Planning to buy your next home

Start with a home buyer's checklist

A list is always a good place to start. Start writing down all the things you're looking for in your next home – space, bedrooms, amenities, location, transport and schools and don't forget to consider your finance needs and what mortgage repayments you will be able to afford.

Put together a budget and save for a deposit

Unlike buying your first home, there are additional options you may want to consider for financing your deposit, for example, if you buy before you sell your property and your deposit is held up in a term deposit or shares, you can use a deposit guarantee instead of cash.

When you're putting your budget together, remember to consider your savings, the equity you may have built up in your home, or any extra home loan repayments you've made.

What is equity?

Equity is the difference between your home's value and the amount owing on your home loan. Because you can borrow a proportion of your equity to put towards your next home, more equity gives you more options.

Use our equity calculator to work out just how much equity you have in your current property.

Budget planner

Having a budget is always a great place to start, and our budget planner makes it easy for you to plan ahead. Just remember to also take any equity you've built up in your home, or extra repayments you've made, into consideration.

Calculate the cost of buying and selling

To calculate the total cost of buying a home, you need to take into account a number of factors, such as stamp duty, real estate agent fees and conveyance fees.

Deposit guarantee instead of cash

If you have money working in an investment such as savings or shares and would prefer to leave it there rather than withdraw it for a deposit, a NAB Deposit Power Guarantee may be the solution for you. Limited to $100,000 maximum, and no more than 10% of the purchase price, it's an alternative way of setting up a cash deposit.

Other things to consider

Even though you're considering a move now, your situation may change down the track. That's why if you decide to move again, a NAB home loan can move with you too. And if you have a NAB variable home loan you can move to a new loan entirely, without paying a switch fee. Plus there are no redraw fees, so you can access your funds whenever you need to without being charged a fee.