Mortgage Broker Brisbane for Home Loans and Complex Residential Finance

Buying or refinancing property is not always a straightforward home loan application.

Your income may come from a wage, business, professional practice, company, trust, partnership, investments or several different sources. You may already own multiple properties, be completing a construction project or need to coordinate your residential lending with broader business and investment plans.

JLH Finance Advisory helps homebuyers, homeowners, self-employed clients, professionals and property investors understand their borrowing options and structure residential finance around their complete position.

Led by Director and Finance Adviser Josh Houlahan, JLH provides experienced, personal advice from the initial strategy through to application, approval and settlement.

Home and property finance services

JLH Finance can assist with:

• Owner-occupied home loans

• Refinancing existing home loans

• Investment property finance

• Home-loan pre-approvals

• First-home-buyer finance

• Construction and renovation finance

• Bridging and property-upgrade finance

• Equity release and cash-out applications

• Interest-only lending

• Debt consolidation and loan restructuring

• Home loans for self-employed borrowers

• Finance for medical and other professionals

• Company and trust property lending

• Complex property portfolios

• Reviewing existing interest rates and loan features

The appropriate loan is not necessarily the one with the lowest advertised rate. The lender’s credit policy, assessment of income, servicing methodology, loan features, security requirements and flexibility can all affect the outcome.

JLH reviews these factors together before recommending a lending strategy.

Home loans for self-employed clients and business owners

Self-employed home-loan applications often require more than entering income from a payslip.

A lender may need to understand:

• How the business generates its income

• The relationship between wages, dividends and distributions

• Profit retained within a company

• Income moving between companies and trusts

• Business debts and ongoing commitments

• Director and shareholder loans

• Recent business growth

• One year compared with two years of financial results

• Irregular, seasonal or project-based income

• The effect of commercial debt on personal borrowing capacity

Josh has worked with business owners and complex financial structures since beginning his banking career in 2006. His experience inside NAB, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ included agribusiness, business banking, corporate finance and commercial lending.

That background helps JLH interpret the financial information, identify which lenders may take an appropriate view and explain the client’s position clearly to the lender’s credit team.

Rather than treating the home loan separately, JLH considers how the proposed lending fits alongside the client’s business, investment properties, existing debt and longer-term objectives.

Residential finance for professionals

JLH works with medical specialists, healthcare professionals, lawyers, barristers, accountants, financial advisers, executives and other high-income professionals.

Professional income can appear straightforward, but applications may become more complex when they involve:

• Self-employed or practice income

• Partnership or shareholder interests

• Bonuses, allowances or commissions

• Income distributed through companies and trusts

• Multiple employers or contracting entities

• Novated leases

• Existing commercial facilities

• Investment-property portfolios

• Proposed practice ownership or business acquisitions

Some lenders have specific policies for eligible professions, while others take different approaches to recent income, retained profits, loan-to-value ratios or lenders mortgage insurance.

JLH compares the relevant policies and structures the application around both the immediate property requirement and the client’s broader financial plans.

Property investment and portfolio lending

As a property portfolio grows, the finance structure becomes increasingly important.

JLH can review:

• Borrowing capacity for the next purchase

• Whether to borrow personally or through a company or trust

• The use of available equity

• Owner-occupied and investment debt separation

• Interest-only and principal-and-interest options

• Fixed and variable lending

• Offset and redraw features

• Loan expiry dates

• Security allocation

• Rental income and property expenses

• The effect of a new purchase on future borrowing capacity

Where a client is considering several strategies, JLH can model the alternatives before an application is submitted.

This may include comparing the capacity to purchase another investment property with the capacity to upgrade the family home, or examining how converting an existing residence into an investment property changes the overall position.

JLH does not provide tax or financial-planning advice. Where required, we work with the client’s accountant, financial adviser and solicitor so the lending structure can be considered alongside their professional advice.

Construction, renovation and property-upgrade finance

Construction and major renovation projects rarely proceed exactly as first planned.

Costs can change, timelines can extend and additional funds may be required for landscaping, furniture, variations or completion works. The final property may also change how existing homes and investment properties are used.

JLH can help assess:

• Construction and renovation funding

• Additional funds required to finish a project

• Available equity across existing properties

• Whether another property should be used as security

• The transition from construction lending to a completed home loan

• Plans to retain and rent an existing residence

• Bridging or crossover requirements

• The lending position after the new home is completed

The objective is to structure the immediate funding without losing sight of what the client’s total property and debt position will look like once the project is finished.

Recent residential finance scenarios

The following de-identified examples demonstrate the types of matters JLH Finance works on. Details have been generalised to protect client confidentiality.

Pre-approval involving salary, bonus income and future investment proceeds

A senior executive and their partner wanted a pre-approval to purchase a new family home.

The application needed to account for a substantial salary, regular bonus income, variable employment income, existing vehicle commitments, available savings and anticipated proceeds from a business-related transaction.

JLH documented the different sources of income and contribution funds, distinguished between income available for servicing and funds available for the purchase, and prepared the application so the lender could understand both the current and expected position.

Home-loan restructure for two self-employed professionals

Two established professionals wanted to restructure their existing property lending, extend an interest-only period and access equity for personal investment purposes.

Their income came through a combination of professional practices, companies, dividends, trusts and retained business profits. They also held investment property through associated entities.

JLH reviewed how income moved through the group, separated trading income from distributions, identified the income required for servicing and explained why the most recent financial year reflected the businesses’ current performance.

This provided the lender with a clearer picture than simply reviewing the clients’ personal tax returns in isolation.

Completing a long-term home construction project

Two business owners were approaching completion of a major home construction project and required additional funds for landscaping, furniture and final works.

They also owned several residential properties and a commercial property through different personal and trust structures. Some of their existing residences were expected to become investment properties after they moved into the completed home.

JLH reviewed the available equity, business income, existing commercial commitments, proposed rental income and the intended use of each property. The funding request was then considered as part of the clients’ future property structure rather than as an isolated cash-out application.

Comparing an investment purchase with a home upgrade

A professional couple with an established property portfolio wanted to understand three different strategies:

• Purchasing another investment property personally

• Purchasing an investment property through a trust

• Retaining their existing home as an investment and purchasing a new family residence

JLH reviewed their existing loans, available equity, employment and trust income, rental income, property expenses and other commitments.

Indicative borrowing scenarios were prepared for each strategy, including the different treatment of personal and trust borrowing. This allowed the clients to compare their options before selecting a property or lodging a formal application.

More than comparing home-loan rates

A residential finance strategy should consider more than the initial interest rate.

Depending on your circumstances, JLH may:

• Review your existing home and investment loans

• Clarify your immediate and future property objectives

• Assess available equity and estimated borrowing capacity

• Interpret business, professional and investment income

• Compare lender policies and servicing approaches

• Model alternative loan structures

• Consider variable, fixed, interest-only and principal-and-interest options

• Review offset, redraw and package features

• Prepare a lender-ready application

• Explain complex entities and income sources

• Coordinate valuations and supporting documents

• Negotiate pricing and approval conditions

• Manage the application through approval and settlement

• Assist with post-settlement account setup

• Review the lending as your circumstances change

Why work with Josh and JLH Finance?

Josh Houlahan has worked in banking and finance since 2006.

Before establishing JLH Finance Advisory, he worked across NAB, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ in regional New South Wales, Sydney, Mackay and Brisbane. His career included agribusiness, professional-services banking, business banking, corporate finance and complex commercial lending.

Josh has worked with business owners, medical professionals, lawyers, accountants, executives, high-net-worth families, property investors and clients with income and assets held across multiple entities.

Having worked inside the banks, Josh understands how lenders assess risk, how credit teams interpret financial information and what can make an otherwise strong application difficult to approve.

He established JLH Finance because clients’ residential and commercial lending needs are often connected. A business owner’s home loan cannot always be assessed properly without understanding the business, and a property investor’s next purchase should not be structured without considering the wider portfolio.

With JLH, clients receive direct, experienced involvement and a consistent finance adviser even when lenders, policies and bank relationship managers change.