LMI calculator

How much does LMI cost — and how this estimate works

Borrowing more than 80% of the price? This lenders mortgage insurance calculator estimates your LMI premium from published LVR bands — including your state’s stamp duty on the premium.

How much LMI costs comes down to two things: your LVR (loan ÷ property value) and your loan size. Premiums are priced as a percentage of the loan for each LVR band and loan bracket; your state then adds stamp duty on the premium. As a rule of thumb, LMI runs from about 0.5% of the loan just over 80% LVR to more than 4.5% at 95% LVR. The table below is the published indicative schedule this calculator uses — Indicative premium rates from a mortgage broker's published table (Home Loan Experts, LMI premium rates, updated 18 May 2026) — not an insurer's or a lender's own schedule — cross-referenced against Helia's public LMI fee estimator. Actual premiums vary by lender, insurer (Helia/QBE), borrower type and loan features — treat results as an estimate band, not a quote.

Each rate is the premium as a percentage of the loan.

Stamp duty your state adds to the premium

LMI by state — same loan, different bill

The premium itself doesn't change with your address, but the stamp duty your state charges on it does. Here's the identical scenario — a $500,000 purchase with a $50,000 deposit (90% LVR, premium $8,428.50) — in every state and territory:

Using this as an LMI calculator for NSW, VIC, QLD or any other state: just pick your state in the form above — the duty line updates automatically. Don't forget transfer duty is a separate, much larger cost: we have a stamp duty calculator for every state and territory.

Pay LMI now, or wait and save a 20% deposit?

There's no universal answer, but here's the honest frame for a $600,000 purchase in Victoria: buying now with $60,000 down (90% LVR) costs about $12,949.20 in LMI — the price of entering the market $60,000 short of a 20% deposit. Waiting to save the extra $60,000 avoids LMI entirely, but if prices rise faster than you save, the duty, deposit and price all grow while you wait. LMI is best understood as a fee for buying sooner; whether that's worth it depends on your market and your savings rate, not on the fee alone.

How to avoid LMI: three routes, and one way to spread it

1. Reach 80% LVR. Even a slightly bigger deposit can drop you a whole premium band — the jump from 88% to 90% LVR, and again past 90%, is steep.
2. The 5% Deposit Scheme. The government guarantees the slice of the loan above 80% of the value, so an eligible buyer pays no LMI on a 5% deposit — more on it below.
3. Family guarantee. A relative offers their own property as extra security for part of your loan. It is a lender product with no published rules we can cite, so ask the lender how it treats LMI and what the guarantor would be signing up to.
4. Capitalise it. Not avoidance — but adding LMI to the loan spreads the cost, at the price of interest on it for the life of the loan.

The 5% Deposit Scheme: no LMI from a 5% deposit

The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (renamed in October 2025; in law it is still the Home Guarantee Scheme) does not lend you anything. The government guarantees the part of your loan above 80% of the property’s value — up to 15% of the value on a 5% deposit, or 18% for a single parent or guardian on 2% — which is the part LMI would otherwise cover, so Housing Australia says none is charged. On a $600,000 home in NSW with a 5% deposit, the premium avoided is about $22,789 on this page’s indicative bands, and NSW charges no duty on it. The guarantee protects the lender, not you: you still borrow the whole loan and repay all of it.

Since 1 October 2025 there is no income test and no cap on places. The first home buyer stream asks that you be an Australian citizen or permanent resident aged 18 or over who has not owned property in Australia in the last 10 years, and that you buy alone or with one other person who meets the same residency, age and ownership tests — a partner, friend or relative. You must move in within 6 months and take a principal-and-interest loan of up to 30 years, plus up to 3 more, which can be interest-only, while a new home is built.

The single-parent stream works differently. A single parent or single legal guardian of a dependent child borrows alone, as the home’s only registered owner, and need not be a first home buyer: owning another property is allowed if you no longer own it 4 weeks after you become the registered owner of the new home. You can borrow up to 98%, and if you fit both streams you must use this one. Either way you apply through one of the participating lenders, not to the government, and there is no fee.

These caps apply from 1 July 2026, when Darwin’s rose to $750,000 and the NSW regional centres on the higher cap became Central Coast, Coffs Harbour – Grafton, Illawarra, Mid North Coast, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, Richmond – Tweed. Both the price and the lender’s valuation must be at or under the cap, and for land with a separate building contract the two together.

The catch. The guarantee generally ends if you move out — a relocation your employer requires, serious illness or caring for someone can be exempt — or if you rent the home, refinance to a lender outside the scheme, borrow more against it or sell. If it ends while the loan is still above 80% of the value, the lender may charge LMI then. Using it does not stop you claiming state first-home concessions or grants, each with its own tests, but it cannot be combined with the federal Help to Buy scheme. Checked 4 October 2026 against Housing Australia and the scheme’s Investment Mandate.

Housing Australia says the scheme can be combined with the federal First Home Super Saver scheme, which releases voluntary super contributions towards a first home. Neither Housing Australia nor the ATO says whether released FHSS money counts towards the 5% deposit, so check with your lender. FHSS also generally needs you never to have owned property in Australia, a stricter test than this scheme’s 10 years.