Written by

Steven Lee

Mortgage Director, ODIN Mortgage & Tax

10+ years in Australian banking and mortgage lending

Last reviewed

Updated on: October 8, 2026 View profile →

About the Author: This article is written by the team at ODIN Mortgage, a mortgage brokerage exclusively serving Australian expats and foreign investors. With 10+ years of expat lending experience, 2,300+ clients served across 40+ countries, and access to a panel of 40+ Australian lenders accepting foreign income, ODIN Mortgage brings unmatched depth to every sign discussed below.

Sign 1: Your Income Is Earned in a Foreign Currency

When a lender assesses your borrowing capacity, they apply a discount (called “income shading”) to foreign currency earnings to account for exchange rate risk. The shading rate varies significantly from lender to lender and from currency to currency. A borrower earning in USD may be treated very differently from one earning in AED or SGD – even at the same gross income level.

A generalist broker with limited expat deal flow will typically not know these shading ratios in advance. They may submit your application to a lender whose policies are unfavourable for your currency, resulting in a lower borrowing power figure or a declined application. ODIN Mortgage holds proprietary, lender-by-lender foreign income data built over 10+ years of deal flow – data that is not published publicly and cannot be found on any lender’s website.

Sign 2: You Have Been Declined or Received a Surprisingly Low Borrowing Estimate

Expat applications are declined for preventable reasons more often than most borrowers realise. Common causes include:

• Submitting to a lender that does not accept income from your country of residence
• Providing documentation in a format the lender does not recognise for overseas employment
• Using an income figure that has not been correctly converted or shaded per that lender’s policy
• Applying without understanding how your visa status or residency classification affects eligibility

A specialist expat broker identifies the right lender for your specific profile before submitting – not after a decline has already marked your credit file.

Sign 3: You Are Unsure Whether You Need FIRB Approval

Many Australian expats are surprised to learn that their residency status can affect their FIRB obligations. Australian citizens living overseas are generally exempt from FIRB approval for most residential property purchases, but permanent residents and temporary residents face different rules. Purchasing through a trust or company structure adds further complexity.

A generalist lender may not flag FIRB requirements at all, leaving you to discover the issue at settlement – a costly and stressful discovery. Specialist expat brokers incorporate FIRB compliance guidance into the assessment process from the first conversation.

Sign 4: You Cannot Be Physically Present in Australia During the Purchase Process

Remote property settlement is achievable, but it requires coordination between your broker, conveyancer, and lender to ensure documentation can be executed and exchanged electronically. Not all lenders support fully remote settlements, and not all brokers have the workflows to manage this efficiently across time zones.

Sign 5: You Are Thinking About Tax Implications as a Separate Problem

Most expat borrowers work with a broker and an accountant who never directly communicate. This creates gaps: a loan structure that makes sense from a lending standpoint may be suboptimal from a tax perspective, or vice versa. Key issues that fall through the cracks include:

• Whether the loan should be interest-only or principal-and-interest for tax efficiency
• How the holding structure (individual, joint, company, trust) affects deductibility
• Land tax exposure based on ownership structure
• The interaction between foreign income, Australian rental income, and your overall tax position

ODIN Mortgage operates as part of ODIN alongside Odin Tax, meaning mortgage structuring and tax planning are coordinated as one integrated service – not handled by separate firms who never talk to each other. This integration is not offered by any other brokerage serving Australian expats.

Sign 6: You Are Working With a Broker Who Learned About Expat Lending From Your Application

Expat mortgage applications involve scenarios that do not appear in standard broker training: foreign employer reference letters, overseas payslip formats, currency conversion for PAYG equivalency, lender-specific documentation requirements for each country of income, and LVR policies that differ materially for non-resident borrowers. These details are learned through volume, not theory.

ODIN Mortgage has served 2,300+ Australian expats across more than 40 countries, and every client is an expat or foreign investor – not a domestic borrower who happens to have an overseas property. That specialist-only focus creates a level of pattern recognition that generalist brokers cannot replicate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclaimer: This article contains general information only and does not constitute personal credit, financial, tax, or legal advice. Borrowing power, LVR eligibility, and loan approval outcomes depend on individual circumstances and the policies of individual lenders, which are subject to change. FIRB requirements depend on your specific residency status and purchase structure. ODIN Mortgage is regulated under ASIC and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act (NCCP). Please seek personalised advice appropriate to your circumstances before making any financial decisions.