Overview
What is refinancing a home loan?
Refinancing means replacing your current home loan with a new one, either with your existing lender or a different one, so you can reset the rate, the structure, the features and the term.
The process involves a new loan assessment, a property valuation, new loan documents, and a settlement where the new loan pays out the old one and takes over the mortgage on your title. Refinancing is not a sign of financial trouble. It is routine maintenance on the biggest debt you will ever carry.
The usual reasons are a lower rate, access to equity you have built up, consolidating high-interest debt, getting features your current loan does not offer such as a proper offset account, or restructuring after a change in your circumstances. See our full home loan services for the other loan types we handle.
Internal vs external refinancing
An internal refinance means renegotiating with your current lender or moving to a different product in their range. It is faster, involves less paperwork, and if they want to keep you they may sharpen the offer. The limit is obvious: you only get to choose from their products, and a lender that already has your business has less reason to fight for it.
An external refinance means moving to a new lender entirely, with a full application, valuation and settlement. It takes longer but it opens the whole market. Most refinancers end up switching lenders, because that is where the pricing is.
We do both. Our starting point is always to find the strongest option on the open market, then take that number back to your current lender and see if they will match it. Either way you win, and either way you do not have to make the phone call.