Broker guide
Genuine Savings: Lender Rules and Evidence
Checking whether a client’s deposit has enough history? Apply genuine savings home loan rules, identify non-genuine funds and test rental evidence.
- Published
- Updated
Genuine savings is deposit money a home loan applicant has built up or held over time, rather than money that arrived just before they applied. Lenders and mortgage insurers test it on high loan-to-value ratio (LVR) loans, usually by asking for 5% of the purchase price. Macquarie applies its test above 85% LVR, while Westpac and the insurer Helia apply theirs above 90%.
Money already sitting in your client’s account can still fail the test. A parent’s gift that arrived last month can pay part of the deposit and still miss a three-month history rule. The lender, the LVR and the source of each dollar decide which funds count.
Funds That Count
Funds count as genuine savings when your client saved or earned them, holds them in their own name and has held them for the lender’s required period. Macquarie’s 10 September 2026 residential credit guidelines set that period at three months for most sources. Helia’s 10 August 2026 underwriting guidelines set no holding period for the 5% of deposit funds it requires above 90% LVR, but they limit where that money can come from.
Helia provides lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), so its rule applies when the lender insures the loan with Helia. A lender that insures with Helia applies its own policy as well, so the file must pass both tests.
Salary Savings, Investments, Gifts and Windfalls
The table classifies common deposit sources under Macquarie’s genuine savings test and Helia’s 5% deposit funds test.
| Source of funds | Macquarie genuine savings (above 85% LVR) | Helia 5% deposit funds (above 90% LVR) |
|---|---|---|
| Salary saved in a personal savings account or term deposit | Counts once held or accumulated for 3 months | Counts |
| Shares or managed fund units | Count once held for 3 months, including the sale proceeds of units held that long | Shares count |
| Equity in, or sale proceeds of, real estate | Counts. An off-the-plan deposit paid more than 3 months ago can also count | Counts for residential property |
| Repayments above the required loan repayments | Count, excluding unusual lump sums | Count |
| Gift from family | Counts only after it has been held for 3 months | Counts from an immediate family member once received. Gifts from anyone else don’t count |
| Inheritance | Counts only after it has been held for 3 months | Counts |
| Bonus or tax refund | Counts once held in a personal savings account for 3 months | Counts |
| Sale of a car or other asset | Doesn’t count | Counts |
| First Home Owner Grant | Doesn’t count | Counts |
| Superannuation, including the First Home Super Saver Scheme | Not on its list of acceptable sources | Counts |
| Money in a business account | Counts only with evidence your client saved it personally over the period | Counts |
| Borrowed money | Never counts, even after 3 months in the account | Doesn’t count toward the 5% |
The same dollar can pass one test and fail the other. A $20,000 gift from a parent counts toward Helia’s 5% once it’s in your client’s name at application. At Macquarie, the same gift needs three months in the account before it counts.
Non-Genuine Savings
Non-genuine savings is money your client can put toward the deposit that doesn’t meet the lender’s savings test. Gifts, inheritances, windfalls, asset sales and borrowed money are common examples, and so is saved money held for too short a time. Pepper Money’s non-genuine savings guide, reviewed 6 October 2025, describes them as funds that “haven’t been saved gradually or haven’t been held in your account for long”.
Available money can fail the history test because the test looks at how the balance was built over time. CommBank’s application outcome guide, as at October 2026, says regular saving suggests an applicant can manage regular loan repayments. A recent lump sum shows only that money arrived, so Macquarie counts savings only once they’ve been held or built up in the account for three months.
Non-genuine money still helps the purchase. Macquarie asks for 5% of the price as genuine savings, so a gift can pay the rest of the deposit. The minimum deposit guide works out the total deposit and purchase costs.
Ownership, Source, Control and Time Held
Four tests decide whether available money satisfies a savings-history rule. A dollar has to pass all four.
- Ownership. The money must be in your client’s name. Helia requires the 5% to be in the borrower’s name at application and, if it isn’t already in their account with the lender, deposited into that account before settlement.
- Source. The money must come from a source on the lender’s or insurer’s list. Macquarie rejects the First Home Owner Grant, while Helia accepts it.
- Control. Your client must be able to use the money without paying it back. A loan from family fails at Macquarie and Helia however long it sits in the account.
- Time held. The money must have been held for the required period. At Macquarie, that’s three months for savings, term deposits, shares, managed fund units, gifts and inheritances.
When savings move between your client’s own accounts, supply statements for each account across the whole period. The lender can then follow the same money from the first deposit to the current balance.
Gifted Funds and the Savings Test
Whether a gift counts toward the savings test depends on the lender. Macquarie treats a gift as genuine savings once your client has held it for three months, and before then it can still pay part of the deposit. At Helia, a gift from an immediate family member counts toward the 5% once it’s in your client’s name at application.
Some lenders accept a fully gifted deposit. Pepper Money’s guide says it does on some of its home loans. The gifted deposit guide covers the donor’s declaration, the transfer record and the evidence that the gift isn’t repayable.
Crypto and Bitcoin Funds
Crypto becomes deposit money when your client sells it and the Australian dollars reach their bank account. Helia accepts asset sales as a source, so bitcoin sale proceeds can count toward its 5% once they’re in the borrower’s name at application. Macquarie’s acceptable list names shares and managed fund units but not crypto, and its unacceptable list includes the sale of other assets.
Under that wording, a bitcoin sale isn’t a genuine savings source at Macquarie. The proceeds can still pay the non-genuine part of the deposit.
A bitcoin mortgage in Australia, as Block Earner describes its product, is a loan against bitcoin held as security that funds the home deposit. A separate mortgage from another lender covers the rest of the price. That deposit is borrowed money, so it fails Macquarie’s genuine savings test and Helia’s 5% deposit funds test.
History and Evidence
The history a lender needs depends on its own rule and on its mortgage insurer. Seasoning is the time money has sat in your client’s account before the application. Macquarie wants three months of seasoning for most sources, while Helia’s 5% rule sets none.
| Lender or insurer | When the test applies | Amount | History or seasoning | Evidence named |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macquarie, 10 September 2026 guidelines | LVR above 85%, not counting a capitalised low deposit fee | 5% of the purchase price | 3 months for savings, term deposits, shares, managed fund units, gifts and inheritances | Source documents such as bank statements, plus the receipt for an off-the-plan deposit |
| Westpac, minimum required documents checklist as at October 2026 | Mortgage-insured loans with a base LVR above 90% | 5% genuine savings | Set by Westpac’s consumer credit policy | Documents listed in that policy |
| Helia, 10 August 2026 guidelines | Standard LMI with a base LVR above 90% | 5% deposit funds, not borrowed | No holding period. The money must be in the borrower’s name at application and in their account before settlement | The lender verifies who owns the money and where it came from, plus evidence a gift was received |
Westpac’s minimum required documents checklist doesn’t print the holding period itself. It refers brokers to the consumer credit policy for the documents that prove genuine savings.
If your client is still saving a home loan deposit, a savings account in their own name with regular transfers from their pay gives the cleanest history. Each statement then shows the balance growing from salary, with no large unexplained deposits to investigate.
Worked Trail: From Source to Settlement Account
In this fictional example, Mia is buying a $650,000 home with a 90% LVR Macquarie loan in October 2026. At that LVR, Macquarie needs 5% of the price, or $32,500, as genuine savings. Mia’s settlement account holds $65,000 from four sources.
| Source | Trail to the settlement account | Held since | Genuine savings at Macquarie |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary savings | Fortnightly transfers from her pay account to a savings account from January 2026, moved to a new savings account in June | January 2026 | $21,000. Statements for both accounts show one continuous balance |
| Shares | Bought in 2023, sold in September 2026, with the proceeds paid into her savings account | 2023 | $14,000. Shares held for over 3 months count, and so do their sale proceeds |
| Gift from her parents | Transferred from her parents’ account on 20 August 2026 | August 2026 | $0. Held for under 3 months |
| Bitcoin sale | Sold on an exchange in September 2026 and withdrawn to her savings account | September 2026 | $0. Crypto isn’t a source on Macquarie’s list |
| Total | $35,000 of the $65,000 |
Mia’s $35,000 of genuine savings clears Macquarie’s $32,500 requirement. The gift and the bitcoin proceeds still go toward her deposit as non-genuine funds.
One changed date can reverse the result. If Mia had bought the shares in August 2026, the $14,000 would fail the three-month hold, leaving $21,000 against the $32,500 required. If the gift had arrived in June instead, it would have passed three months by October and counted.
When Another Route Applies
When your client can’t show enough genuine savings, two other routes can apply: rental history in place of savings, or a lender that doesn’t require genuine savings. Westpac’s broker policy page, as at October 2026, accepts continuous rental history as proof of genuine savings for owner-occupied loans. Macquarie’s 10 September 2026 guidelines don’t list rental history among acceptable sources, so rent works as a substitute only at some lenders.
The rent as genuine savings guide covers which lenders accept rental history and the records they need.
Pepper Money’s guide, reviewed 6 October 2025, says it doesn’t require genuine savings on some of its home loans. The no genuine savings loans guide compares the lenders that accept non-genuine funds and the conditions each one sets.
Two changes inside the current file can also remove the problem. Waiting three months turns a held gift into genuine savings at Macquarie. A larger deposit that brings the LVR to 85% or below takes the loan out of Macquarie’s test altogether.
Broker File Checklist
Collect the evidence for the route you’ve selected, matched to each source in your client’s trail.
- Statements in your client’s name for every account the deposit passed through, covering the lender’s full holding period.
- Share or managed fund statements showing the purchase date, plus the sale confirmation and the statement where the proceeds landed.
- A gift declaration from the donor and the statement showing the gift arriving, set out in the gifted deposit guide.
- Sale evidence for each sold asset, such as a property settlement statement or a crypto exchange statement showing the sale and the withdrawal to your client’s bank account.
- The receipt for any off-the-plan deposit paid more than three months ago, where the lender counts it.
- Lease records or a rental ledger when rental history replaces savings, as the rent as genuine savings guide explains.
- Dated policy confirmation of the lender’s current genuine savings rule, kept with your file notes.
Bulma’s Policy Advisor answers a genuine savings question across 52+ lenders and quotes the policy wording behind each answer. Each answer shows the date Bulma last updated that policy, so you can keep the wording and the date in your file notes.
Before you lodge, test the trail against the lender you’ve shortlisted. Confirm its LVR trigger, its holding period and whether it counts gifts, then match every dollar in the settlement account to a statement.
