May 10, 2026
Rate comparisons are the wrong place to start. In this episode of the Positive Property Show, George Markoski sits down with Carmine Alvero from Wealth Street to unpack what a mortgage broker in Australia can actually do for property investors, and why most people are leaving significant money on the table by treating their mortgage as a fixed variable rather than an active tool.
Mortgage brokers wrote 76.7% of all new residential home loans in Australia in the December 2025 quarter, the highest market share recorded in any December quarter since tracking began in 2013, facilitating $142.2 billion in new lending.
That shift happened because the lending landscape fragmented. Brokers now draw from panels of 60 to 75 lenders, each with different serviceability calculators, different rental income treatment, and different appetite for specific borrower profiles. The right lender match can unlock $100,000 to $150,000 more in borrowing capacity at only a marginally higher rate. Walking into a single bank and accepting their standard offer is, statistically, the least competitive approach available.
Over the past three decades, choosing a variable rate has resulted in lower total interest paid 75% of the time. Fixed rates win 25% of the time, typically during periods of exceptionally low rates about to reverse.
George’s preference is variable, interest only, with a maximum offset account. Every dollar in an offset account reduces the balance against which interest is calculated, effectively earning the full loan rate on idle cash, currently 6% to 9% depending on the facility. Fixed-rate loans typically cap offset functionality at $15,000 to $20,000, which eliminates most of that benefit for investors with meaningful cash reserves.
On a $700,000 property with a $100,000 deposit, lenders mortgage insurance costs roughly $15,000. Waiting 12 months to avoid it will likely cost more in foregone capital growth than the insurance itself.
If the property grows $50,000 in the year spent saving an additional deposit, the investor has paid $15,000 to avoid insurance and lost $50,000 in growth. The maths rarely favour waiting.
Carmine walks through a relatively new product that has changed how Wealth Street handles clients on higher-rate loans. Under the product, any borrower who can demonstrate 12 consecutive months of clean repayments at a higher rate can refinance to a lower-rate lender without providing payslips or current income documentation.
The logic from the lender’s side is clean: if you have been servicing a 7.5% rate reliably for 12 months, a 6.5% rate is demonstrably affordable. Income verification becomes redundant. George has used this product himself to move lo-doc loans back to competitive rates after the required period, saving significant monthly interest without the usual documentation burden.
For self-employed investors and business owners with complex income structures, this is a meaningful change to what is possible in the current lending environment.
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