The site divides Australian borrowing into seven lanes: first home, refinance, investment, self-employed, commercial, car and personal, bridging. The split is a judgement call, so here is the rule behind it and where it strains.
The rule
A lane exists where the assessment changes, not where the marketing changes.
That test is narrower than it sounds. It excludes plenty of things sold as distinct products — construction loans, package deals, offset variants, guarantor structures — because they are features assessed within an existing lane. And it separates things that look similar and are not: a first home purchase and an investment purchase can involve the same property and receive completely different treatment of income, tax and risk.
Applying it
- First home — deposit size and government scheme eligibility dominate, and both are rules no lender controls.
- Refinance — no purchase, so switching cost and break-even replace deposit as the deciding maths.
- Investment — rental income is shaded, tax treatment differs, and land tax enters the picture.
- Self-employed — the evidence standard itself changes, which determines which lenders can look at the file at all.
- Commercial — assessed on the business, and largely outside the consumer credit regime.
- Car and personal — short terms, where fees and term length dominate the headline rate.
- Bridging — the only lane priced on a timeframe rather than a capacity.
Where the model strains
Two lanes at once is common. A self-employed person buying a first home is genuinely in both, and the stricter evidence standard governs. The site handles this by keeping income situation on a separate axis from loan type and combining them in the finder, rather than forcing one label.
Some cases sit outside all seven. Self-managed super fund lending, reverse mortgages and non-resident purchases each have their own regime. They appear inside the closest lane rather than getting one of their own, and the honest signal for anyone in one of those is that a different depth of material is what you need.
Reading order
- Run the three questions to land on a lane.
- Read that lane end to end, including the evidence list.
- Read your income situation page — it overrides parts of the lane.
- Follow the official links and confirm the current thresholds.
Reviewed 17 August 2026.