How much can I borrow?

There's no hard and fast rule on how much you should borrow, but one general theory that's far from soft and slow is that your home loan repayments shouldn't exceed 35% of your gross income.

Mortgage loan considerations

Home loan rates take up the headlines, but you'll also want to consider some other less splashy factors:

• Can you cope with the loan in the event of job loss, or pregnancy?
• Can you afford mortgage protection insurance, and/or income protection insurance?
• Have you allowed for upfront costs? These charming fellas can include:
• • stamp duty (why not get out our stamp duty calculator?)
  • solicitors' fees
  • loan application fees
  • property valuation fees
  • building and pest inspection
  • home insurance

Yes, sorry about all those bullets, but you need to see them before you can dodge them.

Crunching the home loan numbers

First home buyers (and refinance types alike) may not have come across the old calculator, but take it from us: they're your friends. Figure out the total cost of your home loan in order to properly compare offers.

It's too easy to be mislead by intro rates, low fees, great features and other deals. The total cost in interest and fees is your final word on the price of a mortgage.

No matter what your home loan need, Mozo has a range of home loan calculators to help you make informed decisions. They include:

• Home Loan Comparison Calculator not only helps you compare loans (very handy in itself), it gives you the total interest and fees for any loan
• Figure out how much your home loan repayments will be on principal and interest, interest only and introductory offer mortgages.
• See how much your home loan repayments will change if rates rise (or fall)
• See how much savings joy you'll have with some extra repayments

Getting the real deal

Everybody seems to have a vested interest when it comes to the best home loans.

• Mozo's search and Health Check tools are 100% objective
• But the final word has to go to the 30,000+ real Australian bank customers who've rated and reviewed their financial products at Mozo, to give you the broadest and most informed perspective from the people who use these banks and have these deals. Read home loan reviews.