When can a guarantor be released from a home loan?

When the loan is at or under 80% of the property's value, so the bank no longer needs the extra security to avoid mortgage insurance. Paying down the loan and growth in the property both count, measured by a fresh valuation the bank orders when you request the release.

Does releasing a guarantor require a new valuation?

At the lenders that document their process, yes, a full valuation ordered at the time of the request, with your loan tested against the result under current policy. Clean repayment history is expected. Most lenders assess release requests case by case rather than publishing criteria.

Who pays for the valuation to release a guarantor?

No lender publishes an answer. Budget for a valuation fee plus a few hundred dollars in discharge and variation paperwork, and treat anything less as a win.

Can parents be guarantor for more than one child?

Yes. The same property can support multiple family guarantees, as long as the total lending against it, their own mortgage plus every guarantee, stays inside the lender's ceiling, commonly around 70% of the property's value. The equity does the capping, not a set number of guarantees.

Can I have two guarantor loans at once?

As one borrower, generally not at the same lender. Multiple guaranteed purchases across different siblings, each with its own capped guarantee, is a recognised structure where the family equity supports it.

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Straight Answers · First home

When do my parents come off as guarantor, and can they guarantee more than one kid?

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

The short answer

The game plan for taking your parents off is when your loan is 80% of what the property is worth. That comes from you paying the loan down, plus growth in the property, renovations, anything that moves the value. Hit 80% and we release them, and you're on your own.

And yes, parents can guarantee more than one kid. Not two properties for the same borrower at one lender, but across siblings, as long as there's enough equity left in their place after each guarantee, it's done all the time. The equity does the capping, not a rule about how many kids.

The one minute version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

The 80% target, and whose valuation counts

The release trigger is your loan sitting at or under 80% of the property's value, because at 80% the bank no longer needs extra security to avoid mortgage insurance. Two levers get you there: repayments shrinking the loan, and growth lifting the value. Renovations count through the valuation too.

Here's the practical detail from the policy books: the value that matters is the bank's, not the sales portal's. The lenders that document their release process require a fresh full valuation they order at the time you ask, and they test your loan against the number that comes back, under whatever their policy is on the day. They'll also want the loan conduct clean, no missed repayments across your accounts. So the move is: think you're close, ask, and let the valuation make the argument.

What the release actually involves

It's a variation request, not a refinance. You ask the lender, they order the valuation, and if the numbers clear, the guarantee and the mortgage over your parents' property are discharged. Your loan doesn't change; what changes is that their place is no longer security for it.

Two honest gaps in the paperwork across the whole market: most lenders don't publish their release criteria at all, it's assessed when you ask. And not one lender on my panel documents who pays for the release valuation, so budget for a valuation fee and a few hundred dollars of discharge and variation paperwork, and treat anything better as a bonus. If you're not quite at 80 when the valuation lands, the fallback options are waiting, a lump sum to close the gap, or in some cases paying a small LMI premium to release early.

More than one kid: how the multi-guarantee maths works

Yes. The banks that write this down are explicit that the same property can support more than one family guarantee. What caps it is arithmetic, not a rule: every new guarantee stacks on top of your parents' own mortgage and any existing guarantees, and the total gearing against their property has to stay inside the lender's ceiling, commonly around 70% of its value, with each guarantee itself capped as a slice of the property.

What you can't generally do is one borrower running two guaranteed purchases at the same lender. But sibling one and sibling two, each with their own capped guarantee against a well-paid-off family home, is a structure the policy books explicitly contemplate. Each release hands equity back for the next one. I've started calling it the family flywheel: kid one hits 80%, releases, and the freed equity backs kid two.

The honest bit: set the release plan on day one, not year five

The guarantee conversations that go wrong aren't the ones where the loan performs. They're the ones where nobody wrote down the exit. Your parents deserve a date-shaped answer, not 'eventually': at this repayment and any reasonable growth, we request release around year X, and we test early because the bank's valuation, not our guess, makes the call.

I put the release check into my regular loan reviews for every guarantor client. The bank will not ring you up and offer to release your parents. You have to ask, and my job is making sure we ask early.

Guarantor loan in place, or one on the table?

A 30 minute call. If the guarantee exists, I'll map your distance to 80% and what a release request looks like at your lender. If it's still being decided, we design the exit before anyone signs.

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Next question

Guarantor loan or the government 5% scheme: which one is best?

If the guarantee isn't signed yet, this is the choice to make first.