Bridging Loans Australia, October 2026

Bridging finance in Australia: who offers it and how it is priced

Bridging finance in Australia is written mainly by the major banks, their regional brands and a group of customer-owned banks, and it is priced off the lender's standard variable rate rather than a separate bridging rate card. CommBank, ANZ, St.George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and IMB Bank all state that their standard variable rate applies during the bridging period; Newcastle Permanent is the exception in the verified set, fixing the rate for the bridging window. Because the standard variable rate sits above the discounted rates lenders advertise for ordinary home loans, bridging usually costs more per month than the end-debt loan that follows it. The live table above ranks every bridging-tagged product Ratesniffers tracks by comparison rate, with the statutory warning alongside.

The table below lists only panel lenders whose own website or published product document confirmed a bridging or relocation product on 3 September 2026. It is deliberately rate-free: bridging pricing is not part of the verified 80% LVR snapshot, so no bridging rate is promoted outside the live table.

How to estimate bridging loan repayments

There is no single bridging loan calculator because the repayment depends on how the lender structures the interest. The method below works for every structure in the table above.

1. Work out the peak debt. Existing loan balance, plus the purchase price of the new home, plus stamp duty and legal costs, minus any cash deposit. Several lenders also add the expected bridging interest to this figure when they test it against their cap.
2. Convert the annual rate to a monthly interest cost. Multiply the peak debt by the bridging rate and divide by twelve. If the lender capitalises interest, that amount is added to the loan each month and the balance compounds; if the lender requires interest-only payments, it is the monthly repayment during bridging.
3. Subtract the net sale proceeds. Expected sale price minus agent fees, marketing and the payout of the old loan. Peak debt (plus any capitalised interest) minus net proceeds is the end debt.
4. Model the end debt as a normal loan. Put the end-debt figure through the repayment calculator to see the principal-and-interest repayment, and check the peak debt services with the borrowing power calculator.

Run the numbers for a slow sale as well as a quick one. Westpac states its bridging rate steps up by 1.00% after the first three months, and Newcastle Permanent may treat an unsold property after 12 months as a default with a 2% higher rate, so the cost of a long bridging period is not linear.

Peak debt, end debt and the six to twelve month window

Peak debt is the most you owe at any point: the old loan, the new purchase and costs, and at most lenders the interest that accrues during bridging. Lenders cap it as a share of the combined value of both properties, from 70% at the St.George brands and Great Southern Bank to 80% at Bendigo Bank, and they test that you could service it if the sale ran late. End debt is what remains once the old home has settled and its net proceeds have been applied; it is assessed as an ordinary home loan on the new property, so the LVR and income tests for a standard loan apply to it.

The bridging window is the period the lender gives you to sell. In the verified set it is 6 months at IMB Bank, Bankwest, Beyond Bank, Great Southern Bank and Bendigo Bank for an established purchase, and 12 months at CommBank, Westpac, ANZ, Newcastle Permanent and the St.George brands. A shorter window means less capitalised interest but a firmer deadline; a longer window suits a slower market or a home that needs presentation work before listing. Whatever the window, the exit is the sale of the old property, and lenders assess that exit harder when the property is not yet on the market.

Open vs closed bridging, what is the difference?

Closed bridging is when you already have a signed contract of sale on your existing home, so the lender knows when the debt clears; it is lower risk and generally priced and assessed more favourably. Open bridging is when your old home is not yet sold, so lenders cap the term more tightly and scrutinise the exit plan harder. Where you can, sell first or line up a firm sale before you commit to the purchase.

Bridging loans in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle

Bridging loans are priced nationally. A bridging loan in Melbourne carries the same standard variable rate, bridging window and peak-debt cap as the same lender's bridging loan in Brisbane, Sydney or Newcastle, because the lenders in the table above publish one bridging product for the whole country. What changes by city is the property side: sale prices, days on market and stamp duty, which set the size of the peak debt and how quickly it clears.

Lenders with a bridging or relocation product in every capital and regional centre include CommBank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB. In Melbourne, Bank of Melbourne and Bendigo Bank add a local branch network; in Brisbane, Brisbane-based Great Southern Bank writes bridging for its existing home loan customers; in Sydney, St.George and Wollongong-based IMB Bank; and in Newcastle, Newcastle Permanent fixes the bridging rate for the 12 month window.

Outside the banks above, non-bank lender Brighten also writes bridging finance, alongside alt-doc, expat and non-resident lending, for borrowers whose assessment needs sit outside standard bank criteria.

For the wider home loan market in each city, including the end-debt loan that follows bridging, see home loan rates in Melbourne, home loan rates in Brisbane, home loan rates in Sydney and home loan rates in Newcastle.

Bridging loan questions, answered

Next: compare all home loan rates for your end-debt loan, check refinance options if you are also switching lenders, or estimate the numbers with the borrowing power calculator. Lender facts on this page were read on 3 September 2026; live pricing is checked daily, rates as at 2 October 2026.