A hfinance client case study.
Here’s something most Australian expats don’t realise: you don’t have to accept whatever rate your loans drifted to while you’ve been overseas. Your portfolio back home can be refinanced, repriced and restructured from anywhere. This client did it from South Korea, cutting his rate and pulling out $100,000 for the next purchase in the same move.
The Client’s Situation
Our client is an Australian professional working as a management consultant in Seoul, earning the equivalent of roughly $190,000 a year in Korean won. While living overseas he’s built a three-apartment portfolio across Sydney and Melbourne worth about $2.74 million, with solid rent coming in from all three.
Two of the loans, sitting with a smaller lender, had drifted out of step with the market. He’d recently refinanced a third property and seen what sharper pricing looked like, so the question was obvious: why are the other two still paying the old rate?
The Challenge
Foreign income is where expat refinances live or die. Lenders shade overseas earnings, some accept 80%, some less, some none at all and currency, tax rates and payslip formats all feed the calculation. Income earned in Korean won, taxed under a foreign system, has to be converted, verified and shaded before a single number goes into servicing. Get the lender choice wrong and a strong income assesses like a weak one.
Distance is the other tax. Verification, document certification, signing everything is harder from nine time zones away, and plenty of lenders simply aren’t set up for a borrower they’ll never meet in a branch.
And because he wanted $100,000 of equity released on top of the rate cut, the deal had to satisfy cash-out policy too, lenders want to know where released funds are going, and “future investment” needs to be positioned properly.
What We Did
We placed both loans with a major lender whose expat policy genuinely fits Korea-based income:
- Foreign income converted and assessed under the lender’s expat criteria, his consulting salary carried the servicing comfortably, with rent from all three properties behind it.
- Both loans repriced to 5.49% on a one-year fixed, principal and interest, with offset, a structure that locks in the saving now and comes up for review in twelve months, when we reprice again.
- LVRs kept conservative at roughly 63% and 66%, which is exactly where the pricing gets sharp.
- $100,000 of equity carved out cleanly for future investment sitting ready, so when he finds the next property the deposit question is already answered.
- The whole process run remotely: document flow, verification and signing coordinated between Seoul and Sydney without the client stepping on a plane.
The Numbers
| Item | Figure |
| Portfolio (3 apartments) | ~$2.74 million |
| Loans refinanced (2 properties) | ~$1.17 million |
| New rate secured | 5.49% (1-yr fixed, P&I, offset) |
| LVRs after refinance | ~63% and ~66% |
| Equity released for future investment | $100,000 |
Lower rate, cleaner structure, and $100,000 of dry powder, all executed from the other side of the world.
If You’re an Expat With Loans Back Home
Your Australian loans don’t know you’ve left the country, and neither does the rate creep. If it’s been more than a couple of years since your lending was reviewed, you’re almost certainly paying more than you need to and the refinance can be done entirely from overseas.
The lender matters more than usual, though. Every bank treats foreign income differently, and the difference between an 80% shading and a flat no is the difference between a deal and a dead end. Which country you earn in, which currency, how you’re taxed, it all changes the shortlist. That’s precisely the work a broker who lives in expat lending does before you ever apply.
How We Approach These Deals
Expat lending is core business at hfinance — it’s why we run expatmortgagebroker.com alongside the main brand. We know which lenders accept income from which countries, how each one shades it, and how to run verification and settlement remotely without the process dragging. Most expats we speak to are surprised by how much of this can happen while they sleep in another time zone.
This article is general information only and does not constitute credit, financial or tax advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Lender criteria, LVR limits, government charges and interest rates are subject to change and vary case by case. Figures are illustrative and based on the assumptions stated. Jeremy Harper is a Credit Representative (CRN 463430) of Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 387025.