ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Joint Home Loans.Two Names. One Debt.
Two incomes usually buy more than one, which is why most people apply together. What almost nobody is told at the start is that a joint loan is not split between you. Each borrower is individually responsible for the whole of it, and how you hold the property is a separate decision again.
15 minutes, and bring whoever you are buying with. No credit check, no paperwork, no obligation. We will tell you what you are each signing up to and what to settle with a solicitor before contracts, not after. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Mortgage Brokers
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is a Joint Home Loan?
A joint home loan is a single loan taken out by two or more borrowers together. Both incomes are assessed, which usually increases what can be borrowed. AFCA’s position is that borrowers on a joint facility are jointly and severally liable, meaning each is individually responsible for the whole debt.
That is the sentence most people miss. The loan is not divided in half. AFCA puts it plainly: the lender can pursue either of you for the entire amount owing, regardless of who was paying it or who was living there.
How you own the property is a separate decision from how you borrow. Two people can hold a title as joint tenants or as tenants in common, and the choice changes what happens to each share on death and whether the shares can be unequal. That decision belongs with your solicitor, and it should be made before contracts rather than after settlement.
Common Situations
Who Actually Applies for a Joint Loan
Six situations cover most joint applications. The finance is similar in each. What changes is what should be written down before anyone signs.
A couple buying their first home
The most common joint application and the most straightforward. Both incomes count, both credit files are assessed, and the ownership question is usually settled quickly. See first home buyer loans.
Siblings or friends buying together
Workable and increasingly common. It also needs the most documentation, because there is no family law framework sitting underneath it if the arrangement ends. A written agreement before settlement is not optional here.
A parent going on the loan with an adult child
Different to going guarantor. On a joint loan the parent is a borrower, liable for the whole debt, with the loan on their credit file and counted against their own borrowing. See guarantor home loans for the alternative.
One of you has a stronger file
A default, a thin credit history or unstable income on one side affects the application as a whole. Lenders assess the weakest link, so which lender you approach matters more than usual. Worth checking before anything is lodged.
Contributions are unequal
One person brings most of the deposit, or one will pay more of the repayments. The loan will not record any of that. Only the title and a separate written agreement can, and both are settled with your solicitor.
One of you wants to stay after a separation
The loan does not split when a relationship ends. Removing a borrower means refinancing, and the person staying has to qualify on their own. See refinancing.
Social Proof
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Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Joint loans sit with Moufid, our Head of Residential Lending, who has seen both the joint applications that worked and the ones nobody wrote down. The useful work on this kind of file happens before anything is lodged, because lenders assess the weaker of the two files and knowing which ones look past what is the difference between an approval and a decline neither borrower needed. It also means raising ownership structure and any agreement between borrowers at the first call, so a solicitor deals with them before exchange rather than after settlement.
100+ Lenders Including
Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it. Which lender suits you is decided by your file, not by who is on this list.
Buying With Someone Else?
Fifteen minutes, both of you, before anything is signed.What Actually Decides It
A Joint Loan Is One Debt and Each of You Owes All of It
A joint home loan is not divided between the borrowers. Each of you is individually liable for the entire balance. Six things follow from that, and they are worth understanding before the application rather than during a disagreement.
Jointly and severally liable
AFCA’s stated position is that each customer is jointly and severally liable for debts held in joint names, meaning each is individually responsible for the whole debt and the lender can pursue either of them for the entire amount owing. Not half each. All of it, from either of you.
Owning it and owing it are different questions
As joint tenants, NSW Trustee and Guardian notes the surviving owner automatically acquires your share on your death, it does not form part of your estate, and shares are equal. As tenants in common you each own a percentage, shares can be unequal, and your share passes under your will. The loan does not change either way.
It lands on both credit reports
The loan is recorded on every borrower’s file. ASIC’s warning on joint accounts is that debt run up by another account holder can harm your credit report. Repayment history information stays on a credit report for two years, and a default for five, whichever of you caused it.
The whole debt counts against each of you
When either borrower later applies for anything on their own, lenders generally count the full joint repayment against that person, not their share of it. That is the thing that quietly blocks the next purchase, and it surprises people who assumed their half was their half.
Separating does not split the loan
A relationship ending changes nothing about the contract. The loan stays joint until it is refinanced or repaid, both names stay liable, and removing one borrower is a fresh application that the remaining person has to qualify for alone. Family law settlements do not bind the lender.
Either of you can ask for hardship help alone
Because each borrower carries the whole liability, AFCA’s position is that each is individually entitled to request financial difficulty assistance from the lender without needing the other borrower’s consent. Almost nobody knows this, and it matters most in exactly the situations where asking together is not possible.
Checked 31 August 2026. Joint and several liability and the individual right to request financial difficulty assistance are stated by AFCA in its published approach to joint facilities. Credit report effects are from ASIC Moneysmart and retention periods from the OAIC. Ownership structures are described by NSW Trustee and Guardian and are a New South Wales position. Best Interests Duty is set out in ASIC Regulatory Guide 273. How each lender assesses an existing joint debt is a matter for that lender. We are not solicitors. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
None of this is a reason to avoid buying together. It is a reason to have the conversation while everyone is still enthusiastic, and to write down what you agree. Have it with us in the room.
New South Wales
How You Hold the Title Is a Separate Decision
Your conveyancer will ask which way you want to hold the property, usually about a week before exchange and often with no explanation attached. Here is what the two options mean. Which one suits you is a legal question for your own solicitor, and we do not have a view on it.
Joint tenants
NSW Trustee and Guardian describes it this way: the surviving joint tenant automatically acquires your share of the asset on your death. Your share does not form part of your estate and cannot be left to anyone in your will, because survivorship overrides it. Shares are held equally.
Tenants in common
You each own a percentage of the property rather than holding it jointly, and those percentages can be unequal. On your death your share forms part of your estate and is dealt with under your will, rather than passing automatically to the other owner.
What neither of them changes
The loan. Holding title as tenants in common at seventy and thirty does not make the debt seventy and thirty. Both borrowers remain liable for the whole balance either way. The title records ownership. The loan records liability. They are separate documents doing separate jobs.
The Honest Comparison
Both on the Loan or One Borrower With a Guarantor?
Where a parent is the one helping, this is the real choice, and the two arrangements put very different obligations on them.
One borrower with a parent guarantee
- The parent is not a borrower, is not on the title, and has no ownership interest
- The guarantee can be limited to a set amount, and released once the loan stands alone
- No question later about who owns what share of the property
- Their property secures your debt, and the lender may sell it if neither of you can pay
- Only your income is assessed, so it does not increase what can be borrowed
Both on the loan together
- Both incomes are assessed, which usually increases what can be borrowed
- Both are owners, so both build equity rather than one carrying risk for nothing
- Ownership shares can be recorded on the title if you hold as tenants in common
- Each borrower is liable for the whole debt, and it sits on both credit files
- The full repayment counts against each of you on any future application
If the parent does not want to own part of the property, do not put them on the loan. A joint loan makes them an owner and a borrower with the whole debt against their name and against their future borrowing. A guarantee does neither, and it can be limited and released. Where the problem is the deposit rather than the income, the guarantee is usually the better instrument, and we will say so even though the joint application is the simpler file to write. Where two people are genuinely buying together and both will live there or benefit from it, the joint loan is the honest structure and the ownership question is the one to spend time on. Either way, if you are buying with anyone who is not your partner, the money to spend is not on us. It is on a solicitor drawing up a written agreement before settlement covering who pays what, what happens if someone wants out, and how the property gets valued if it comes to that. And the blunt version: if you would not lend this person the full amount unsecured, do not sign a joint loan with them.
Ask Which Structure Your Parents Should Actually Sign
Whether a guarantee that can be limited and released does the job the joint loan is being asked to do. Fifteen minutes. No obligation.The Difference
Two Borrowers With Two Sets of Interests
A joint application has two people in it who may want slightly different things. We work for both of you, and we say the awkward parts out loud while they are still easy to fix.
Legally On Your Side
A home loan for a property you will live in is regulated consumer credit, so Best Interests Duty applies to both of you. We must act in your best interests and give priority to your interests where they conflict with ours. Those obligations have applied to mortgage brokers since 1 January 2021.
Lenders Assess the Weakest File
A default, a short employment history or an unusual income on one side shapes the whole application. Every lender handles that differently, and knowing which ones look past what is the difference between an approval and a decline neither of you needed.
No Fee. Not Even Clawback.
We do not charge you for the comparison, the structuring or the application, on any loan type. If you discharge the loan early we wear the clawback ourselves rather than invoicing you for it, which plenty of brokers do. Lenders pay a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing before any work begins.
We Send You to a Solicitor Early
Ownership structure and any agreement between borrowers are legal work, not broking. We raise both at the first call so they get done before exchange, when they are cheap, rather than after settlement when they are not.
The Process
How a Joint Home Loan Comes Together
Four steps, and both borrowers are in all of them.
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15 minutes
Both positions in one call
Both incomes, both sets of debts and card limits, both deposits and where they came from. No documents and no credit check. You finish the call with a realistic joint range, a view on which lenders suit the weaker file, and a list of what to raise with a solicitor.
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Before contracts
Ownership and any agreement between you
Joint tenants or tenants in common, in what shares, and whether a written agreement between borrowers is needed. Your solicitor does this work. We make sure it happens before exchange rather than being remembered at settlement.
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You both gather
Documents
Two sets. We confirm exactly which of these your chosen lender wants before either of you goes looking.
- Photo identification, both borrowers
- Two recent payslips each
- Latest tax returns or group certificates
- Three to six months of bank statements each
- Evidence of each deposit contribution
- Details of all existing debts and card limits
- Two years of returns for anyone self-employed
- Contract of sale, once you have one
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We manage
Approval through to settlement
We select the lender whose policy handles both files rather than just the stronger one, manage valuation and conditions, and coordinate with your conveyancer through to settlement so the title is registered the way you decided in step two.
Track Record
Independent Since 2005
Joe Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded the practice five years later. Residential lending sits with Moufid, who has seen both the joint applications that worked and the ones nobody wrote down.
Related Options
Other Ways to Buy With Help
A joint loan is one arrangement. These are the others people compare it against.
Guarantor home loan
Where a parent supports the loan with equity instead of going on it as a borrower.
First home buyer loans
The 5 per cent deposit scheme, which allows no more than two borrowers on the loan.
Mortgage pre-approval
Knowing what the two of you can borrow before you start inspecting.
Refinance home loan
The route to removing a borrower when circumstances change.
Investment loans
Buying together as an investment rather than a home, where structure matters more again.
Every home loan we arrange
Back up to the full residential range if none of these is quite it.
Have the Awkward Conversation Early.
It is a much better conversation before settlement than after.Questions Answered
Joint Home Loan FAQs
The questions people buying together ask us most often before getting in touch.
What is a joint home loan?
A joint home loan is one loan taken out by two or more borrowers together. Both incomes and both credit files are assessed, which usually increases what can be borrowed. The loan is a single debt in joint names rather than two separate loans, and it appears on every borrower’s credit report.
Are we each responsible for half the loan?
No. AFCA’s position is that borrowers on a joint facility are jointly and severally liable, meaning each is individually responsible for the whole debt and the lender can pursue either of them for the entire amount owing. Any private arrangement about who pays what does not bind the lender.
What is the difference between joint tenants and tenants in common?
As joint tenants the surviving owner automatically acquires your share on your death, it does not form part of your estate, and shares are equal. As tenants in common you each own a percentage, shares can be unequal, and your share passes under your will. It is a legal decision for your solicitor.
Does a joint loan affect my credit report?
Yes. The loan is recorded on every borrower’s credit report, and ASIC warns that debt run up by another account holder can harm your credit report. Repayment history information stays on a credit report for two years and a default for five, regardless of which borrower caused it.
What happens to the loan if we separate?
Nothing automatically. The loan stays in joint names and both borrowers remain liable until it is refinanced or repaid. Removing a borrower is a new application, and the person staying has to qualify for the full loan on their own income. A family law settlement does not bind the lender.
Can I borrow again on my own while I am on a joint loan?
It is harder than people expect. When either borrower applies for credit separately, lenders generally count the full joint repayment against that person rather than their share of it. That is often what blocks a later purchase, so it is worth planning for before the joint loan is taken out.
What if one of us cannot make the repayments?
Contact the lender early. Because each borrower carries the whole liability, AFCA’s position is that each borrower is individually entitled to request financial difficulty assistance without needing the other’s consent. Free financial counselling is also available through the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.
Does Best Interests Duty apply, and what does Intellect Finance charge?
Yes it applies, to both of you. A home loan for a property you will live in is regulated consumer credit, so brokers must act in your best interests and give priority to your interests where they conflict with ours. We charge you nothing on any loan type, and no clawback fee if you discharge early.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Clients Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Most of the process runs by phone, email and video, so we settle joint loans in every state.
Parramatta
Suite 23, Level 1, 181 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Mortgage broker Parramatta →Ready When You Are
Work Out What You Can Borrow Together.
Fifteen minutes with a residential specialist, and bring whoever you are buying with. We’ll give you a realistic joint range, tell you which lenders read both files most favourably, and set out what belongs with a solicitor before you exchange contracts. No credit check, no paperwork, no obligation. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
A home loan for a property you will live in is regulated consumer credit, so Intellect Finance is legally required to act in your best interests under the Best Interests Duty in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. Each borrower on a joint loan is individually liable for the whole debt. Ownership structures are a legal matter, differ by state, and should be settled with your own solicitor. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, legal advice or an offer of credit, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance, legal advice or an offer of credit. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
Joint and several liability. Borrowers on a joint loan are generally jointly and severally liable, meaning each borrower is individually responsible for the entire debt and the lender may pursue any one of them for the full amount owing, regardless of any private arrangement between borrowers about who pays what. A separation, a family law settlement or an agreement between borrowers does not by itself change the loan contract or release anyone from it.
Ownership structures are a legal matter. Whether to hold property as joint tenants or as tenants in common, in what shares, and whether an agreement between borrowers is needed, are legal questions that depend on your circumstances and on the law of the state where the property is located. The descriptions on this page reflect the New South Wales position. We are not solicitors, we do not provide legal advice, and we do not recommend one ownership structure over the other. Which one suits you depends on your circumstances, your estate planning and who you are buying with. Nothing here should be relied on in place of advice from your own solicitor before you exchange contracts.
Financial difficulty. If you are having trouble making repayments, you can ask your lender for hardship assistance. On a joint facility each borrower is generally entitled to make that request individually. Free and confidential financial counselling is available through the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.
Nothing here is a guarantee of approval. Loan approval, borrowing capacity, interest rates, loan to value ratios, valuations, ownership requirements and eligibility are determined by individual lenders and by independent valuers, not by us. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any figure or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome.
Best Interests Duty. A home loan for a property you will live in is regulated consumer credit under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. When providing credit assistance in relation to these products, Intellect Finance is required to act in your best interests and, where there is a conflict of interest, to give priority to your interests. These obligations have applied to mortgage brokers since 1 January 2021.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a loan is discharged early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing in our Credit Guide before any credit assistance is provided.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to regulatory settings, consumer guidance or lender policy, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member