LMI Waiver for Doctors: Lender Rules 2026

An LMI waiver for doctors removes the lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) premium on a home loan above 80% of the property’s value. At ANZ and Westpac, an eligible doctor can borrow up to 95% of the value this way, with a 5% deposit plus purchase costs.

The four major banks differ most on career stage. Westpac names interns in its medico policy and CBA added them in July 2025, while ANZ excludes the provisional registration interns hold. One fictional registrar’s application runs through each lender below, including the ownership rule that applies when a partner buys too.

Medical Status

A doctor’s medical status for an LMI waiver is their registration type with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), plus the role or specialty the lender lists. Each lender sets its own definition, so the same doctor can qualify at one bank and miss out at another.

Medico mortgages are home-loan concessions that lenders give eligible medical professionals. The main concession is an LMI waiver at a higher loan-to-value ratio (LVR) than other borrowers reach without insurance. The wider set of LMI waivers by profession uses lower LVR limits for most other occupations.

Lenders’ definitions refer to the Medical Board of Australia’s registration types. Interns hold provisional registration, and limited registration covers postgraduate training or supervised practice, area of need, public interest and teaching or research. Fully qualified doctors hold general registration, and recognised specialists hold specialist registration.

Career Stage by Lender

ANZ ties its waiver to the registration type. Its August 2024 broker flyer for medical and dental practitioners accepts general or specialist registration and excludes provisional, limited and non-practising registration. ANZ may still accept non-practising registration during a temporary absence, such as parental leave.

Westpac and NAB list roles instead. Westpac’s 17 August 2026 broker policy booklet names hospital-employed doctors at each stage, from intern to staff specialist. NAB’s LMI waiver page lists fields of practice, such as general practitioner, physician and surgeon, as at October 2026.

The table sets each career stage against each lender’s published definition.

Career stage	Usual registration	CBA	ANZ	NAB	Westpac
Intern	Provisional	Included since CBA’s July 2025 change	Excluded	Not named on NAB’s list	Included at 95% LVR
Resident	General	Included as a doctor	Included at 95% LVR	Not named on NAB’s list	Included at 95% LVR
Registrar	General	Included as a doctor	Included at 95% LVR	Not named on NAB’s list	Included at 95% LVR
Specialist or general practitioner	Specialist or general	Included as a doctor	Included at 95% LVR	Included when the field is on NAB’s list	Included at 95% LVR
Doctor in supervised practice	Limited	Included since CBA’s July 2025 change	Excluded	Not named on NAB’s list	Hospital-employed doctors included

NAB’s list doesn’t separate career stages, so a resident or registrar fits only where NAB treats their field of training as a listed field. Westpac’s healthcare home loan page defines medical specialists “as per the Medical Board of Australia”, and Westpac verifies professional qualifications during the application.

Dentists and Allied Health

Dentists sit with doctors at ANZ and Westpac, with a waiver up to 95% LVR. NAB lists dental practitioners, and CBA’s July 2025 change named dentists among the professions that can borrow up to 95% without LMI.

Allied health roles qualify only where a lender’s definition names them, and they get a lower limit. ANZ’s August 2024 allied health flyer covers optometrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and veterinarians up to 90% LVR with no minimum income, for general registration only. Westpac’s booklet lists 15 roles at 90% LVR with a $90,000 minimum income, including registered nurses, psychologists, pharmacists and sonographers.

NAB’s list adds chiropractors, optometrists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and veterinary practitioners. NAB brought several of these roles in at 90% LVR from 26 February 2025, as The Adviser reported.

For CBA, the July 2025 change set a $100,000 minimum income for pharmacists. Nurses have their own rules, which the LMI waiver guide for nurses covers.

Because each lender words its medico definition differently, compare the definitions before you choose a lender. Bulma’s Policy Advisor can put one question to 52+ lenders, and each answer quotes the policy wording with the date Bulma last updated it.

Income Arrangements

Employed doctors and private practice owners can reach the same waiver, but the lender verifies their income differently. The waiver removes the LMI premium only. The lender still runs its normal serviceability test on the full loan.

That test can block a 95% loan even when the medico status is accepted. ANZ’s 5% deposit applies to a new ANZ lending customer only when their debt-to-income (DTI) ratio is below 6, on an owner-occupier loan with principal and interest repayments. DTI is total debt divided by gross annual income.

Employed Doctors

An employed doctor’s income comes from payslips and an income statement, but overtime and allowances need their own treatment. Westpac’s healthcare page can count 100% of overtime and allowances for eligible healthcare professionals, and its booklet names hospital-employed doctors, surgeons and specialists. Other lenders apply their ordinary overtime income rules unless their medico policy says otherwise.

Private Practice Doctors

A doctor in private practice earns through their own business, so the lender reads tax returns and financials instead of payslips. Westpac’s booklet lists general practitioners and medical specialists without the hospital-employed condition, so a private general practitioner fits its 95% list. Its Fast Track method assesses self-employed applicants on their last two notices of assessment (NOAs) up to 80% LVR.

Eligible medico applicants can still get the waiver up to 95% alongside Fast Track, but Westpac’s 90% allied health waiver can’t be combined with it. The self-employed home loan guide explains add-backs and trading history, and the family trust home loan guide covers practice distributions paid through a trust.

Reconcile the Income First

Settle what each income line is before you apply the professional concession, because the waiver doesn’t change how any of them counts.

• Base salary comes from the payslip and the employment contract.
• Overtime and allowances need a history on payslips, and Westpac counts them in full for hospital-employed doctors.
• Locum income paid through an agency’s payroll is casual pay as you go (PAYG) income, which the casual employment home loan guide explains.
• Locum income paid to the doctor’s Australian Business Number (ABN) is usually assessed as self-employed income, so the lender reads tax returns.
• Private practice distributions from a company or trust count only once the entity’s financials and the doctor’s personal return agree.

The full assessment of salary, locum and practice income for doctors sits in the home loans for doctors guide.

The Fictional Applicant

Every lender section below uses the same fictional applicant. Dr Maya Chen is a second-year registrar in physician training at a Victorian public hospital, with general registration. She and her partner, Tom, a secondary school teacher, are buying a $950,000 house to live in.

Item	Amount	Evidence
Maya’s base salary	$118,000	Payslips and hospital contract
Maya’s overtime	$22,000	Payslips and income statement
Maya’s allowances	$6,000	Payslips and income statement
Maya’s agency locum shifts, paid as casual PAYG	$14,000	Agency payslips
Tom’s salary	$98,000	Payslips
Combined gross income	$258,000
Deposit from savings	$47,500	5% of the price
Loan, principal and interest	$902,500	95% LVR
Existing car loan balance	$20,000	Loan statement

Maya and Tom will own the house in equal shares. Neither has borrowed from CBA, ANZ, NAB or Westpac before. Their DTI is about 3.6, which is $922,500 of debt divided by $258,000 of income.

CBA Medico Policy

CBA’s medico policy waives LMI for doctors and dentists up to 95% LVR. From 30 July 2025, CBA extended the waiver to medical professionals with limited registration, such as interns and doctors in supervised practice, as Yahoo Finance reported on 5 August 2025.

The same change cut the minimum income for pharmacists from $150,000 to $100,000 a year, as Broker News reported. Both reports name an income floor only for pharmacists. CommBank’s low deposit home loan page, as at October 2026, points doctors to a Home Lending Specialist to check eligibility, from a deposit as little as 10%.

CBA assesses each loan case by case, so its credit and serviceability rules still apply after the waiver.

On Maya’s facts, CBA’s definition covers her as a doctor with general registration. A $902,500 loan at 95% LVR is inside the waiver’s LVR, and CBA’s standard servicing then assesses the couple’s income and debts. If Maya were an intern, CBA’s July 2025 change would still include her.

Other Lender Conditions

On Maya’s facts, ANZ and Westpac both waive LMI at 95% LVR. NAB’s answer turns on whether it counts a registrar in physician training under its listed field of physician.

ANZ Medico Home Loan

ANZ’s medico home loan waiver, in its August 2024 broker flyer, covers medical practitioners, specialists and dentists up to 95% LVR. The doctor needs general or specialist registration that is current on the AHPRA register when the application is lodged.

The flyer sets these limits on loan size, property and lending.

• The doctor borrows $4.75 million or less to buy or refinance.
• A house or townhouse is valued by ANZ at $5 million or less, or a unit at $4 million or less.
• Total home lending with ANZ is $8 million or less.
• A new ANZ lending customer needs a DTI below 6 for the 5% deposit, on an owner-occupier loan with principal and interest repayments.
• The waiver doesn’t apply to ANZ Plus home loans.

Some temporary visas on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) may be acceptable, according to the same flyer. The temporary resident mortgage guide covers visa rules more widely.

Maya meets each ANZ condition. Her registration is general, her loan is $902,500, the house is under $5 million and the couple’s DTI of about 3.6 is below 6.

NAB Medico Home Loan

NAB’s medico home loan waiver needs a field of practice on NAB’s list and current AHPRA registration, according to its LMI waiver page as at October 2026. The listed fields include anaesthetist, dermatologist, general practitioner, obstetrician or gynaecologist, paediatrician, physician, psychiatrist, radiologist and surgeon.

The same page says the waiver depends on the profession, loan type and LVR threshold, without publishing the LVR for each profession. Ask NAB’s business development manager (BDM) for the maximum LVR that applies to the doctor’s field and loan type.

Maya trains in physician medicine but isn’t yet a specialist physician. Her NAB outcome depends on whether NAB treats a registrar as part of the physician field, so confirm that with NAB’s BDM before you quote the 95% loan.

Westpac Medico Policy

Westpac’s medico policy, in its 17 August 2026 booklet, waives LMI up to 95% LVR with no minimum income for dentists, general practitioners, medical specialists and hospital-employed doctors. The hospital-employed group covers interns, residents, registrars and staff specialists.

The maximum loan is $5 million, and total lending with the waiver can reach $7.5 million. Westpac verifies professional qualifications as part of the application.

Maya fits the hospital-employed registrar group by name. Westpac’s 100% treatment of overtime and allowances means her full $28,000 of overtime and allowances can count toward servicing her $902,500 loan.

The Same Application at Each Lender

Condition	CBA	ANZ	NAB	Westpac
Maya’s medico status	Included as a doctor	Included, with general registration	Depends on NAB treating a registrar as a physician	Included as a hospital-employed registrar
Waiver LVR for doctors	Up to 95%	Up to 95%	Not published	Up to 95%
Published loan cap	None published	$4.75 million	None published	$5 million
Income condition	None reported for doctors	DTI below 6 for a new customer at 5% deposit	None published	None for doctors
Overtime and allowances	No medico rule published	No medico rule published	No medico rule published	Up to 100%, conditions apply
Result on Maya’s facts	Fits, subject to servicing	Fits	Needs NAB’s confirmation	Fits

Joint Borrowers

Of the four lenders’ published material, only ANZ’s flyer sets a joint-borrower requirement. The eligible doctor’s share of the property must be the largest or equal largest, so a doctor buying with one other person needs at least 50%. With three owners at 40%, 40% and 20%, the doctor must hold one of the 40% shares.

Maya’s 50% share passes that test. If the couple chose 60% for Tom and 40% for Maya, ANZ would no longer waive LMI, even though nothing else changed.

The August 2025 reports on CBA’s change, NAB’s page and Westpac’s booklet and healthcare page set no ownership share for the doctor. At every lender, Tom’s income and debts still count in servicing as a joint borrower’s do.

For Maya, Westpac is the strongest documented fit because it names her career stage and can count all her overtime and allowances. ANZ fits as long as Maya keeps at least an equal share, and CBA fits on her doctor status. Lodge with NAB only after its BDM confirms that a physician registrar sits inside its listed fields.