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How we picked theseWhat is a home loan?
A home loan is the money you borrow to buy a property. You save a deposit first, which is usually 5-20% of the property's value and then you borrow the rest. This is your loan amount or your loan principal.
Your lender charges you interest based on the loan principal amount and your home loan's interest rate. The higher the home loan interest rate, the higher your repayments will be.
How do I compare home loan interest rates?
A good home loan comparison starts with a careful look at interest rates. The lower the rate, the lower your repayments will be.
Let's compare 2 otherwise identical home loans with slightly different interest rates.*
| Interest rate | 6.44% | 4.99% |
|---|---|---|
| Loan amount | $678,010 | $678,010 |
| Loan term | 30 years | 30 years |
| Monthly repayment | $4,259 | $3,636 |
| Monthly saving | N/A | $623 |
| Annual saving | N/A | $7,476 |
As you can see, with the lower interest rate, you save $623 a month – or $7,476 a year.
*We're using the average owner-occupier home loan size from the latest ABS figures, the average variable rate loan in Finder's database of the full market and the lowest variable rate.
How do I compare home loan fees and features?
The interest rate is the most important factor you'll want to compare to determine how much your loan will cost you. But fees and features are also really important.
Comparing home loan fees
Examples of home loan fees include the following:
- Application fees. This one-off fee can run as high as $600.
- Ongoing fees. Some loans come with a monthly or annual fee, usually worth around $120 a year or $10 a month. Package loans have an annual fee of up to $500.
- Valuation fees. This covers your lender's cost to have your property professionally valued. It can cost several hundred dollars.
- Discharge fees. A discharge fee is only charged when you end a home loan, either by refinancing or paying off the loan.
Comparing home loan features
The following are the most common and useful home loan features:
- Offset account. A 100% offset account is a bank account attached to your home loan. Functioning like any other bank account, any money held in the account reduces the amount of the loan you're charged interest on. It's not available with every loan, such as fixed rate and basic loans. Many offset loans attract a monthly or annual fee, or a higher rate.
- Extra repayments. If your loan allows you to make extra repayments, you can pay it off faster. This will save you in interest charges. These days, most variable rate loans allow extra repayments, although some fixed rate loans don't.
- Redraw facility. A redraw facility is common on home loans that allow extra repayments. A redraw allows you to withdraw extra repayments from your loan and spend them if you need to. Some lenders charge a redraw fee or restrict how much money you can access.
- Split facility. Some loans allow you to split your mortgage into both fixed and variable portions. This lets you create a flexible loan that offers the benefits of both a fixed and variable rate.
Look at a home loan's comparison rate
The comparison rate is designed to help borrowers understand the true cost of a loan by adding in fee costs over time. But it's only a hypothetical calculation based on a specific loan amount and term. It's not that useful because every borrower's situation is unique.
You're better off working out how much your loan will cost you every month and factoring in the cost of fees on top of that.
"I've switched my home loan 6 times in the last 10 years. Each year, I'll search and compare for a better deal. My thinking is, why spend more on my home loan than I need to? Whether you're getting your first loan or your fifth, it's not as hard as you might think. Be clear on the features you want (like offset or redraw), and look at both the fees and the interest rate to work out the best deal for you."
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Finder's lowest monthly home loan rate tracker
Home loan comparison is hard if you have no clue what a low rate looks like. That's why we analyse all the loans in our database to find the most competitive rates each month.
The graph below shows the market's lowest* fixed and variable rates for home buyers and investors.
*Rates must have LVRs of 80% or higher and exclude unique or unusual loan products that aren't suitable for most borrowers.
Our Home Loan Awards
Finder's home loans awards celebrate stand-out home loan products across 12 different categories. Our experts analysed 12 months' worth of interest rate and fee data to find the best solutions for any borrower type. Our team of experts reviewed over 3,000 home loan products from across 100+ lenders to select our Finder Home Loans Awards winners for 2025.

More home loan questions answered
Thousands of Australians compare home loans with Finder every month
4.69 average rating from 805 reviews
What is Finder Score?
Finder Score is an easy, data-driven way to judge home loans at a glance. Our insights team compares more than 7,000 home loans across 120+ lenders to give each product a score out of 10 comparative to other products of its type.
This means we compare home loan products against others of its type. For example, variable rate home loans against variable rate home loans, and investor home loans against investor home loans. In total, there are 12 different product groupings.
We filter the loans in our database for each category so that we're only looking at loans that work for the borrower type. The final Finder Score takes into account the home loan's interest rate, its major fees and the presence of useful features like offset accounts.
The higher the score, the lower the cost compared to other products of its type.
What the Finder Score mean for home loans
- 9+ Excellent - These are the home loans which offer the lowest costs coupled with plenty of features, giving the best overall value.
- 7+ Great - These home loans may have slightly higher interest rates, maybe a fee or two, or fewer features, but overall, a competitive offering.
- 5+ Satisfactory - Usually these home loans would offer above average rates and may still include some competitive features, but they're not the best value for the overall cost.
- Less than 5 - Basic - These home loans have higher costs and/or fewer features than other home loans on the market.
Sources
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