Unlock the secrets to refinancing multiple properties

When refinancing multiple properties saves you real money

Refinancing more than one property at the same time can reduce what you pay across your whole portfolio, particularly if rates have dropped or your circumstances have shifted since you first borrowed. You can move all your loans to one lender or split them strategically depending on what each property needs.

Consider someone in Revesby who bought their home five years ago and then picked up an investment unit in Padstow a couple of years later. Both loans are sitting with different lenders, one at 6.1% and the other at 6.3%. By refinancing both properties together, they could access a lower rate on each loan and potentially consolidate their offset accounts so surplus cash works harder across the whole portfolio. In that scenario, even a 0.4% reduction across two loans totalling $900,000 would shift monthly repayments enough to make a difference to cashflow.

Should you consolidate all properties with one lender?

Consolidating all your mortgages with a single lender can simplify administration and sometimes unlock better pricing, but it's not always the right move. Some lenders offer sharper rates on owner-occupied loans than investment loans, and splitting your loans across two lenders can sometimes deliver a lower blended rate overall.

If you own three properties and one of them is your primary residence in Revesby, you might refinance that home loan to a lender with strong owner-occupied rates and move the two investment properties to a lender that offers better investor pricing or more flexible offset arrangements. That way, you're not forcing every property into the same product just for the sake of convenience. The trade-off is that you'll have two sets of statements and two relationships to manage, but the interest savings can justify that extra admin if the rate difference is meaningful.

Accessing equity when you refinance more than one property

Refinancing multiple properties at once gives you the option to release equity from one or more of them, either to fund renovations, buy another property, or consolidate other debts. Lenders assess your borrowing capacity across your whole position, so if one property has grown in value and you've paid down the loan, you can often access that equity without selling.

In our experience, clients who've held property in Revesby or nearby suburbs for more than a few years often find they're sitting on usable equity they didn't realise was there. If you refinance your home and an investment property together, the lender will revalue both and calculate how much you can borrow against the combined equity. That might mean you can pull out $80,000 to use as a deposit on another purchase without needing to sell or save from scratch.

How the refinance process works when you have multiple loans

The application process for refinancing multiple properties is similar to refinancing one, but the lender will assess each property separately and look at your overall borrowing capacity. You'll need to provide income documentation, current loan statements for each property, and recent valuations or estimates of what each property is worth now.

Lenders will calculate your debt-to-income ratio and serviceability based on all your loans combined, so if rental income from an investment property isn't covering the full repayment, that shortfall gets factored in. Some lenders are more flexible than others when it comes to investment property income, so working with a mortgage broker helps you find a lender that will assess your position favourably rather than submitting to one that might decline based on policy.

You'll also need to consider discharge fees from your existing lenders, application fees for the new loans, and valuation costs if the lender requires formal valuations. These costs add up when you're refinancing more than one property, so it's worth running the numbers to confirm the interest savings will outweigh the upfront expense within a reasonable timeframe.

When it makes sense to stagger your refinancing instead

Refinancing all your properties at once isn't always the optimal approach. If one of your loans is coming off a fixed rate period soon and the others are on variable rates that are already competitive, you might refinance the fixed loan first and leave the others alone until market conditions shift or your circumstances change.

Staggering can also help if you're planning to buy another property in the near future. Refinancing locks you into a new loan, and some lenders have policies around how soon after settlement you can borrow again. If you refinance three properties now and then want to buy a fourth in six months, you might find your borrowing capacity has been reassessed in a way that limits what you can do next. In that case, it might make sense to refinance only the loans that are genuinely costing you money and hold off on the others until after you've secured the next purchase.

What to watch for when refinancing investment properties in Revesby

Reversby's property market has a mix of owner-occupiers and investors, particularly around the Lakes Golf Club precinct and near Revesby Station where unit stock appeals to renters. If you own investment properties in the area, rental income is part of your serviceability calculation, and lenders will typically only count 80% of that income when assessing how much you can borrow.

That means if your Revesby investment property is bringing in $500 per week, the lender will only count $400 of that in your application. If you're refinancing multiple investment properties, that reduction in income can affect whether the lender approves the full loan amount you're after. Some lenders are more generous with how they treat rental income, so comparing policies across a few options can make the difference between getting the loan amount you need and falling short.

Another factor specific to Revesby and surrounding areas is that some lenders have postcode restrictions or loan-to-value ratio caps in certain suburbs. If you're refinancing a property portfolio that includes loans in multiple postcodes, one lender might approve all of them while another might limit how much they'll lend on one of the properties based on location. A loan health check can help you understand where your current loans sit and whether refinancing will actually deliver the outcome you're after.

Offset accounts and redraw when you hold multiple loans

If you refinance multiple properties, the way you structure offset accounts and redraw facilities can have a real impact on how much interest you pay. Offset accounts reduce the balance your interest is calculated on, so if you have surplus cash sitting in an offset linked to one loan, it only benefits that loan. When you consolidate loans with one lender, you can sometimes link a single offset account to multiple loans, which means your savings work across your whole position.

Redraw facilities are different because they let you access extra repayments you've made, but not all lenders offer redraw on investment loans, and some charge fees each time you withdraw. If you're used to having redraw on your current loans and you refinance to a lender that doesn't offer it, you lose that flexibility. On the other hand, if you switch from a loan with limited redraw to one with a proper offset account, you gain more control over your cash without affecting your loan structure.

Moving your mortgage when rates shift or your situation changes

Interest rates aren't the only reason to refinance multiple properties. Your income might have increased, your rental income might have improved, or you might want to switch from interest-only to principal-and-interest repayments on one or more of your investment loans. Refinancing gives you the chance to restructure your loans so they align with where you are now, not where you were when you first borrowed.

If you've been making extra repayments on your owner-occupied home in Revesby and you've built up equity, you might refinance that property to release funds and then use those funds to pay down one of your investment loans or cover costs on another purchase. That kind of restructure doesn't happen automatically - you need to actively refinance and request the loan structure you want, whether that's accessing equity, switching repayment types, or moving to a lender with different features.

Call one of our team or book an appointment at a time that works for you. We'll review your current loans, run the numbers on what refinancing could deliver, and help you decide whether moving all your properties at once or staggering them makes more sense for your portfolio.

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