Anthea McPhee - Mortgage Broker in Margaret River

07/09/2026

Very happy to be supporting the Margaret River Showjumping Series again this year.

This one is particularly close to home for me. I’m part of the local horse community myself, so I know how much work goes on behind the scenes to put events like these together.

Good grounds, equipment, officials, prizes and all the little things that make a competition happen don’t just appear. There’s a huge amount of volunteer time involved, along with support from local businesses and sponsors.

Being able to put something back into a sport and community that I’m personally involved in makes this sponsorship a pretty easy one for me.

Looking forward to another great season of showjumping in Margaret River.

🏡 Sponsor Spotlight – Anthea McPhee - Mortgage Broker in Margaret River 🏡

The Margaret River Horse & Pony Club is incredibly grateful to have Mortgage Australia – Anthea McPhee supporting the 2026 Margaret River Showjumping Series.

As both a local mortgage broker and a member of our Pony Club community, Anthea understands the importance of investing back into grassroots sport and creating opportunities for riders of all ages and abilities.

Community events like our Showjumping Series rely on the generosity of sponsors, volunteers and local businesses. We're proud to have Mortgage Australia supporting another season of competition and helping our club continue to grow.

From everyone at Margaret River Horse & Pony Club, thank you for your ongoing commitment to our riders, our volunteers and our equestrian community. 💚🐴

If you're looking for personalised home loan advice, refinancing or investment lending, we'd love you to support the businesses that support our club.

Thank you, Anthea, for your continued support of Margaret River Horse & Pony Club.

04/09/2026

"My parents are helping me with my deposit. Do I need to leave the money in my account for three months before I can buy?"

Not necessarily.

This is another one of those home loan "rules" that gets repeated a lot, but isn't necessarily the same with every lender.

NAB has recently changed its genuine savings policy and can now accept eligible gifted or inherited funds as genuine savings without requiring the money to have been held in the borrower's account for 90 days.

The source of the money still needs to be documented and, if it's a gift, it needs to genuinely be a gift rather than money that has to be repaid.

But for someone who's had help from their parents or received an inheritance and is ready to buy, that distinction could make a real difference.

You might not necessarily need to sit on the money for three months just to satisfy a genuine savings requirement.

It's also why I'd be careful with blanket advice like "you need three months' genuine savings before you can get a home loan."

Sometimes you do.

Sometimes there's another option.

It depends on where the deposit came from, your overall position and which lender you're looking at.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

03/09/2026

A block of land secured, and the start of something pretty exciting for this young family.

Danika and her family are first home buyers who have just purchased their land, with plans to start building their first home next year.

Buying land now and building later can mean there are a few more things to work through from a finance point of view, so we've spent plenty of time going through the process, what happens now, and what we'll need to look at again when they're ready to build.

Danika left me this lovely review afterwards:

"I had a great experience with Anthea. Anthea was very patient and supportive throughout the whole application process with the bank, and was always happy to go through the details again whenever I needed clarification."

That last part probably means the most to me.

Especially for first home buyers, there's absolutely no expectation that you should already know how all of this works.

If something doesn't make sense, ask me again. And if it still doesn't make sense, we'll go through it again.

For now, the land is sorted.

Next year we get to work on the exciting part... getting their first home built.

Thank you Danika for trusting me to help with the first stage.

02/09/2026

Three of the four major banks are now predicting another interest rate rise this year.

NAB thinks it could happen as soon as September, while CBA and ANZ are expecting November.

Westpac doesn't agree.

And I think that's actually the most useful part of the story.

Even the people paid to forecast interest rates don't agree on what's going to happen next.

We've spent the last few years hearing predictions about when rates will rise, when they'll peak, when they'll fall and by how much.

Those predictions change as quickly as the economic data does.

So I wouldn't make a big financial decision based on trying to pick exactly what the RBA will do next.

If you're buying, refinancing, investing or considering fixing your rate, I'd be much more interested in whether the numbers work for you now, and whether you've got enough room in your budget if rates don't move the way you're hoping.

Of course rates matter.

But trying to perfectly time them is a very different thing.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

01/09/2026

Being casual doesn't automatically mean your income is harder to use for a home loan.

But how long you've been in the job can make a big difference.

I've seen borrowers assume they need to wait until they've been with an employer for 12 months before there's any point looking at finance.

That's not always the case.

ING has just updated its policy for casual employees and contractors. For casual employees with at least six months with the same employer, they can now look at 52 weeks of earnings when assessing the income.

For some contractors who have been with their current employer for less than six months, they can also look at employment history across the current and previous employer, subject to their criteria.

It's a good example of something I come across all the time.

Two people can earn exactly the same amount, doing exactly the same type of work, and get a different borrowing result simply because of how a lender assesses their employment history.

And different lenders don't necessarily assess that history the same way.

So if you've been told you need to wait because you're casual, you've recently changed employers, or you haven't been in your current role very long, it doesn't necessarily mean every lender will give you the same answer.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

28/08/2026

When you first take out a home loan, you usually spend a lot of time making sure you've got the right option.

Then settlement happens, life gets busy and it's very easy to just keep making the repayments without thinking too much more about it.

But a lot can change in a few years.

Your property value may have changed. Your loan balance has changed. Your circumstances might be different. And lending products and policies change all the time too.

That doesn't mean everyone should refinance.

Sometimes I review a client's loan and the best option is to leave it exactly where it is.

But I do think it's worth knowing whether the loan you have still makes sense for where you are now.

When did you last properly look at yours?

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

25/08/2026

One of the traps with self-employed lending is assuming the age of the business tells you the whole story.

I'm working on a scenario at the moment where the company itself is only around six months old.

The person behind it isn't new to the industry at all. He's been working in his trade for years and has recently transitioned to operating through his own company.

That distinction matters.

A lot of mainstream lending policy still requires a longer self-employed trading history, which would normally mean telling this client to come back when he has more time behind the business.

Except he has an offer on a block of land and titles are due soon.

Waiting could mean losing the property as well as his deposit.

So rather than trying to make the scenario fit mainstream policy, we're looking at an Alt Doc lender that can consider six months' trading history and verify the income using Bank Statements.

There are trade-offs. Alt Doc isn't automatically a better option and the pricing and requirements need to make sense for the client.

Photo courtesy of

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

24/08/2026

Your borrowing capacity isn't one fixed number.

This is a good example of why.

Westpac and St. George have just changed the way they assess rental income for some investment properties, increasing the amount they can use from 90% to 95%.

The rent hasn't changed.

The borrower's salary hasn't changed.

Their debts haven't changed.

But the amount that lender may be prepared to lend them could.

It's only a small policy change on paper, and it won't make a difference in every scenario. But when servicing is tight, small differences between lenders can matter.

This is why I don't like giving someone a borrowing capacity figure and treating it as though that's simply "what the banks will lend you."

Different lenders assess the same person differently.

Sometimes finding more borrowing capacity isn't about earning more money. It's about knowing which lender's policy fits the situation you're actually in.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

21/08/2026

Would you take out a 40-year home loan?

AMP Bank has recently launched an investment loan with a term of up to 40 years, and understandably, the 40-year part is getting plenty of attention.

But there's a bit more to it.

This particular loan is for investors and includes an interest-only period of 6 to 10 years. Despite the longer loan term, AMP still assesses serviceability using a maximum 30-year principal and interest period.

So why offer 40 years?

For the right investor, it can be about cash flow and how the debt is structured over the longer term.

That doesn't automatically make a longer loan term better. Extending debt can mean paying interest for longer, and the right structure depends on what you're trying to achieve.

But it is another good example of why I look beyond the headline rate when comparing lenders.

Sometimes it's a lender's policy or the way a loan can be structured that makes the difference.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.

19/08/2026

If you're looking to buy your first home in WA, there have been some important changes to the numbers.

WA's first home buyer transfer duty (often called stamp duty) thresholds have increased, which could make a difference to the upfront costs for eligible buyers.

There have also been changes to the property value cap for the $10,000 First Home Owner Grant in the South West.

The important part is that these are two different things, with different eligibility requirements — and what applies to you will depend on the property you're buying and your circumstances.

I've broken the key numbers down in the slides.

If buying your first home is on the radar, it's worth understanding not just how much you may be able to borrow, but how your deposit, transfer duty and other purchasing costs fit together before deciding on your property budget.

Eligibility criteria apply.

Anthea McPhee – Credit Representative 550911 is authorised under Mortgage Australia Group Pty Ltd ACL 377294.