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Victoria | Lydian platform, delivered in partnership with Clark Finance Group
CHANGE LOCATION
Doncaster is Manningham’s centre of gravity, anchored by Westfield and the surrounding apartment towers. It is two markets in one: substantial family homes on the surrounding streets, and a large and growing apartment sector around the shopping centre.
The apartment market here is significant and it comes with specific lending considerations. Doncaster has seen a lot of high density development, and lenders manage their exposure carefully in areas like this. Many limit how many apartments they will finance in a single building, and some apply postcode-level restrictions where they consider supply heavy.
Minimum size thresholds matter too. Many lenders will not lend at standard ratios on apartments below around fifty square metres internally, and a number of the smaller units around the centre fall near that line. The same apartment can be an eighty per cent loan with one lender and require a forty per cent deposit with another.
On the houses, Doncaster is a settled family market with a strong downsizing flow: older owners moving from a large home into an apartment nearby. That is its own transaction, usually involving bridging and sometimes a discussion about what to do with the surplus.
Building exposure limits and minimum size rules bite here. We confirm the lender’s position on the specific apartment.
Selling a large home and buying an apartment nearby. Bridging, timing, and what to do with what is left over.
Conventional lending on established homes, with the usual upgrade and renovation conversations.
Whatever stage you are at, there is a path through it. Pick the one that sounds like you.
It is concentration risk. If a lender holds loans on a large share of one building and that building has a problem, whether structural, legal or simply oversupply, their exposure is significant. Most cap themselves at something like twenty to thirty per cent of units in a development. In a well-sold building that ceiling may already be reached.
Commonly around fifty square metres of internal living area, excluding balconies and car spaces, for standard lending. Below that some lenders reduce the maximum loan considerably or decline. A few will still lend on smaller apartments at reduced ratios. It is worth checking the actual internal measurement rather than the advertised total.
It depends on your circumstances, but many downsizers prefer to secure the new place first, particularly where they want something specific. Bridging makes that possible. The alternative is selling first and renting briefly, which avoids carrying two loans but introduces its own costs and disruption. We can put figures to both.
Lenders cannot discriminate on age, but they must be satisfied the loan can be repaid. For older borrowers that usually means demonstrating an exit strategy, whether that is superannuation, downsizing proceeds or other assets. It is entirely workable, it just requires the plan to be articulated clearly in the application.
Book a free consultation and we will walk you through your options, what you can borrow, and what it will cost.
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Lydian Financial Services Victoria
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Copyright © LYDIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES PTY LTD 2026. All Right Reserved.