Do I need to sell my shares to buy a house?

Not necessarily for the approval. A share portfolio statement can show the bank you've got the money. But the deposit has to be paid in cash, so the shares funding it need to be sold before settlement.

Do shares count as genuine savings?

At several lenders, yes. Shares, or the proceeds from selling them, are generally accepted as genuine savings once they've been held for around three months.

Will the bank accept crypto as my deposit?

Generally not as it sits. Banks are wary of crypto, and I haven't found a lender that counts it as genuine savings. Sell it and hold the cash in your account before we show proof of funds.

How long does crypto cash need to sit in my account?

Some lenders want the money held for around three months before it counts as genuine savings. The earlier you sell and move it, the cleaner your application looks.

Should I sell my shares now or closer to settlement?

That's an investment and tax call for you and your accountant. From the bank's side, the risk is a market drop eating your deposit, so many people move it to cash as the purchase gets close.

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Straight Answers · First home

Do my shares or crypto help with my deposit, or should I sell them?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 1 November 2026 · 3 min read

The short answer

Shares and crypto get treated very differently. Shares, the banks see as pretty much savings, so you don't necessarily need to sell them to prove you've got the money. Crypto, the banks are a bit scared of, so you should probably sell it and have the cash in your account when we're showing proof of funds.

With shares, a portfolio statement showing what you hold is generally what the bank wants to see. The catch is that a deposit sitting in the market can move, so if your deposit is riding on something volatile, turning some of it into cash is probably not a bad idea.

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

Shares: a statement does the job

From a bank's perspective, a share portfolio is money you've built up and can get your hands on. Several lenders accept shares, or the proceeds from selling them, as genuine savings, generally once they've been held for around three months. So for proof of funds, you don't necessarily need to sell. We show the bank your portfolio statement and that does the heavy lifting.

Where it matters is settlement day. The deposit and costs have to be paid in cash, so if your shares are funding the deposit, at some point before settlement they need to be sold and the money sitting in your account. Keeping them through the approval is fine. Keeping them past the date you need the cash isn't.

The risk of leaving your deposit in the market

Here's the trap. If your deposit is sitting in some speculative micro cap and all of a sudden it halves, you no longer have your deposit for the house, and you're in real trouble. You might have an approval and a contract signed, and suddenly you're short on the money you need to complete.

So if the house is the goal and the timeline is close, realising some gains and parking that money in cash is probably not a bad idea. Selling can come with a tax bill, so have a chat to your accountant about how and when you sell. But the point is simple: the money you need on settlement day shouldn't be riding on a share price.

Crypto: sell it and hold the cash

Crypto is another thing. The banks are a bit scared of it and they're not too fond of seeing it. Across the lender policy I work with, I haven't found a lender that counts crypto as genuine savings, and at least one of the big banks won't even let you pull equity out to buy it. A screenshot of your wallet isn't going to get very far.

Something traded on the stock market comes with a proper statement, which is a lot easier to show the bank than a screenshot. But if you're holding coins directly, the clean way through is to sell, move the money into your bank account, and let it sit there. Some lenders will want the cash held for around three months before it counts as genuine savings, so give yourself time.

The honest bit: timing matters more than the asset

Whether it's shares or crypto, the bank wants to see money that's yours, that's stable, and that will be there on settlement day. The longer the cash has been sitting in your account, the easier it is to show.

I can't tell you what to buy or sell, and I'm not going to. What I can tell you is what the bank will want to see and when, so you can make the call on your investments with your accountant knowing exactly where the deposit needs to land.

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Next question

Do I need my whole deposit saved before I go for pre-approval?

Generally yes. Pre-approval assumes you're ready to offer tomorrow.