Broker guide
Newcastle Permanent Bridging Loans for Brokers 2026
Assess Newcastle Permanent bridging for a purchase before sale. Check security, sale timing, repayment treatment and the evidence your file needs.
- Published
- Updated
A Newcastle Permanent bridging loan funds an owner-occupied home purchase before the existing home sells, for up to 12 months. Repayments on the bridging loan are deferred, while interest adds to its balance. The application still needs to demonstrate affordability during the overlap and a credible sale exit.
Newcastle Permanent Bridging Product and Access
Newcastle Permanent has a fixed-rate bridging product for buying a replacement home before selling the existing property. Its Bridging Loan product page lists a maximum 12-month term. The product is for owner-occupied purchases, with the sale intended to repay the bridge.
The Target Market Determination excludes investment purchases and business purposes from its intended market. It describes customers confident of selling within 12 months, with enough proceeds to repay the bridging loan. Eligible borrowers must be at least 18 and permanent residents of Australia or New Zealand.
The determination approves distribution through Newcastle Permanent lenders and mortgage brokers who are authorised credit representatives of AFG, Connective, Mortgage Choice, Plan, Smartline or Lendi. Distribution requires accreditation and a conversation about the customer’s lending needs. Membership of an aggregator alone doesn’t establish your individual access.
AFG’s Newcastle Permanent lender page states that accreditation is available only to brokers in NSW, ACT and Queensland. It lists broker support on 02 4907 6575 and the lender’s bridging calculator. Confirm your accreditation and submission route through your aggregator before taking the application forward.
Use the Newcastle Permanent broker portal guide for broker access and support. A borrower going directly to the lender can use its home-loan enquiry route or call 13 19 87.
Security and the Expected Sale
Assess both properties and the debt outstanding before the sale, then calculate how much the sale will actually repay. The accepted security category and valuations determine whether the proposed exposure fits Newcastle Permanent’s limits.
The Acceptable Security and Maximum LVR guide has a separate bridging loan-to-value ratio (LVR) column. It lists 70% for its standard residential category and qualifying high-density property. Restricted-market security has a 50% limit, while rural dwellings over 10 and up to 50 hectares have a 60% limit.
Use the actual category and acceptable postcode for each property. The guide bases LVR on the lower of valuation or purchase price, except for favourable purchases. Its limits include fees and any lenders mortgage insurance premium, and credit can impose a lower limit.
Prepare a sale calculation using the expected price less selling expenses and debts that must be paid from settlement. Include the purchase contract, existing loan balances and evidence supporting the expected sale price. Record the marketing plan and likely sale timing, then update the calculation when a contract replaces the estimate.
The Bridging Loan Guide allows a maximum 12 months and warns that non-repayment can be treated as default. The product page says Newcastle Permanent can take action to ensure a sale and may require a rate two percentage points higher until default is resolved. Contact the lender early if the sale is slipping beyond the contracted term.
Income and Deferred Repayments
Newcastle Permanent requires borrowers to demonstrate affordability on the peak debt for both properties, even though scheduled bridging repayments are deferred. Its guide says borrowers must show they can make interest-only payments on peak debt. A sale exit and income assessment answer different questions.
Peak debt is the total owing during the purchase-and-sale overlap. End debt is the amount left after the sale proceeds reduce that total. Assess the remaining home loan’s repayments as well as the overlap, using verified income and the client’s ongoing expenses and liabilities.
The income documentation guide generally requires income documents dated within two months of credit assessment. It also requires salary deductions and salary packaging to be addressed. Match the evidence to the income type instead of treating every applicant as a salaried employee.
For example, the guide’s full-time and part-time salary section accepts one payslip, or qualifying existing-customer transaction history. Casual employment requires two consecutive payslips plus the previous financial year’s tax return or Pay As You Go (PAYG) summary. Use the applicable employment-history and income-assessment rules alongside those documents.
Deferred repayments don’t create an interest-free period. Interest is capitalised until the bridge is paid out, and the guide warns that interest runs on two loans during the overlap. A later sale therefore increases the amount that proceeds must cover.
Illustrative Sale Calculation
In this hypothetical example, combined debt is $800,000 before a further $18,000 of capitalised interest and financed charges. Net sale proceeds available to reduce that debt are $550,000. The remaining debt is $268,000: $800,000 plus $18,000 less $550,000.
If net proceeds fall to $520,000, remaining debt rises to $298,000. These are arithmetic examples, not a Newcastle Permanent rate, approval or servicing result. Keep the bridge payout separate from the home loan that continues after sale.
For the broader assessment method, the bridging loan guide explains peak debt and the sale exit. When checking the lender’s income or security wording, Bulma’s Policy Advisor quotes the policy behind its answer so you can retain it in file notes.
Fees, Documents and Settlement
Newcastle Permanent lists a $595 bridging establishment fee and no annual or monthly fee. Build the full settlement budget from its Facts for Mortgage Loans fees schedule and the individual offer.
Allow for legal and government charges, selling costs and any payout charges on existing loans. The schedule lists $30 per electronic transfer and a discharge administration fee when the lender registers a discharge, with incurred costs passed on. It says Newcastle Permanent pays required valuations for new residential loans, while some existing-loan variations attract valuation costs.
The schedule lists a $350 conversion fee for other loans outside Premium Plus Package. Confirm whether the approved structure involves a chargeable conversion.
Its default administration fees are $35 or $50 per relevant month when required repayments fall into arrears. These are separate from the bridging default-rate consequence.
The bridging guide permits early repayments without penalty. Any separate fixed-rate loan being paid out needs its own payout quotation, including applicable break costs. The offer and the existing loan’s terms decide those costs.
Put the application and settlements in this order:
- Establish broker access, record the client’s replacement-home purpose and complete identity and consent requirements. Newcastle Permanent’s Application Checklist sets out broker identity and application-record acknowledgements.
- Collect the applicable income evidence, expenses and liabilities. Assemble the purchase contract, existing loan statements and sale-price evidence, with the proposed marketing and settlement timetable.
- Obtain the lender’s valuations and credit decision for the combined exposure and expected end debt. Resolve conditions before treating finance as ready for settlement.
- Coordinate the purchase funding with the conveyancer and lender. Record which debts continue, which become bridging debt and which repayments remain due during the overlap.
- At sale settlement, obtain the bridge payout figure including accrued interest. Confirm the sale proceeds allocation and security release, then obtain the actual remaining home-loan balance and repayment schedule.
If the sale price falls, have Newcastle Permanent assess the revised proceeds and remaining debt before your client accepts a lower offer. The final file needs the settled balances and continuing repayments, not only the original estimate.