Question on my potential borrowing power

Hi guys

I'm currently a 24 year old student, married with one dependant. I plan on purchasing a PPOR next year and I wish to get a rough idea of how much I can actually borrow from the bank considering my financial circumstances.

My situation is as follows:
- Wife is studying and working part time (~27k gross income per annum)
- I'm only working casual now so I don't earn much (only about 15k gross income this year)
- I'm starting a grad job next year starting feb (56.5k gross per annum)
- We've saved up 105k so far (cash in bank)
- We don't really spend much in terms of expenses ($400 on food a month $100 on private health + basic utility expenses) We don't indulge on anything and we save well.
- We have a student accommodation apartment in Boxhill worth about 100k (fully owned outright and we're getting about 8k gross rental income pa on this)
- My family will help us with a gift of 200k for our PPOR purchase

So in terms of cash, we'll have 300k up front ready to go as a deposit no problem. Based on the area and type of place we're looking at, we're hoping to get a place between 700-750k around doncaster ideally.

That being said I have 2 questions:

1. Considering the fact that I have a sizeable deposit, will I be able to get a mortgage of ~400k combined with my wife's income? (Either before I start my grad job or after)
2. Will I be able to use my student accommodation as collateral? I understand student accommodations are not exactly favourites for lenders, would it be wise to try and sell the apartment by end of this year instead or just hold onto it and hope it boosts my borrowing power?

Any additional general advice to help us reach our goal would be amazing! I do plan on seeing a broker for more specific advice later this year but I thought it would be a good idea to get a rough idea on this forum first considering the breadth of expertise here!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
 
It's great that you've got a strong deposit. Unfortunately this isn't considered when it comes to your ability to make repayments; it's your income that determines how much you can borrow.

Realistically your current income isn't enough to allow you to borrow $400k at this point in time. When you start your job next year your borrowing capacity will improve significantly and it might be enough to achieve what you want.

In the meantime, keep adding to that deposit!
 
I am really interested how 2 people can live off $400 a month for food?
I would have honestly thought that is impossible? Let me know your secrets please because my wife and I spend that a fortnight and we are both quite thin.
 
Thanks for the reply Peter, I expected just as much. Would you happen to have any advice on what I should do with my student accommodation IP? Would it be a wise move to try and sell it to add to my deposit for next year or hold onto it for collateral use?

Re $400 a month:

It's actually not that hard if you stick to a budget and eat out extremely sparingly!

Our grocery bill is always under $100 per week and we bulk make 2 different dishes for a week every weekend. We eat chicken breast most of the time as our main source of protein and you can easily find this for $7/kg if you know the right places. 2 people shouldn't need more than 3kg of meat for a week. Plus our meals mostly consist of fruit, vegetables, beans and brown rice which is both cheap and extremely filling!

Also we don't snack at all. We do eat out maybe once a fortnight or so if we've spent well under our food budget so its not all that bad once you get into a routine :) I hope this helps.
 
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Our food bill was under $100 per week once or twice I think the year was 1997?
But seriously that is some impressive budgeting though. Once your income rises you will have plenty of excess funds for investment purposes.
 
Thanks for the reply Peter, I expected just as much. Would you happen to have any advice on what I should do with my student accommodation IP? Would it be a wise move to try and sell it to add to my deposit for next year or hold onto it for collateral use?

I don't know that I can give you an answer on that based on the info available. I'm happy to have a more in depth discussion about it to give you some ideas and direction. Please get in touch with myself or another broker if you want to do this.
 
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