Building & renovation loans

Buying My First Home
March 7, 2025
  • Building a new home?
  • Planning a major renovation/extension?
  • Construction loan is ideal
  • Only pay interest on amount drawn down
  • May be eligible for Housing Construction Grant

When it comes time for you to build your new home, or if you are undertaking major renovations to your existing home, a construction loan (building loan) is usually the most appropriate home loan option.

A construction loan is different to a standard home loan whereby the amount of the construction loan is usually drawn down in stages, instead of getting the total amount of the loan on settlement.

Draw down payments usually commence with the initial purchase of land, and then followed by payments at various stages of the building process.

This gives you comfort of knowing that you have the finance available for the project and only pay for it when it is needed at each progress stage.

How the construction loan (building loan) works

Whilst certain lenders have different conditions, you generally only pay interest on the loan equivalent to the amount you have to draw down at each stage of the building process.

Example:

If you have applied for a $380,000 loan for a house and land package, but have only drawn down $150,000 to purchase the land, then you only pay interest on the $150,000, not the full amount. If you then pay the builder another $100,000 as a building commencement deposit, you start paying interest on the new drawn down amount of $250,000. This continues until you’ve made all payments, only paying interest on the total cumulative amount borrowed to date.

With hundreds of different loan products in the market from all lenders, your professional Time Finance Mortgage Broker will help get the right loan for you!The benefits of why you should use a professional Time Finance Mortgage Broker are guaranteed.

Any advice contained in this article is of a general nature only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. Therefore, before making any decision, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice with regard to those matters. Information in this article is correct as of the date of publication and is subject to change.