Work out how much equity you have in your home, and how much of it you can actually use to buy an investment property in Brisbane or Perth. Enter your numbers and see the full working, with QLD and WA stamp duty and growth corridors built in.
By the Chase Wealth Australia advisory team, last updated July 2026
Calculate your usable equityEnter your property value and loan balance; the results show your total equity, usable equity and an indicative purchase range, with the formula and assumptions in full underneath.
Enter your home’s value and what you still owe. You’ll see your total equity, the portion most lenders will release, and what it could go towards, with the working shown in full.
Enter your home’s value to see your usable equity.
Example figures shown. Enter your own above and calculate.
Having equity and being able to borrow it are two different things. Before releasing equity a lender tests your income against the repayments at your rate plus a 3% buffer, so serviceability, not just the equity in your home, decides how much you can actually draw. It’s the part worth getting right early.
Your figure uses the value you entered. A lender’s own valuation sets the real number, and different lenders can value the same home differently, which is why the right lender and structure can change the answer.
General information only, not credit or financial advice. This estimate uses the common rule that lenders release up to 80% of a property’s value, less what you owe. Your actual position depends on your lender’s valuation, your income and your circumstances.
Usable equity is your property’s current value multiplied by 80 per cent, minus your outstanding loan balance. As a formula: usable equity = (property value × 0.80) − loan balance. Lenders use 80 per cent because that is the ceiling most will lend to without lenders mortgage insurance.
The 80 per cent figure is a planning ceiling, not a rule of physics. It exists because lenders charge lenders mortgage insurance above that point, so 80 per cent is where borrowing stays cheapest and the bank keeps a 20 per cent buffer in the security. Some lenders will go to 90 per cent with LMI, which the toggle above models.
One nuance the formula hides: the property value is not one number. Different banks can value the same property differently on the same day, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars apart, and the valuation your lender adopts decides your real usable equity. Treat the calculator’s output as your planning figure and a lender’s formal valuation as the deciding one.
Here is the formula applied end to end, in the same figures the calculator uses as its example. An $800,000 home with a $500,000 loan:
The bridge to a purchase: budget a 10 to 20 per cent deposit plus about 5 per cent in costs, and $140,000 covers an investment property in the $550,000 to $700,000 range. At 20 per cent down it lands near the bottom of that band with costs cleared; at 10 per cent down, with lenders mortgage insurance, it stretches to the top.
Two homeowners can hold the same total equity and very different usable equity, because the loan balance against 80 per cent of value drives the result: a $900,000 home with a $500,000 loan holds $400,000 in total equity, yet only $220,000 of it is usable. Run your own numbers in the calculator above rather than assuming your neighbour’s answer.
The calculator shows its working:
| Assumption | Setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lending limit (default) | 80 per cent of property value | The ceiling most Australian lenders apply before lenders mortgage insurance is charged |
| Lending limit (optional) | 90 per cent with LMI | The practical ceiling for investor lending at most banks; LMI adds a real cost, often capitalised onto the loan |
| Property value | Your estimate | A lender’s formal valuation decides the final figure, and different lenders can value the same property differently |
| Deliberately excluded | Serviceability, LMI premiums, lender fees | These depend on your income, commitments and lender, so a calculator that pretended to know them would mislead |
The defaults are conservative on purpose. A planning figure that flatters you costs you later, at valuation or at approval; a figure built on the lender’s own starting assumptions holds up in the meeting that matters. The exclusions cut the same way: serviceability, your income against your commitments, is the gate that decides whether usable equity becomes released equity, and no calculator can assess it.
You have equity equal to your property’s current market value minus what you still owe on it. A home worth $900,000 with a $520,000 loan balance holds $380,000 of equity. The harder question is the value figure, because equity moves every time the market does.
Three sources, in rising order of authority. Recent comparable sales in your suburb give the honest street-level read: what did similar homes actually settle for in the past three months. A bank’s online property estimate gives a modelled figure in seconds and is a reasonable starting point, though the models can lag a moving market. A lender’s formal valuation is the deciding figure: it is the number the bank will actually lend against, and it can differ between lenders, which is why the valuation strategy is worth a conversation before you commit to one bank.
Your loan balance is the simple half: it is in your banking app, and remember to add every loan secured against the property, including any redraw you have used or splits you have opened.
Equity is what you own; usable equity is what a lender will let you borrow against. The first is your property’s value minus your loan. The second applies the 80 per cent lending cap first, so it is always smaller, and it is the number that actually funds a purchase.
The gap between the two is the bank’s buffer, and it explains a common surprise: a homeowner with $400,000 in equity may find only $220,000 of it is usable, because usable equity is driven by the loan balance sitting under 80 per cent of value, not by the headline figure. When a lender talks about what you can access, they mean the usable number.
Your usable equity has one job in an investment purchase: covering the deposit and buying costs. Budget a 10 to 20 per cent deposit plus about 5 per cent in costs. Stamp duty is the biggest line and investors get no concession in either state: Queensland charges its general transfer duty rate ($20,025 on a $600,000 purchase) and Western Australia its residential rate, which applies to investment property too ($24,890 on $650,000; state revenue office scales, 2026).
Worked into bands: $75,000 to $125,000 of usable equity supports a $500,000 purchase; $90,000 to $150,000 supports $600,000; $105,000 to $175,000 supports $700,000. In practice those bands cover entry houses in the Brisbane and Perth growth corridors: Ipswich suburbs like Leichhardt and One Mile sit under $700,000, and Perth entry suburbs like Armadale at $630,000 (REIWA, year to June 2026). Lorraine and Colin started from exactly this arithmetic; their story is in our client success stories. Their experience is typical of what clients say when asked directly, and you can read more in our client testimonials.
The number is the start. The complete guide to using equity to buy an investment property covers the structures, risks and steps in full, and a strategy session tests your figures against your income, buffer and goals.
Eight short answers below; the complete guide carries the long versions.
The Chase Wealth Australia advisory team are property investment strategy specialists who help homeowners turn the equity in their home into an investment property. Their focus is equity-led portfolio building for investors across Queensland and Western Australia, backed by in-house suburb research across the Brisbane and Perth growth corridors. The advice answers to you, not to banks or developers: no lender sets the structure and no developer supplies the stock, so both the numbers and the shortlist answer to the client alone. Read about the firm.
A strategy session tests your calculator result against your income, buffer and goals, and shows what it could buy in Brisbane or Perth. The calculator gives you the number; the session gives you the plan for it.
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