True wellbeing begins at home.
You have found the right home but yours has not sold yet. This is one of the most common situations I see as a broker, and it does not have to mean missing out. Bridging finance lets you secure the new property now and sell your existing home on your own timeline, without the pressure of perfect synchronisation.
By Jason Given · July 2026 · 7 min read
There are three situations where buying first makes sense. The first is the most common: you have found your dream home. It ticks every box, the kids love it, it is in the right school zone. If you wait to sell first, someone else will buy it. In a city like Adelaide where quality stock in popular suburbs moves fast, hesitation costs you the property.
The second reason is market timing. If you believe your current home will sell well in spring but the property you want is available now in winter, buying first locks in the purchase at today's price while you list yours in a stronger selling window.
The third reason is practical. Selling first means you need somewhere to live between settlements. That usually means renting, storing furniture, and moving twice. For families with children, that disruption is significant. Buying first means you move once, directly from old home to new home.
A bridging loan covers the gap between buying your new property and selling your existing one. The lender calculates your peak debt, which is your current mortgage balance plus the full purchase price of the new property. During the bridging period, which typically runs for 6 to 12 months, most lenders capitalise the interest. That means you are not making repayments on the full peak debt amount. You continue paying your existing mortgage as normal.
Once your existing home sells, the sale proceeds pay down the bridging debt. You are left with just the ongoing mortgage on your new home, sized to whatever you would have borrowed anyway.
Lenders like BankSA and Westpac offer bridging as a "new to bank" product, meaning you move your entire lending across to them. Bridgit and MA Money are specialist bridging lenders who can sometimes move faster when timing is tight.
Let us say you own a home worth $850,000 with a $350,000 mortgage remaining. You want to buy a new home at $1,100,000.
Your peak debt is $350,000 (existing mortgage) plus $1,100,000 (new purchase) = $1,450,000. At a bridging rate of 6.5%, the monthly interest on the peak debt is approximately $7,854. If your bridge runs for 3 months, the total bridging interest cost is approximately $23,563.
When your existing home sells for $850,000, the sale proceeds pay off the $350,000 mortgage and the $23,563 in capitalised interest. The remaining $476,437 goes towards reducing the new loan. Your ongoing mortgage on the new home ends up around $623,563, which is very close to what you would have borrowed anyway if you had sold first.
The actual cost of buying first in this scenario is the $23,563 in bridging interest. Compare that to the cost of selling first, renting, and moving twice, and it starts to look very reasonable.
Lenders assess bridging applications on three main criteria. First is the LVR at peak debt. They look at your total borrowing against the combined value of both properties. Most want this under 80%, though some specialist lenders will go higher with appropriate risk pricing.
Second is serviceability on peak debt. Even though the interest is capitalised during the bridge, the lender needs to see that you could service the full amount if required. Your income, expenses, and other debts all factor in.
Third is the sale timeline. The lender wants to see a realistic plan for selling your existing property. Having an agent appointed and a listing strategy in place strengthens the application. If your property is already on the market, even better.
The biggest risk is a sale delay. If your property takes 6 months to sell instead of 3, your capitalised interest doubles. Using the example above, that would be approximately $47,125 instead of $23,563. This is why getting your property on the market early and pricing it realistically from day one matters so much.
The second risk is a price shortfall. If your home sells for $750,000 instead of $850,000, you have $100,000 less to pay down the bridging debt. Your ongoing mortgage ends up higher, and you need to make sure you can still service it comfortably.
We manage both of these risks before you commit. We stress test the numbers at a lower sale price and a longer sale period, so you know what the worst case looks like before you sign anything.
Bridging is not right for everyone. If you have thin equity in your current home, say less than 15%, the combined LVR at peak debt may be too high for lenders to approve. In that situation, selling first and building up more equity is the safer path.
If you are in a slow market where properties are sitting for 3 to 6 months, the capitalised interest adds up quickly and the cost advantage over selling first disappears. Similarly, if your income situation is changing, perhaps you are moving jobs or reducing hours, lenders may not be comfortable with the serviceability assessment on peak debt.
In these cases, selling first, making a conditional offer, or negotiating an extended settlement on the new property may be better options. We walk through all of this with you so the decision is based on your actual numbers, not assumptions.
It depends on the lender and the overall LVR at peak debt. Some lenders will consider bridging with less than 20% equity in your current home, but your combined LVR across both properties needs to be within their limits. If equity is tight, we look at lenders like Bridgit or MA Money who specialise in bridging and may have more flexible criteria.
Most bridging loans give you 6 to 12 months to sell. Some lenders, like BankSA, offer up to 12 months as standard. The key is to have your property on the market early in the bridging period and priced realistically. The longer the bridge runs, the more interest you pay.
During the bridging period, most lenders capitalise the interest on the bridging portion. That means you do not make monthly interest payments on the full peak debt. You continue paying your existing mortgage as normal, and the bridging interest is added to the loan balance. Once your property sells, the capitalised interest is paid from the sale proceeds.
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