A hfinance client case study.
The best deals usually aren’t one transaction, they’re a sequence. This one had two stages: refinance a pair of Brisbane investment properties to pull out over half a million in equity, then use that equity to buy the next property through a family trust in regional Victoria. All arranged while the clients live and work in the Middle East.
The Clients’ Situation
Our clients are an Australian couple based in the Middle East with three kids. He’s a contracts manager who’s been with the same employer for over fifteen years; she leads learning and development for a technology firm. Solid, verifiable expat income, salary plus housing, transport and education allowances.
Back home they hold two Brisbane investment properties in their personal names, worth about $3.1 million combined. Both are dual-income properties each split into two tenancies, so the pair of houses produces four rental streams. Good assets, well let, sitting with two different small lenders.
They’d found their next purchase: an investment property in a regional Victorian city for $515,000. This one, on their accountant’s advice, would be bought through a family trust. The question was where the deposit comes from because their money works hardest when it’s not sitting idle in a savings account.
The Challenge
The obvious answer, release equity from the Brisbane properties is easy to say and messy to execute. The two loans sat with two different lenders, which means two applications, two valuations, two sets of expat income verification, all needing to land in time to fund the Victorian purchase.
Foreign income adds its usual layer. Salary and allowances paid in dirhams have to be converted, shaded and verified against lender policy and allowances are treated differently lender to lender. With three dependents in the household, the servicing calculation had to be built carefully, not optimistically.
Then the structure question. The new property was to sit in a trust, but the equity funding it comes from personally-held assets. Lenders want to see exactly how funds-to-complete flow from one to the other. And critically, the clients wanted the two Brisbane properties refinanced standalone not cross-collateralised with each other or the new purchase. Cross-securing everything is the lazy answer, and it hands the bank control the clients should keep.
What We Did
Stage one: both Brisbane properties refinanced to a single lender at 80% LVR, as two standalone loans. Full valuations came in at $1,447,000 and $1,687,000 — the dual tenancies helping both the values and the rental figures. The refinances released roughly $157,600 from one property and $403,600 from the other. Around $561,000 out, with overall debt-to-income still a comfortable 3.2 times.
Stage two: the trust purchase. With the deposit and costs fully funded from the released equity, the trust borrowed $412,000 against the $515,000 purchase 80% again with rental income assessed off the valuation report. We coordinated with the selling agent directly for valuer access to keep the timeline tight.
The sequencing is the whole game here. Refinance first, equity landed, then the purchase, so the trust settlement never depended on money that hadn’t arrived yet.
The Numbers
| Stage 1 — Refinance (personal names) | Value | Equity out |
| Brisbane property 1 (dual income) | $1,447,000 | $157,600 |
| Brisbane property 2 (dual income) | $1,687,000 | $403,600 |
| Total equity released | ~$561,000 |
| Stage 2 — Trust purchase | Figure |
| Purchase price (regional Victoria) | $515,000 |
| Loan amount (80% LVR) | $412,000 |
| Deposit + costs | Funded from released equity |
| Borrower | Family trust |
| Rental income for servicing | Per valuation report |
Three properties, two structures, one clean funding chain and no cross-collateralisation anywhere. Each asset stands alone. If the clients ever want to sell one, refinance one, or move one, they can, without a lender holding the whole portfolio hostage.
If You’re an Expat Building a Portfolio
Equity in existing properties is the natural deposit source for the next one but pull it out as its own deliberate step, before the purchase clock is ticking. Rushing an equity release to meet a settlement deadline is how deals fall over.
Keep your loans standalone if you can. Cross-collateralisation is convenient for the bank and almost never for you. And if the next property is going into a trust — smart move for plenty of families, but that’s your accountant’s call, remember the lending is specialised. The lender needs to be right for trust borrowing, expat income and your timeline all at once. That’s a shortlist, not a comparison site.
How We Approach These Deals
Multi-stage deals like this are where hfinance does its best work. Expat income from the Gulf, dual-occupancy rental assessment, trust lending, standalone security structure — every one of those is a lender-policy question, and we sequence them so each stage funds the next. The clients stayed in the Middle East the entire time. The portfolio did the moving.
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. Trust structures have significant tax and legal implications and should be established on advice from your accountant and solicitor. 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.