How much rental income do banks use?

It varies. Some banks count 95% of the rent, many count 90%, others 80%, and some as low as 70%.

Why don't banks count all of my rent?

They shade it to allow for vacancies, repairs and other costs of owning a rental. The percentage they keep is treated as your income from the property.

Does the rent percentage change how much I can borrow?

Yes. All else being equal, a bank that counts more of your rent will lend you more. On $500 a week of rent, 95% versus 80% is $75 a week of income one bank sees and the other doesn't.

Is the bank that counts the most rent always the best choice?

Not always. Banks also differ on how they test your loan repayments and expenses, so it's the whole assessment that decides who lends the most.

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Straight Answers · Investing

How much of the rent does the bank actually count?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 11 November 2026 · 2 min read

The short answer

Some banks count 95% of your rental income, others 90%, some 80%, and some go as low as 70% when they factor it into how much you can borrow.

They shade it to account for expenses and risk: the property sitting vacant for a stretch, or a run of one-off repairs. All else being equal, a bank that counts 95% of your rent is going to lend you more than one that only counts 80%.

The 60 second version, filmed from the driver's seat. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

Why the bank never counts all of it

When a bank looks at rental income, it isn't assuming the property will be tenanted every week of every year with nothing ever going wrong. Maybe there's a few weeks between tenants. Maybe the hot water system goes and the roof needs work in the same year.

So there's always some level of shading when we include rent in your application. The bank takes a percentage of the rent and treats that as your income from the property, and the rest is its allowance for the stuff that happens to every landlord sooner or later.

What the difference is worth

Say the property rents for $500 a week. A bank counting 95% treats $475 a week as your income. A bank counting 80% treats it as $400. That's $75 a week, close to $3,900 a year, of income one bank sees and the other doesn't.

Across a whole application, that gap can be the difference between the loan fitting and not fitting, especially if you've got more than one property. Which is all part of the fun for me: working out which bank is going to let us do exactly what we want to do.

The honest bit: rent is only half the sum

The bank doesn't just count the rent. It also counts the repayments on the investment loan, and it tests those at a higher rate than you're actually paying to make sure you could handle rises. A generous rent percentage helps, but it's one setting among several.

That's why the bank counting the most rent isn't automatically the bank that lends you the most. It's the whole assessment that decides it, and that's what I compare.

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Next question

I rent my investment to a family member and the rent is inconsistent. Will the bank still count it?

Yes, some lenders count private rent from family, but inconsistent amounts usually mean the bank uses your lowest payment.