Getting an investment loan means choosing who arranges it, not just which loan you end up with. Some investors go to a mortgage broker; others deal straight with a bank or other lender. Neither path is universally better — each comes with a different set of trade-offs, and the right one depends on what you already know, how many quotes you want compared, and how hands-on you want to be. This isn’t a should-I question with a single answer — it’s a set of factors worth weighing before you pick up the phone.

What does a mortgage broker actually do for an investment loan?

A mortgage broker works across a panel of lenders they’re accredited with, rather than offering products from just one institution. In practice that means a broker can compare investment loan options from several lenders at once — interest rate type, fees, lending criteria, and features like offset accounts or interest-only periods — and put forward the products they think fit your situation, before you apply.

The trade-off is that a broker’s panel is still a defined list, not every lender in the market. Two brokers can be accredited with different panels, so which lenders get compared depends on which broker you use.

What changes if you deal directly with a lender instead?

Going straight to a bank or other lender means you’re dealing with one institution’s own product range, credit policy and application process, with no intermediary in between. You see exactly what that lender is offering, negotiate directly with their staff, and the relationship after settlement (statements, redraw, refinancing conversations) sits with the same institution the whole way through.

The trade-off is the reverse of the broker path: you only see what that one lender offers. If you want to compare several lenders’ investment loan terms side by side, that means contacting each one separately yourself.

Does an investment loan get assessed differently depending on who arranges it?

No — the underlying regulatory framework is the same either way. Investment property loans sit inside the same responsible-lending regime as owner-occupier home loans. ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 209 states the obligations apply to credit products provided “for personal, domestic and household purposes or for the purchase or improvement of residential investment property” — home loans and residential investment loans are captured on the same footing. The National Credit Code brings investment borrowing in through its own limb of the purpose test (borrowing “to purchase, renovate or improve residential property for investment purposes”), rather than excluding it.

What that means practically: whether you apply through a broker or walk into a branch, the lender that ultimately funds the loan — the credit provider — carries the same responsible-lending obligations to make reasonable inquiries about your situation and assess whether you can meet the repayments. RG 209 sets no single formula or checklist for that assessment; what’s “reasonable” scales to the borrower and the product, whichever channel brought the application to them.

Do investor loans face different costs or settings than owner-occupier loans, whichever path you take?

Some things sit with the loan type itself, not the channel you used to get it:

• Rate differential. As at May 2026, RBA Table F6 data show investor loans pricing a little above owner-occupier loans across the system — investors typically pay around 0.2 percentage points more on outstanding loans (RBA interest rate statistics). That’s a system-wide average, not a rate any specific lender has to charge you — actual pricing is set loan-by-loan.
• Rental income assessment. Where rental income supports your application, APRA’s guidance for lenders describes a minimum 20% “haircut” on expected rental income as prudent practice, with a larger discount where a property carries a higher risk of sitting vacant (APRA APG 223). This is prudential guidance for the lender, not a rule a broker can negotiate around.
• Interest-rate buffer. Lenders must apply a buffer of at least 3.0 percentage points over a loan’s actual rate when testing whether you can service it, applied to new and existing debts alike (APRA APG 223, citing Prudential Standard APS 220).
• Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). LMI is typically payable once borrowing exceeds 80% of the property’s value, and it protects the lender, not you (Moneysmart). Moneysmart’s wording isn’t qualified by owner-occupier or investor status, and no government source publishes a different LMI premium range for investors versus owner-occupiers — so a broker or a lender directly quoting you a premium is the only way to get an actual figure for your loan.
• Interest-only lending. APRA does not currently apply a system-wide numeric cap on interest-only lending. A temporary 30%-of-new-lending benchmark applied from 2017 and was formally removed from 2018–19; today APRA’s expectation is that ADIs manage interest-only risk through their own portfolio limits, rather than against a reinstated cap.

None of these change depending on whether a broker or the lender’s own staff submitted your application — they sit with the loan and the lender, not the channel.

Could either path lead you toward cross-collateralising your properties?

Cross-collateralisation is a lending structure where two or more properties are used together as combined security for one loan (or a group of linked loans), rather than each property standing alone as security for its own loan. It can make it harder to sell, refinance or discharge one property in isolation later, because the lender’s security position spans more than one asset.

This isn’t tied to broker versus direct lending as a rule — it’s a structural feature that either an in-branch lender or a broker-recommended lender could put forward, particularly if you already bank with the same institution across multiple properties. It’s worth asking explicitly, whichever path you take: “Will my properties be cross-secured, or does each stand on its own?” — and getting the answer in writing before you sign.

How are mortgage brokers typically paid?

Brokers are commonly remunerated by the lender once a loan settles, rather than charging the borrower a separate fee — but arrangements can vary between brokers and between loan products. Ask any broker directly how they’re paid for a specific loan, whether that differs between the lenders on their panel, and whether you’d be charged anything yourself. The same question is worth less to ask a bank’s own lender directly, since their staff are simply salaried employees of that one institution rather than paid per loan placed.

Factors to weigh before choosing

Factor	Mortgage broker	Direct to a lender
Range of loans compared	Several lenders on the broker’s panel	Just that one lender’s own range
Who you deal with after settlement	Broker for the application; the lender for the loan itself	The same lender, start to finish
Effort to compare multiple lenders	Broker does the comparison legwork	You contact each lender yourself
Existing banking relationship	Less relevant — broker works across institutions	Can matter if an existing lender already knows your finances
Regulatory obligations on the loan	Same responsible-lending framework applies regardless	Same responsible-lending framework applies regardless
Cross-collateralisation risk	Ask explicitly — not determined by channel	Ask explicitly — not determined by channel

Where this decision fits alongside other ways to invest in property

A broker or a direct lender both assume you’re funding an investment property with a loan. That’s one path among several available to Australian property investors — our guide to what property investment in Australia actually involves covers the mechanics, costs and risks of the more common approaches, gearing included. If you’re already weighing how a loan’s cash flow compares with the alternative of negative gearing, our guide on cash flow positive versus negatively geared property walks through that trade-off directly.

Getting started

There’s no compliance-safe way to tell you which path suits your specific situation — that depends on how many quotes you want compared, how confident you already are in the lender you’d use, and how much of the process you want to hand off. A practical next step either way is to get an actual quote: ask a broker for a comparison across their panel, or ask a lender directly for their own investment loan terms, and compare the two answers side by side before deciding.