A first-year intern in a Queensland public hospital earns around $80,000. A consultant on the same ward earns three or four times that, and the bank knows it. Most lenders still assess you on the intern payslip alone, then suggest you come back in five years.
A medical intern home loan assessed on future income is not a myth. Under the doctors and dentists policy available through Wity, junior doctors and registrars can buy with a 5% deposit, pay no LMI, have HECS excluded from the calculation, and be assessed on where the training program leads rather than this year's payslip.
Timing matters too. The RBA lifted the cash rate in February, March and May 2026, held it at 4.35% in June, and meets again on Tuesday 11 August 2026. Rising rates have thinned the crowd: Cotality's June 2026 data puts auction clearance rates in the low 40s. Fewer approved buyers means more negotiating power for the ones who are ready. For a junior doctor with a strong file, this is a preparation window, not a reason to hide.
Why do banks say no to junior doctors?
Three mechanics do the damage, and none of them is about your ability to repay.
First, standard assessment counts current income only. Your base gets counted, your overtime and penalties often get shaded to 80% or less, and the consultant salary sitting four years down the training pathway counts for nothing.
Second, your contract. Hospital training posts run on 12-month fixed-term contracts, with rotations and sometimes a regional placement thrown in. Most junior-doctor declines we see start with the contract end date, not the income: a credit assessor reads a fixed-term contract as employment risk unless the file explains the accredited pathway behind it.
Third, the buffers. APRA held its 3% serviceability buffer at the 28 May 2026 review, so a new lender tests your repayments at the actual rate plus three percentage points. Stack that on a HECS repayment and a shaded overtime figure and the capacity number shrinks fast. The fix is not a bigger salary. It is an application that presents your career the way credit teams need to read it, through a lender whose policy was written for medical training in the first place.
Can a medical intern get a home loan based on future income?
You have been told to wait until you are a consultant. Waiting is the expensive option.
Your payslip is the least impressive document in your file. The impressive ones are your AHPRA registration, your college or program enrolment, and an award pay scale that publishes exactly what you will earn at each stage. Under the doctors and dentists policy available through Wity, that evidence lets a lender assess borrowing power on career trajectory: a second-year registrar on $95,000 today, stepping into a $250K+ consultant role, can be assessed well beyond what the current payslip supports. How future income assessment works is worth ten minutes of your time.
Follow the chain through. Assessed on trajectory, you buy years earlier. Buying earlier means the market grows on your asset instead of ahead of your deposit: Brisbane's median home value climbed 17.4% in the year to June 2026 on Cotality's numbers, which on an $800,000 target is roughly $139,000 of price growth in a single year. A resident's savings rate does not keep pace with that. The practical move is to have your capacity assessed on the policy built for your career, before spring listings and any post-August rate clarity bring the crowd back.
How much deposit do you need in 2026?
Five per cent. Under the medico policy available through Wity, doctors and dentists can borrow up to 95% with no LMI, which turns a $160,000 deposit hurdle on an $800,000 purchase into a $40,000 one.
Two federal supports can sharpen that further. Since 1 October 2025 the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee) has run with no income caps and no place limits, under price caps of $1M in Queensland, $1.5M in NSW and $950K in Victoria. The First Home Super Saver scheme still lets you release up to $15,000 per year, $50,000 lifetime, of voluntary super contributions for a deposit. Queensland has also abolished stamp duty for first home buyers building or buying new, with no price cap.
One caution on borrowing to the ceiling: APRA's debt-to-income caps went live on 1 February 2026, limiting how many new loans lenders can write at six times income or more. High-DTI approvals now compete for limited space, so a clean, well-evidenced file matters more than it did a year ago. Deposit strategy, scheme stacking and timing are covered in our first home buyer guide for 2026.
What happens to your HECS debt?
At most banks, your HECS repayment is treated as an ongoing liability, and the effect is brutal: a doctor with $80,000 in HELP debt typically loses $80,000 to $120,000 in borrowing capacity. Under the doctors and dentists policy available through Wity, HECS is excluded from the calculation entirely. Your medical degree stops taxing your borrowing power.
The 2025 reforms help around the edges. The legislated 20% cut to HELP balances landed in August 2025, and in 2026-27 repayments only start above $69,528, at 15 cents per dollar over the threshold. Smaller balance, later repayments, more take-home pay. But exclusion beats reduction, and only one of those is a policy question rather than a savings grind. The full mechanics are in how HECS affects your borrowing power.
One registrar, two assessments
Meet Harper, a second-year registrar at a Brisbane public hospital: $98,000 base, about $19,000 in overtime and penalties, $72,000 of HECS, eyeing a $780,000 townhouse in Kelvin Grove.
| Standard bank assessment | Doctors & dentists policy via Wity | |
|---|---|---|
| Income counted | Current base, overtime shaded | Career trajectory, with training evidence |
| HECS ($72,000) | Cuts capacity by roughly $100,000 | Excluded entirely |
| Deposit on $780,000 | $156,000 (20%), or LMI applies | $39,000 (5%) |
| LMI | Typically $15,000–$25,000 at high LVR | Waived |
| Maximum term | 30 years | Up to 35 years |
At her bank, Harper's capacity lands near $500,000 and the answer is a polite no. Through Wity, the training evidence carries the assessment, the HECS penalty disappears, and the deposit ask drops by $117,000. A 35-year term can trim repayments by roughly $308 a month on an $800,000 loan at an illustrative 6.0% rate (illustration only as at July 2026, not a quoted product or comparison rate), which is breathing room during training years; the trade-offs are laid out in our 35-year loan term explainer.
The capacity gap is the number worth chasing first. The Wity Borrowing Power Assessment models your position across 45+ lenders with the medico policy applied where you qualify, which is how a registrar discovers the distance between one bank's calculator and the actual market.
Based on typical scenarios. Individual outcomes vary.
What should you do this month?
Three moves before the 11 August 2026 RBA decision, none of which commits you to anything.
- Assemble the career file. Training contract, college or program enrolment, AHPRA registration, latest payslips. This evidence is what converts a payslip assessment into a trajectory assessment.
- Get your capacity modelled properly. One bank's calculator on current income is not your borrowing power. Start from the policy built for doctors and dentists and work outward.
- Set your target before the crowd returns. Clearance rates in the low 40s favour prepared buyers.
The broader playbook for your profession, from intern to consultant, lives in our doctor home loan guide.
Want the numbers on your own file? Start the Wity questionnaire →. Free, no credit check, two minutes.
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