before, but it has eligibility and occupancy conditions and is different from first home buyer concessions and grants. Use the Queensland Revenue Office home concession guidance and current calculator for your contract date, residency and plans to live there.

If you are buying a townhouse or apartment, add the current body corporate levy and check the records for planned work or extra contributions; our strata and body corporate guide explains what to ask for. A house may have no levy, but you will still need money set aside for maintenance and insurance. Our Brisbane buying costs guide is a handy checklist; check each amount against a current quote or government source.

In Queensland, sellers generally have to give you certain disclosure documents before you sign, with some exceptions, and those documents do not replace your own building, pest, insurance and title checks. Read the Queensland seller disclosure guidance and ask your Queensland solicitor what still needs checking.

For a property inside Brisbane City Council, search the address on the Flood Awareness Map and use the FloodWise Property Report for detail. Other councils have their own flood information. Get an insurance quote for the actual address before you commit; the seller's disclosure does not have to include flooding history.

The sale of your current home and the Brisbane purchase run under 2 different state processes. For Brisbane, use a Queensland solicitor or conveyancing law practice. For the NSW or Victorian sale, use a solicitor or licensed conveyancer who knows that state. Get them to confirm the contract conditions, deposit timing, disclosure documents, inspection periods, finance deadlines, settlement dates and what happens if the other deal moves.

As an example, New South Wales has its own contract and exchange process, set out in the NSW Government guide to property contracts and deposits. In Victoria, buyers and sellers deal with the contract of sale and the Section 32 statement under Victorian rules (see the Consumer Affairs Victoria guidance). Queensland has its own seller disclosure scheme. A generic online timeline, or advice from one state, will not protect a contract in another.

Before you bid at auction, sign an unconditional offer or agree to settlement dates, ask your solicitor what protection that particular contract gives you. Finance clauses, cooling-off periods, deposit rules and auctions all work differently from state to state. Your solicitor advises on the contract; we confirm exactly what the lender has approved.

Keeping it as a rental means being able to afford both properties. We compare the existing mortgage, the property costs, the rent a lender will support and the new Brisbane loan.

Do not assume the bank counts every dollar of advertised rent, or that rent covering today's repayment means the application will pass. Allow for a delayed tenancy and empty periods in your own budget too. Our sell or rent out your home guide helps you compare the options, and our investment loans guide covers how the old home is assessed once it becomes an investment. If your employer confirms that your role and income continue after the move, you do not necessarily need a new Brisbane job; we still need to show the lender how the whole budget works.

I had another couple, Darcy and Elise, who wanted to relocate, buy for about $1.2m and keep their existing home as an investment. Darcy's package was about $176k plus super, including a $136k base, allowances and a bonus, but a vehicle lease of about $1.7k a month cut into what they could borrow. Their borrowing capacity sat around $500k, roughly $700k short of the target. Rather than lodge an application that could not work, I rebuilt the income line by line and gave them a staged plan: show Elise's contractor income on paper before relying on it, or sell the existing home and clear its debt, with a lower purchase price as the safe fallback.

Both are worth a conversation with your accountant before you move money around, and neither is something we can decide for you. First, offset versus redraw. Money in an offset account is still your own savings.

Redraw means borrowing your extra repayments back, and the ATO looks at what you use that money for, not which property secures the loan. So if you redraw from the old home's loan to help buy in Brisbane, the interest on that money generally isn't deductible, even once the old home is rented out. Our offset and redraw guide explains the difference, alongside the ATO's guidance on redraw and interest deductions.

Second, capital gains tax and negative gearing, which changed together in the 2026-27 Budget and are now law. The ATO's former home guidance explains when you can keep treating a former home as your main residence for up to 6 years while it earns income; generally you can't also treat the new home as your main residence for the same period, apart from up to 6 months while you're moving.

On top of that, 2 dates matter. From 1 July 2027, losses on an established residential property bought after 7:30 pm AEST on 12 May 2026 can't be deducted against wages. They can still be set against other residential property income, including capital gains, or carried forward, and a property you already held at the announcement is exempt.

Also from 1 July 2027, the 50% CGT discount is replaced by an inflation based discount with a minimum 30% tax rate on gains, and that only applies to gains that build up after that date. So the effect depends on when you bought and when the gain accrues, and it is not something this page can tell you for your own numbers. Before you count on a rental shortfall cutting the tax on your salary, ask your tax adviser which rules apply to your purchase date and plans. Sources: ATO: reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax and Treasury: Budget 2026-27.

I would choose the order that leaves you room for a delayed sale, a changed start date or a settlement that slips. Send our Brisbane mortgage brokers your current loan statement, the cash you have saved and your work plans, and we will compare the loan options alongside the contract and tax advice you get. Our upgrading your home guide covers the wider buying and selling process.

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