Moving into your investment property? How to change to an owner-⁠occupied loan

You've been renting it out. Now you want to live in it. Before the rent stops, work through the loan change, your household budget and the date you can lawfully move in.

An advertised owner-occupier rate won't necessarily apply to your existing loan automatically. Get a quote for your own loan, with its start date and fees.

Give the lender your address, planned move-in date and details of every loan split. A split is a separate loan part that may have its own rate or terms. Say whether you'll live in the whole property or still rent part of it out.

Ask for a written offer showing the new rate, repayment, fees, remaining term and features. Find out what evidence it needs to show you live there, how long the change takes and the date the new price applies.

Ask whether your requested change needs a new valuation. Don't assume every purpose update does. Keep the answers with your loan records.

With ING, changing from investment to owner-occupied use is a separate request from changing products, repayments or the loan term. Start with the purpose-change process rather than assume you need a complete refinance.

If any split is fixed, check whether the purpose can change without breaking that arrangement. Get a cost quote before agreeing to a change that would end it early.

Once you have the current lender's offer, we can compare whether refinancing is worth it. Use the same remaining term first. Spreading the debt over extra years may reduce the payment, but that payment reduction is different from getting a lower rate. Our refinance guide explains the comparison.

Put the before and after budgets side by side. Include mortgage payments, rent received or paid, management fees, insurance, council rates, maintenance and any other property you keep.

Use real figures. You might stop paying rent elsewhere and save management costs, but the lost rental income can outweigh a cheaper mortgage rate.

Separate the tax effects from the cash available each month. A change in deductions isn't the same thing as money arriving in your bank account on moving day.

If you apply for new lending, tell the lender the rental income from this property will stop. It can't be presented as continuing income when you plan to move in. Our borrowing capacity calculator gives a preliminary estimate, not confirmation of what the lender will approve without that rent.

If you're keeping another rental, include its real costs and income too. Our investment property loan guide explains the finance checks for that property.

Owning the home doesn't mean you can require the tenants to leave immediately. Get the property manager or solicitor to check the lease, lawful grounds, notice requirements and earliest date you can take possession under the relevant state rules.

For Queensland, use the Residential Tenancies Authority's current guidance. Don't assume moving in yourself lets you end a fixed-term agreement early. Leave room for the tenancy process in your moving plans, rather than booking everything around the date you'd prefer.

With ING, ask for the owner-occupied price available on your existing loan as well as the cost of the change. Its owner-occupier and investor rates vary by product, repayment type and loan-to-value ratio. Loan-to-value ratio, or LVR, is your loan amount as a percentage of the property value.

On 30 October 2026, ING's advertised Mortgage Simplifier variable principal-and-interest rates at 60% LVR or below were 6.29% p.a. for owner-occupiers and 6.39% p.a. for investors. The corresponding comparison rates were 6.32% and 6.42% p.a.

This is a matched 0.10 percentage point difference, not a comparison between different repayment types or deposit tiers. The advertised rates require at least $150,000 in new borrowings and other eligibility conditions apply.

For a hypothetical $500,000 balance with 30 years remaining, monthly principal-and-interest repayments would be about $3,092 at 6.29%, versus $3,124 at 6.39%. That's about $33 less per month, assuming unchanged rates, no fees and monthly repayments.

The initial annualised interest difference on the same $500,000 balance is $500. That is not the same as the repayment saving, because each payment also repays principal.

Your own rate change could be larger or smaller. Compare your current investor rate with the lender's written owner-occupier offer, using the same balance, remaining term and repayment type. Don't reset the term just to make the saving look bigger.

Comparison rates are based on a $150,000 loan over 25 years. Different amounts and terms produce different comparison rates, and some fees and costs are not included.

ING's advertised discounted variable rates apply to new property and borrowings. They are a useful comparison, but not a promise that an existing customer's purpose change receives the same rate. Our ING home loan review explains the product choices.

With Macquarie, you need a Home Loan Variation form signed in wet ink by all borrowers, plus residency evidence no more than 30 days old. That can include a utility bill, driver's licence or council rates notice. Electronic signatures are not accepted for that form.

Macquarie loans with a BSB starting 183 typically cannot change purpose through the standard process. Check the account before assuming the same variation works for every Macquarie loan. Our Macquarie home loan review covers the products and features.

If a split is fixed, changing its purpose with either lender can trigger break costs. The potential saving needs to be compared with the actual cost quoted for your loan.

Broker check: Ask us to compare the lender's purpose-change offer with suitable refinance options. A free assessment can help separate the saving from owner-occupier pricing, changes in repayment type and any extra years added to the loan.

Gather the latest statement for each loan split, the proposed move-in date, the lease end date and the lender's requested residency evidence. Add a household budget with this property's rent removed. Have your accountant review the rental-use and borrowing history separately.

Your bank's owner-occupier label doesn't decide your deductions. Private use changes the tax treatment of expenses, and renting out a room after you move in can mean expenses need to be apportioned between private and rental use.

Keep records of when the property was rented, when it stopped being available for rent, when you moved in and the expenses across those dates. Include the history of any borrowing used for a mix of private and investment purposes.

Private-purpose expenses aren't deductible, and mixed-purpose costs need apportionment. Ask your accountant to apply those rules to the actual dates and borrowing history.

Moving in doesn't automatically erase capital gains tax consequences from earlier rental use. Before relying on something you've heard about the “six-year rule”, ask whether it applies to your ownership history, including whether the property was previously your main residence.

You may not need a new lender, and you aren't guaranteed a lower rate. Getting the written quote, budget and timing checked before rent stops gives you a clearer decision than changing the loan label alone.

Send our Brisbane mortgage brokers your loan statements, planned move-in date and household budget. If it's part of upgrading to your next home, include the wider buying-and-selling plan.

Doing the opposite and moving out? Our guide to keeping your home as an investment covers renting out your current home instead.

Want a second look at the lender's offer? Call 1300 088 065. We can compare the actual rate, fees and remaining term before you decide whether to stay or refinance. Your accountant and property adviser should confirm the tax and tenancy steps.