LMI Waiver for Engineers: Lender Rules 2026

Few Australian lenders publish a lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) waiver for engineers. Granite Home Loans, a non-bank lender, lends up to 95% of the property’s value to a university-qualified engineer and pays the LMI premium itself. NAB, CommBank, ANZ and the Westpac Group publish professional waiver lists that name no engineering roles.

Granite’s criteria ask for the engineering degree, with no mention of Engineers Australia membership, chartered status or state registration. Membership matters at Macquarie instead, where it lets a self-employed engineer verify income with one year of documents, but only up to an 80% loan-to-value ratio (LVR).

Credentials That Qualify

Granite’s Professional product accepts an engineer on a university degree, without asking for a membership grade, chartered status or state registration. Granite’s 28 September 2026 product sheet requires the main income earner to be a university degree qualified professional in a listed industry, and engineering is one of those industries. Its Lender Paid LMI page gives civil, mechanical, mining and structural engineers as examples.

Those examples aren’t a closed list of disciplines. A software engineer can also fit Granite’s separate IT category, which Granite may consider with a lesser qualification, such as a TAFE certificate or diploma.

The big banks’ professional waivers don’t extend to engineers. NAB’s LMI waiver page, as at October 2026, lists medical, accounting, actuarial, financial analyst and legal professionals. CommBank’s low deposit options page, as at October 2026, names doctors, lawyers and accountants.

ANZ’s broker waiver flyers cover medical and dental practitioners, selected allied health roles, legal professionals and accountants. Westpac, St.George and BankSA broker guides, current as at 17 August 2026, list accounting and legal as the industries for their 90% LVR industry waiver. The LMI waiver guide compares the professions each lender accepts.

Macquarie uses Engineers Australia membership for a different purpose. Its 10 September 2026 credit guidelines list an engineer who is a member of Engineers Australia, or a state equivalent, as a professional specialisation for self-employed income. That policy changes how income is verified, not whether LMI is payable.

Credential	Granite Professional product (LMI paid by Granite)	Macquarie professional specialisation (income only)
Engineering degree	Required, from a university	Not stated
Engineers Australia membership grade	Not stated	Membership required, with no grade specified
Chartered status	Not stated	Not stated
State registration	Not stated	A “state equivalent” of membership is accepted but not named
Engineering discipline	Examples include civil, mechanical, mining and structural, with software engineers also eligible under the IT category	Not limited by discipline

Engineers Australia credentials still help prove the degree and the role. Graduate membership follows a completed qualification, and the Member grade suits engineers with at least three years’ experience, according to Engineers Australia’s membership page. Chartered status needs at least five years’ experience and an assessment against 16 competency elements.

State registration is a licence to practise in a regulated area. Queensland’s Board of Professional Engineers keeps the Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) register. Victoria registers engineers in civil, structural, electrical, mechanical and fire safety engineering, and Consumer Affairs Victoria runs a public register.

Macquarie’s guidelines don’t say which registration counts as the state equivalent. Get the credit team’s written acceptance before relying on an RPEQ or Victorian registration in place of Engineers Australia membership.

Here’s how the role test reads in one fictional file:

• Incorrect: “She’s a site engineer at a construction firm, so Granite will cover the LMI.”
• Correct: “She holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) and earns most of the household income, so she meets Granite’s professional test. The property, loan and credit conditions still need to pass.”

Employment and Earnings

Granite accepts salaried and self-employed engineers on full income documentation and sets no minimum income. Earnings therefore decide servicing, the lender’s test of whether the client can afford the repayments, not eligibility for the product.

Keep the two tests apart in the file. The degree answers whether the engineer fits the professional product. Payslips, tax returns or business financials answer how much the client can borrow.

Salaried and Fixed-Term Engineers

A permanent salaried engineer is the simplest case for Granite’s pay as you go (PAYG) full-documentation rule. The payslips verify income, and the degree verifies the profession.

An engineer on a fixed-term project contract is still a PAYG employee. The remaining contract term and the renewal history affect how a lender counts that income, which the contractor home loan guide explains.

Contractors and Practice Owners

An engineer who contracts through their own Australian Business Number (ABN) or company is self-employed. The lender reads tax returns and business financials instead of payslips, as the self-employed home loan guide explains.

Granite’s Professional product needs full income documentation. A low-documentation (low-doc) loan, which relies on a declaration instead of full tax records, can’t be paired with it.

Macquarie suits a newer engineering practice with a 20% deposit. Its 10 September 2026 guidelines accept one year of income documents from a self-employed engineer who is an Engineers Australia member.

The latest personal tax return and notice of assessment can also verify that income. The business must have traded for at least 12 months, and the LVR can’t exceed 80%.

Joint Applicants

Only one borrower needs to meet Granite’s professional criteria, and the product sheet says that borrower must be the main income earner.

In a joint application where the engineer earns less than their partner, the engineer’s degree doesn’t qualify the loan. The partner would need a qualifying degree of their own.

Lender Comparison

Among NAB, CommBank, ANZ, the Westpac Group, Macquarie and Granite, only Granite publishes an LMI offer that names engineers. Test it against the client’s actual purchase: an owner-occupied home in an eligible location, a loan of $2.5 million or less and an LVR of 95% or less.

Strictly, Granite’s product is lender-paid LMI rather than a waiver. The insurance still exists, but Granite pays the premium, so the client pays no LMI at settlement and none is added to the loan.

Condition	Granite Professional product	Macquarie professional specialisation
Maximum LVR	95% with LMI paid by Granite	80%, so LMI doesn’t apply
Maximum loan	$2,500,000, subject to Granite’s postcode matrix	Not set by this policy
Income	No minimum income	One year of self-employed income documents
Joint applicants	The main income earner must hold the qualifying degree	Not stated
Property and purpose	Purchase of an established or new home to live in, in a metro or inner-city location, with no construction or vacant land	Standard Macquarie policy
Borrower	Australian citizen or permanent resident with a clear credit history	Self-employed engineer whose business has traded for at least 12 months
Genuine savings	Not required when the client meets Granite’s criteria	Standard Macquarie policy

Granite’s 28 September 2026 product sheet sets principal and interest repayments and a 30-year maximum term. Its product overview page asks for a credit score over 600. Granite reviews the rate on request when the LVR falls to 90% and 80%.

Prepare these documents for a Granite Professional application:

1. The degree certificate or academic transcript that proves the university engineering qualification.
2. Full income documentation, which means payslips for a PAYG engineer or tax returns and financials for a self-employed engineer.
3. Proof of Australian citizenship or permanent residency.
4. The contract of sale for an owner-occupied purchase in a postcode Granite’s matrix accepts.

Worked Example: A Joint Purchase at 95% LVR

In this fictional example, Priya is a civil engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering who earns $135,000 a year on a permanent salary. Her partner earns $85,000. They’re buying a $700,000 established home to live in, in a metro postcode, with a $35,000 deposit plus purchase costs.

The loan is $665,000, which is a 95% LVR and well inside Granite’s $2.5 million limit. Priya is the main income earner and holds a qualifying degree, so the loan meets Granite’s professional test.

For scale, Helia’s LMI fee estimator gave $26,397 including goods and services tax (GST) for a $700,000 owner-occupied home at 95% LVR, as at September 2026. That estimate assumes a borrower who has owned a home before and a 30-year term, and it excludes state insurance duty.

Change one fact and the result changes:

• If her partner earned $140,000, the partner would be the main income earner and Priya’s degree wouldn’t qualify the loan.
• If the home were an investment, the Professional product wouldn’t apply. Granite’s separate lender-paid LMI product goes to 85% for investors, which needs a $105,000 deposit on this price.
• If the property sat outside Granite’s metro and inner-city postcodes, the Professional product wouldn’t apply.

Lender rules change, so check the current wording before you quote a waiver to a client. Bulma’s Policy Advisor answers one LMI question across 52+ lenders, and each answer quotes the policy wording and the date Bulma last updated it.

When no engineer offer fits, a mortgage for an engineer follows the lender’s ordinary policy. A 20% deposit avoids LMI, and a smaller one means paying the premium or using another route, which the minimum deposit guide and the home loan guarantor guide explain.

Unclear Titles and Roles

When a job title or overseas credential doesn’t match Granite’s list, send the lender the qualification evidence. Get its acceptance in writing before you tell the client the LMI is covered. Granite’s test reads the degree, so the title on the payslip doesn’t settle the question.

1. Identify the qualification behind the title. “Project engineer”, “systems engineer” and “engineering manager” describe the job, so collect the degree certificate or transcript and an employment letter that describes the role.
2. Place an unusual case in the nearest category. A software engineer with an IT degree can fit Granite’s IT category. An engineering associate with a diploma has no university degree, so the published professional test isn’t met.
3. For an overseas degree, add the client’s Engineers Australia migration skills assessment outcome letter where they have one. Engineers Australia assesses degrees accredited under the Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accords and other overseas qualifications, and the letter records the outcome.
4. Check residency at the same time. Granite lends only to Australian citizens and permanent residents, so a recognised overseas degree doesn’t help a client on a temporary visa.
5. Send the scenario before lodgement. Use the “Email a scenario” option on Granite’s broker portal or ask your business development manager (BDM), and name the qualification, the role, the product and the LVR.
6. Ask for the answer by email and keep it in the file notes. The written acceptance shows why the product suited the client, which supports your records under ASIC’s best interests duty guide (RG 273).

An engineer employed by a large technology company can have a second route through the employer. Bankwest extended its LMI waiver in June 2026 to employees of large technology companies, as Broker Daily reported. Send Bankwest the employer name, the employment type and the start date, because that waiver turns on the employer rather than the engineering qualification.

If no lender confirms the waiver, plan the loan at standard LMI terms from the start. Show the client the premium on their actual LVR beside the cost of saving a larger deposit, so they can choose before the contract is signed.