Whether you’re buying your first house, investing in property, upgrading or downsizing your home – the home loan features you choose can provide flexibility or let you pay off your home loan faster over time. Here’s what you need to know.

Why compare home loans?

Put simply, different home loans come with different features, including fees and interest rates. For this reason, it’s worth investing the time and energy to find a home loan that’s right for you and also meets your lifestyle needs.

Comparison websites are a great place to start. They’ll give you a good overview of the differences and similarities between products. When you start digging a bit deeper, make sure you ask any potential lenders for key details, such as:

• Terms and conditions
• Total amount to be paid back
• Repayment amounts
• Fees and charges
• Loan features

Our home loan comparison calculator can also help you compare different home loan options.

How to make your choice

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all home loan. What works for you mightn’t work for someone else – and your needs may change as your life changes too. Here are some questions to ask yourself.

Do you want variable, fixed or split?

You generally want a competitive rate that helps you pay off your loan sooner. Here’s what you need to know about each:

• A variable rate goes up and down with the market, which means your repayments may increase if interest rates rise.
• A fixed rate stays the same for a fixed term (usually between one and five years), which means your repayments remain the same during the fixed term
• A split rate is part variable, and part fixed, which means you benefit from repayment flexibility and security. Use our split loan calculator to see what your repayments could be if you split your loan.
• Our home loan rates guide can help you understand the benefits of fixed, variable or split rate loans.

What features will you actually use?

Home loans with more features generally come at a higher cost. Therefore, it’s important to weigh up all features and ensure that you are not paying for features you don’t really need or may never use. Whether you go for a cheaper no-frills option, or a loan with extras such as a redraw facility, repayment pause or offset account – just make sure the features are relevant and helpful to you.

What are the fees?

Depending on your lender, you’ll be looking at application fees, valuation fees, lender’s mortgage insurance, monthly and annual fees, and break costs if you want to get out of a fixed rate home loan before the end of a fixed rate term.

What’s the comparison rate?

This is an estimate of how much a loan could cost each year when taking into account the interest rate (including any revert rate after an initial fixed rate term), fees and charges (including upfront costs and ongoing costs such as annual fees) and repayment frequency.