I earn $100k. Can I afford an investment property on my own?

I recently worked with a client who was a single professional earning around $100,000 and wanted to buy her first investment property on her own.

She has a stable career, no bad debt and had built up substantial savings while living with her family.

Her biggest concern wasn't her deposit.

It was whether one income would be enough to buy an investment property in Sydney.

After working through several borrowing scenarios and lender options, we landed on a borrowing position in the mid-$700,000s and secured pre-approval, giving her the confidence to start looking for her first investment property.

She had been following me on Instagram for a while.

It's important to highlight that she didn't find me because she was ready to buy a property that weekend.

She'd been following my Instagram for a while.

She related to the content, kept watching, and eventually reached the point where she wanted to understand what buying an investment property might look like for her.

Her situation was fairly straightforward on paper.

She was single with no dependants, had been working in a stable government role for several years and earned somewhere around $100,000 a year.

She was living with her family and wasn't in any rush to move out.

In fact, that was part of the opportunity.

Rather than buying a home simply because she felt she should move out, she was interested in continuing to live at home while using her financial position to start building a property portfolio.

There was just one concern.

She had no idea whether she earned enough to do it.

“Can I even buy an investment property on my salary?”

This was really the question underpining everything.

She had savings.
She had stable employment.
She wasn't carrying around a pile of credit-card debt or personal loans.

But she was buying on one income.

And when property prices are what they are, it's very easy to assume that earning around $100,000 means buying an investment property in Sydney is completely well impossible.

She had previously spoken to another broker but was left feeling even more confused.

so, she didn't proceed.

She put it in the too-hard basket, and moved on.

By the time we spoke, she didn't need someone to tell her which property to buy.

She needed someone to answer a much more basic question:

“What can I do?”

We didn't start with a property.

This is where I think people sometimes do things backwards.

She didn't need to start scrolling through listings and fall in love with a $1.2 million apartment before knowing whether the numbers worked.

We started with her.

Her income.
Her savings.
Her expenses.
Her lack of existing debt.
Her plans.

And importantly, the fact that this property would be an investment, not somewhere she intended to live.

From there, I workshopped a number of scenarios.

I didn't just run one borrowing calculator

Different lenders can assess the same borrower very differently.

So rather than taking her income, entering it into one calculator and declaring “this is your number”, I looked at a range of scenarios and options.

The goal wasn't necessarily to find the lender willing to give her the largest possible loan.

It was to find a borrowing position that made sense for what she was trying to achieve.

After working through the options, we landed on borrowing capacity in the mid-$700,000s.

That gave her a potential purchase budget of around $900,000, depending on the property and final transaction costs.

And, most importantly: We secured pre-approval.

She went from “I don't know if I earn enough to buy an investment property” to knowing the approximate budget she could take into her property search.

Her savings made a huge difference.

One of the strongest parts of her position was something she'd already done herself.

She had saved. A lot.

And these weren't funds that had suddenly appeared in her account the week before applying.

She had demonstrated a strong savings history while working in stable employment and keeping her existing liabilities low.

That meant the conversation wasn't simply:

“Can we scrape together enough for a deposit?”

We could instead look at how much she wanted to contribute, her expected purchasing costs, the size of the loan and what structure made sense for the investment.

Buying alone doesn't automatically mean you can't invest.

This is probably the biggest takeaway from this case.

Being single wasn't the problem.

Earning around $100,000 wasn't automatically the problem either.

We had to look at the entire financial position.

Someone earning $105,000 with a large car loan, multiple credit cards, dependants and very little savings is in a completely different position from someone earning a similar salary with no consumer debt and significant savings.

That's why I'm always reluctant to answer: “I earn $100k. How much can I borrow?”

with one magic number.

Your income matters.

But so do your debts, expenses, dependants, savings, the type of property you're buying, whether you're purchasing to live in or invest, and the lender assessing the application.

ASIC's Moneysmart also recommends working through your income, expenses and the ongoing costs of an investment property before deciding what you can afford.

What made the difference?

There wasn't a secret lender loophole.

There wasn't some clever trick that suddenly added hundreds of thousands of dollars to her borrowing capacity.

The groundwork had already been done.

She had:

stable employment,
a solid PAYG income,
substantial savings,
no consumer debt, and
relatively low personal financial commitments.

What she didn't have was clarity.

That's the part I could help with.

We took a vague thought of “maybe I'd like to buy an investment property” and turned it into an actual borrowing strategy and pre-approval.

And now she can look at properties knowing what she's working with.

Could this work for you?

If you're single and earning somewhere around $100,000, I don't want you to read this and assume:

“Great. I can borrow $750,000 too.”

You might be able to borrow more. You might be able to borrow considerably less. Every application is different.

But I also wouldn't assume that property investment isn't available to you simply because you're buying on one income.

Check your numbers first.

You may be further away than you thought. Or, like this client, you might be in a much stronger position than you realised.

If you're considering buying your first investment property, you can learn more about how Eshanee works with first time investors through April Six.

Frequently asked questions:

Can I buy an investment property on a $100,000 salary?

Potentially. There isn't a particular salary that automatically qualifies you for an investment loan. A lender will assess your income alongside your expenses, debts, dependants, deposit, the proposed loan and other relevant lending criteria.

Does rental income help borrowing capacity?

Potential rental income can form part of a lender's assessment for an investment loan, but lenders may not necessarily use 100% of the expected rent. How it is treated depends on the lender and circumstances.

Should I get pre-approved before looking for an investment property?

It can be very useful. Pre-approval can give you a clearer idea of the borrowing position a lender is prepared to consider before you start making offers. A pre-approval isn't an unconditional loan approval, though, and the property and your circumstances will still need to satisfy the lender's requirements.

The takeaway

This client didn't come to me because something had gone horribly wrong.

She came to me because she was single, earning a good income, had saved diligently and still didn't know whether buying an investment property was realistic.

That's something I think a lot of people quietly relate to.

Sometimes you don't need to earn another $50,000.

Sometimes you just need someone to sit down, look at the numbers properly and tell you what your options are.

If that's where you're at, you don't need to know exactly what loan you want before we speak.

You can start with: “Here's what I earn, here's what I've saved and here's what I'd like to do. Is it possible?”

That's enough.

Click here to chat to Eshanee and see what options are available for you.

Any information or advice contained on the April Six Pty Ltd website is general in nature only and has been prepared without considering your individual personal objectives, financial situation or requirements. Before acting or relying on this information, you must consider the appropriateness of this information with regard to your individual circumstances and objectives.

April Six Pty Ltd is a Credit Representative of Astute Financial Management Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 364253

Eshanee Collins is the founder of April Six, a Sydney-based mortgage broker for first home buyers and first-time property investors across Australia.

📱 0488 471 888 | @eshanee_thebroker | aprilsix.com.au