Mining & FIFO Home Loans Mackay
We arrange home loans for mining and FIFO workers across Mackay, on every roster there is. Your roster is not the problem. How much of your payslip a lender agrees to count is, and that varies more between lenders than the rate does.
Base salary counts in full everywhere. Overtime, site allowances and bonuses get shaded, and how hard depends entirely on which lender we take you to. Getting that choice right is the main reason to use a mortgage broker here. We work that out before you make an offer. Mining & FIFO home loans Mackay are what we arrange most of, so we know which lenders count what, and we run the whole thing on phone and email so nothing waits for you to be back in town.
How We Work Around Your Roster
We do two things that matter here. We work out how much of your income each lender will actually count, and we place your application with the one that reads your payslip most generously. Then we manage it end to end while you are on swing. We do this for Mackay rosters constantly, so we already know which lenders will accept a roster as evidence of pattern and which want a letter from your employer instead.
Everything can be done remotely. We take your details by phone, collect documents by email, and use electronic signing, so nothing waits for your days off unless you want it to. Leave us a time that works and we will call you then.
The first conversation is free and we are paid by the lender when the loan settles, so getting a straight answer about your allowances costs you nothing.
You might be buying in Mackay and driving out, buying in the town you work in, or holding a bank answer that came back far lower than you expected. All three are worth a call.
What Happens After You Get in Touch
Built around a roster, so nothing depends on you being in Mackay on any particular day. Phone, email and electronic signing throughout.
- 01
First call, about 20 minutes, at a time you pick.
You tell us how you are paid: base, allowances, overtime, and how long you have been in the role. We tell you roughly how lenders will read it.
- 02
Income assessment.
We come back with how much of your allowance income will actually count, which lenders treat it most generously, and what that means you can borrow in Mackay or in the town you work in.
- 03
Documents, collected around your shifts.
Payslips with the allowance breakdown, your contract and your roster. All by email, all electronically signed.
- 04
Pre-approval, typically one to two weeks.
Lodged with the lender whose policy fits your pay structure, not whoever came up first.
- 05
Offer and settlement.
If you are looking at a coalfield town rather than Mackay, we confirm the lender policy on that specific address before you sign anything.
Payslips showing your allowances broken out separately, your employment contract and your current roster. If your payslips only show a gross total, ask payroll for an itemised version. It directly affects how much you can borrow.
What People Ask Us First
Can you sort my loan while I am on site?
Yes. That is the normal way we run these, and you never need to be in Mackay for any part of it. Everything happens by phone, email and electronic signature, so being away on a swing does not hold anything up.
If you are somewhere with patchy reception, tell us at the start and we will batch things up so you are not chasing a signal for one document at a time.
What do you need from me to prove my allowances count?
Payslips that itemise the allowances separately from base pay, your employment contract, and your roster. Those three together let a lender see that the income is real and repeating rather than a one-off, and they are the same three we ask every Mackay mining applicant for.
If your payslips show a single gross figure, we will tell you exactly what to ask payroll for. It is a five-minute request that can change your borrowing capacity substantially.
What does it cost me to use you?
Nothing for the first conversation, and nothing at all on a standard residential loan. The lender pays us a commission when the loan settles, so finding out how much of your allowance income counts costs you nothing.
If a fee ever applied to your situation, we would set it out in writing in our Credit Guide before you decided whether to go ahead. You would never find out about a cost after the fact.
100% base
How lenders read a mining payslipBase salary is generally counted in full. Overtime, site allowances and bonuses are shaded. Some lenders count most of it, some discount it heavily, some exclude it entirely.
Source: Lender policy varies and changes; current at August 2026How Much of Your Mining Income Actually Counts
Lenders "shade" income, meaning they count part of it rather than all of it, and the shading is where mining applications are won or lost. Your base salary is generally counted at 100 per cent. Your overtime, site allowances and bonuses are another matter entirely.
Some lenders count around 80 per cent of that variable income. Some discount it by anywhere from 20 to 50 per cent. Some exclude particular allowances completely. A small number will count the lot at full value if you can evidence that it has been consistent. Same payslip, four different borrowing capacities, and the gap between the most generous and the least generous lender is frequently the difference between an approval and a decline.
What We Do With That Difference
That is the single most valuable thing we do on a Mackay mining file. We know which lenders currently treat site allowances and shift loading most favourably, we match your specific pay structure to them, and we tell you the number before you make an offer on anything. Lender policies change, so we check them at the time rather than working from memory.
Your Employment Type Matters More Than Your Employer
Permanent PAYG work with a recognised Bowen Basin operator is assessed most favourably, and most lenders want to see 12 to 24 months in the role. Some will accept six to twelve months where you have a strong history in the industry behind you, which is worth knowing if you have recently moved sites.
Labour hire, fixed-term contracts and sole-trader contracting all attract more scrutiny. It does not stop you buying, and plenty of Mackay households are financed on exactly that basis, but you generally need evidence that the work continues, and the lender shortlist is shorter. If your role is converting to permanent in a few months, that timing can genuinely change what you can borrow, and we will tell you when waiting is worth it.
If you contract through your own ABN rather than being paid as an employee, your application is assessed on business income instead, and that runs differently again. We cover that on our self-employed home loans page.
Buying in a Coal Town vs Buying in Mackay
This catches people out and it is worth understanding before you make an offer, because it changes your deposit more than your income does.
Lenders treat single-industry mining towns differently from diversified regional cities. In the Bowen Basin coal towns, a number of lenders apply tighter policy to the security property itself: a lower maximum loan against the value, mortgage insurance that may be reduced or simply unavailable, and rental income assessed at a lower rate than they would use elsewhere. The reasoning is concentration risk. When one industry sets the whole local property market, values move harder in both directions.
These policies are lender-specific and they change. We do not publish a list of affected postcodes, because a list that is right this month may be wrong next month and you would be making a purchase decision on it. What we do instead is check the live policy for your specific address, with the specific lenders in play, before you sign.
Why Buying in Town Usually Needs Less Deposit
Mackay itself is a different case. It is a diversified regional city built on coal services, the port, the base hospital, the university, sugar milling and engineering, and it is generally not subject to the single-industry restrictions applied to the coalfield towns. In practice that means buying in Mackay and commuting usually needs a smaller deposit than buying in the town you work in. If you are weighing Moranbah or Dysart against Andergrove or Ooralea, we can put a real deposit figure against each before you decide.
What We Need From You If You Are on a Roster
Three documents do most of the work, and getting them right the first time saves a fortnight.
Payslips that show the allowance breakdown line by line. A payslip showing a single gross figure hides exactly what we need to prove: a lender that cannot see which portion is site allowance and which is base salary will usually assume the least favourable reading. If your payslips are summarised, we will tell you what to request from payroll.
Your Contract and Your Roster
Your employment contract establishes the role, the basis you are employed on and what allowances attach to it. Your roster evidences the pattern: whether you are on 2/1, 8/6 or something else, and whether you are flying in or driving in.
Send them through whenever you get signal. We work with what arrives and chase the gaps rather than waiting for a complete set.
Mining & FIFO Home Loans Questions
Do mining and FIFO home loans Mackay count your site allowance and overtime?
Partly, and how much depends entirely on which lender you go to. Some count around 80 per cent of it, some discount it by up to half, some exclude certain allowances altogether, and a few will count it in full where you can show it has been consistent.
We cannot promise any lender will count all of it, and nobody honestly can. What we can do is work out which lenders currently read your particular pay structure most favourably and take your application there.
Is buying in Mackay easier than buying in a coal town?
Generally yes. Several lenders apply tighter policy in single-industry coal towns: a lower maximum loan against the property value, mortgage insurance that may be limited or unavailable, and rental income assessed lower than they would elsewhere.
Mackay is a diversified city and is usually not treated that way. In practical terms you will often need a larger deposit for a coalfield town than for the equivalent purchase here. These policies are lender-specific and change, so we check the current position on your actual address before you make an offer.
Does labour hire work stop me getting approved?
No, but it narrows the field and it usually means more evidence. Lenders want to see continuity: a solid history in the industry, a decent run with your current arrangement, and confirmation the work is ongoing.
If your position is converting to permanent shortly, that can materially change what you can borrow. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth waiting a few months or whether you are fine to proceed now.
Can FIFO workers get mining home loans in Mackay?
Yes, and around Mackay the income usually helps rather than hurts. Being away on swing is not itself an obstacle: the application runs on phone, email and electronic signing, and lenders are long used to rosters. What decides the outcome is how much of your allowance and overtime income a particular lender counts.
The two things that genuinely change the answer are your employment type, with permanent work assessed most favourably, and the postcode you are buying in. Those are worth checking before you make an offer rather than after.
Who Reads Your Payslip
The person who answers is the person who reads your payslip and argues the allowance with the lender. That argument is most of the work on a resources income, and it is not something a call centre takes on.
We do this often enough to know which lenders currently count a site allowance in full and which shade it, so the shortlist starts narrower than it would anywhere else.
- Where we are
- Mackay, QLD 4740
- Where we work
- The city and its suburbs, north to the beaches, south past the port, and inland through the cane country to the Pioneer Valley
- What it costs to ask
- Nothing. The first conversation is free and the lender pays us.
Talk to a Mortgage Broker in Mackay
Tell us where you are up to and we will tell you what your options are, which lenders suit your situation and what the next step looks like. If the answer is that you are better off waiting three months, we tell you that instead.
If a fee ever applied to your situation it would be in writing in our Credit Guide, before you decided anything.