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Victoria | Lydian platform, delivered in partnership with Clark Finance Group
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The Melbourne CBD is almost entirely apartments, from converted heritage buildings on Collins Street to towers built in the last decade. It is the most restricted lending environment in the state, and knowing which lenders will actually proceed is most of the work.
Postcode 3000 appears on more lender restriction lists than anywhere else in Victoria. Many lenders reduce their maximum loan to value ratio here, commonly to seventy or eighty per cent, and some go lower again. A buyer expecting to purchase with a ten per cent deposit can find themselves needing thirty.
Building concentration limits bite hard too. In towers of several hundred apartments, lenders cap how many they will fund, and in well-established buildings those ceilings are frequently reached. The same apartment can be financeable with one lender and impossible with another purely on that basis.
Then there is size. A great deal of CBD stock is compact, and below around fifty square metres internally most lenders reduce their maximum substantially or decline outright. Studio apartments in particular are difficult, and some lenders will not consider them at any ratio.
More lenders restrict here than anywhere in Victoria. Deposits of thirty per cent are common rather than exceptional.
In large towers those ceilings are often already reached. It determines who can fund you.
Below fifty square metres many lenders decline outright. Measure internal area, not the advertised total.
Whatever stage you are at, there is a path through it. Pick the one that sounds like you.
Lenders view inner-city apartments as carrying more risk: high supply, volatile values and thinner resale markets in a downturn. They manage that by reducing maximum loan to value ratios in the postcode, capping exposure per building and applying minimum size rules. It is policy rather than anything about you as a borrower.
Commonly twenty to thirty per cent, and sometimes more, depending on the lender, the building and the apartment size. Some lenders will still consider higher ratios on larger apartments in well-regarded buildings. It varies enough that the answer is genuinely property and lender specific.
It is difficult. Below around fifty square metres of internal living area most lenders significantly reduce what they will advance, and a number decline studios altogether regardless of deposit. A few specialist lenders will consider them at low ratios. Check before you commit rather than after.
Considerably. Citizens and permanent residents are assessed normally, subject to the postcode restrictions above. Temporary residents face a much smaller lender pool, lower maximum ratios and may need Foreign Investment Review Board approval. Non-residents are more restricted again. The specific visa subclass matters.
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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Serving clients across Australia.
Authorised Representative no. 525 778
Specialist Financial Group Australian Credit Licence no. 387025
Lydian Financial Services Victoria
Suite 1/103 Grimshaw Street, Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia
Level 12, 15 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Copyright © LYDIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES PTY LTD 2026. All Right Reserved.