Firstmac launches expat loan offering

The new offering will allow Australian citizens living and working overseas to borrow up to $1.5 million, doubling the previous limit of $750,000.

The non-bank lender confirmed that it will continue to accept up to 90 per cent of PAYG foreign sourced income (when converted to Australian dollar), with the expat loans beginning at 7.68 per cent for 80 per cent loan-to-value ratio (LVR) and principal and interest loans.

Kim Cannon, Firstmac’s managing director, said the new home loan offering was aimed at the 1 million Australians living and working overseas, many of whom “wanted to buy a property here to hedge themselves against their eventual return”.

“There are many reasons why Australians work overseas, from undertaking the traditional rite of passage to Europe to filling senior roles in multinational corporations, but one thing most have in common is that they plan to return to Australia in the future,” Mr Cannon said.

“Until now, these overseas Australians have been underserviced by home lenders, but we are going to change that with our new Expat Home Loan which puts non-resident Australians on a par with their locally based peers.”

Mr Cannon further added that along with vanilla home loans, the non-bank lender looks to continue to compete for prime residential loans across market segments largely underserviced by the major banks, namely SMSF and green loans.

“Firstmac provides an important service for brokers by providing highly competitive options in neglected areas like residential SMSF, green loans, bridging loans and now expat loans,” Mr Cannon said.

“We are committed to offering customers of all types a simpler solution because getting a loan or any product we provide shouldn’t be complicated.”

Indeed, earlier this year, the non-bank lender received a $40 million green loan investment through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to help finance 900 electric vehicles with discounted financing.

Competition in the niche markets

Firstmac joins other non-bank lenders in the competitive pursuit to service more niche market segments, such as Pepper Money, which recently launched an SMSF offering in October after a quarterly report released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) that found various opportunities for growth in the SMSF space.

[RELATED: Firstmac receives $40m green loan investment]