The finder asks three questions and returns a lane. This note explains exactly what happens in between, because a tool you can inspect is worth more than one you have to trust.
What is in the table
Three inputs:
- Purpose — eight options, from buying a first home to covering the gap between a purchase and a sale.
- Income source — six profiles, from salaried employment to business ownership through entities.
- Stage — orienting, comparing, or ready to apply.
Purpose maps to a primary lane, and sometimes two: buying your next home to live in usually involves both bridging and refinance considerations. Income source can pull an additional lane into the answer regardless of purpose — an ABN holder buying a first home needs the self-employed evidence rules as well as the first-home scheme rules. Stage does not change the lane; it changes what to do next.
The whole mapping is written out in the page source. You can open it and read the rule that produced your result.
Why a table
The routing problem here is small and closed. There are seven lanes, and what determines yours is what you are doing and how you earn. That is a lookup.
A lookup published as a table has three properties worth keeping:
- Reproducible. The same inputs give the same output for everyone, every time.
- Inspectable. If the result seems wrong for your situation, you can find the specific rule and discount it accordingly.
- Local. The table runs in your browser, so using it requires no account and sends nothing anywhere.
What it is good for, and what comes next
A lane, the two questions that settle it, the assessment differences from your income source, and an evidence list. That is a reading list tuned to your situation, produced in about fifteen seconds.
What follows it is a conversation with a licensed provider who can see your full position — and the point of the table is that you walk into that conversation already knowing which two or three questions decide your outcome.
Where to talk to something that answers
The consultation button on any page opens a chat assistant that handles general questions about how Australian lending works, in plain English. Two different tools, each described as what it is.
Reviewed 17 August 2026.