28/09/2026
Planning on upgrading your home (part 2)? The biggest questions I get are how much equity do I have and should I buy or sell first? Both are linked, here's why.
💰 Your useable equity is the deposit for the new home (covered in part 1 of this series). The amount helps determines your path - sell your current home first, or buy first.
For example, if you don’t have enough equity (for a deposit), you may not be able to buy the new home first which means you have to sell first or do a simultaneous settlement - read on to learn more on the three paths to buying and selling.
🤔If you've only bought a new home using equity once before - or never like most people - it's hard to avoid the traps and mistakes. Let us manage it for you to avoid the risks.
The paths:
🏠 Path 1. Sell current home first then buy new home – once the home is sold, you know exactly how much equity you can use as the deposit for the next home (as you have it in cash). ➡️ The risk is property prices can rise while you wait for the right home to buy.
🏠 Path 2. Buy and sell at the same time (simultaneous settlement) - as you’ll be accessing the equity before selling, to use as the deposit for the new home, you won't know the exact sale price or the exact amount of equity you have- so we estimate both when we apply for the home loan. ➡️ The risk is overestimating what your home is worth and what you can spend on the new home as it leads to not getting your loan approved or having a bigger mortgage than you wanted/can handle.
🏠Path 3. Buy new home first, then sell within 12 months using a bridging loan – as with path 2, we estimate the value of your home and the amount of equity. ➡️ The risk is over estimating what your home sells for and also how long it takes to sell and settle as each day costs you interest as you're holding two loans. Time is money.
More on this in part 3 of the series.
If you're new here, hey 👋, I'm Victor and I'm a mortgage broker. Hoping to teach you a little about taking out and managing your home loans. General information only, not financial advice. Book a free 20min call for personalised home loan advice.