From $800k to $1.1M: how a Qantas second officer and a GP unlocked their real borrowing power
A 787 second officer with an EBA pay rise on the horizon, and a General Practitioner juggling sole trader, PAYG and casual lecturing income. Two banks had said $700k to $800k. Here’s how we found the right $1.1 million.
Key Takeaways
Clients were a Qantas Boeing 787 second officer (new to the role) and a GP working across three different income types.
Two banks had quoted a borrowing capacity of $700,000 to $800,000. We achieved approximately $1.1 million with the right lender.
The unlock came from timing the pilot’s EBA pay increase onto a payslip, and using all three of the GP’s income streams: sole trader, PAYG and casual lecturing.
Banks and some brokers undervalue pilot variable income (allowances, overtime, duty time allowance) and don’t always know how to read self-employed income across multiple structures.
The bigger loan let them buy a long-term home rather than a stepping-stone apartment, avoiding stamp duty twice over the next few years.
Hi team. Wanting to walk you through a great one we settled recently. The clients were a Qantas pilot and GP whose borrowing capacity had been significantly underestimated by two lenders, let’s call them Tim and Hannah*. They had a healthy deposit built up over time, and on the surface they look like a textbook white-collar couple. Two banks had already told them $700,000 to $800,000 was their ceiling – which doesn’t offer much wiggle room for a couple looking to situate near urban airports and hospitals. The reality, once we assessed properly, was very different.
Why the bank numbers were wrong
Tim’s income, on paper at the time, was low. He’s new in the seat. But we knew that within a few months, when he hit year three of his role under the Qantas enterprise bargaining agreement, his income was going to step up substantially. That’s the kind of detail many standard servicing calculators or frontline assessments don’t always fully capture.
Hannah’s income was arguably more interesting. She works two days a week at a medical practice as a sole trader. She works at a second medical practice that is run by her mother, which is a PAYG role. And she also works as a casual lecturer and tutor at Monash University. Three income types, three different ways of being assessed, and every one of them was real, ongoing income.
A lot of bankers will look at a profile like that and only count the easiest income to verify. That’s how a couple with strong combined earnings ends up being told they can borrow $700,000.
How we structured the application
The starting point was a conversation about what they actually wanted, not just what they could borrow. I wanted to show them the maximum, but I also wanted to make sure we weren’t pushing them into a loan that would feel uncomfortable. That distinction matters, and we had a few detailed conversations to land on the right number.
With the right lender, we were able to use:
Tim’s base income plus his variable allowances on the appropriate shading.
Hannah’s sole trader income from her main two-day-a-week GP role.
Hannah’s PAYG salary from her mother’s GP practice.
Hannah’s casual lecturing and tutoring income from Monash, annualised after a conversation with the bank.
Timing was the other lever. We waited for Tim’s EBA pay increase to show up on a payslip, then submitted with the EBA attached and the relevant sections highlighted, showing the bank the increase was ongoing and consistent. That same timing window gave us a current payslip for Hannah’s lecturing and tutoring work, which we needed to demonstrate the role was still active. It all lined up cleanly.
What banks and some brokers miss with pilot income
Pilot pay isn’t just base salary. The extras matter: overtime, allowances, duty time allowance. The DTA in particular is powerful, and yes, it’s typically shaded. A bank won’t use 100% of it. Some will, most use around 80%. In this case, we didn’t need to go to a lender using 100% to get the result we wanted.
The problem is that branch bankers, and some brokers, don’t fully understand how a pilot is paid. So they default to base income and leave the rest on the table. For a new pilot still working through the pay scale, that can be the difference between a starter apartment and the home you actually want.
What banks and some brokers miss with self-employed income
Self-employed income traps people too. There are real nuances in how you maximise someone’s income when they’re a sole trader, in a company, in a trust, or in a borrowing structure that mixes a few of these together. The right answer depends on the lender, the policy and how the financials are presented.
In Hannah’s case, that meant treating each income stream on its own merits and presenting them in the way the lender needed to see them. Nothing creative, just thorough. The result was that every dollar she actually earns was counted.
What this meant for them
They bought a home they can stay in for a long time. That’s the real outcome. If they’d taken the $700,000 number at face value, they’d have ended up in something smaller, probably an apartment, and within three years they’d likely have needed to upgrade. They don’t have children yet, but when they do, the place would have been too small. That means selling, paying stamp duty a second time, paying agent fees, and going through the whole process again.
They avoid all of that now. The home is set up for the next chapter, including kids when that happens. Their incomes are only going up from here, especially Tim’s as he progresses through the Qantas pay scale. The $1.1 million loan is affordable now and gives them room to grow into the next stage of life as their careers continue progressing.
A note on what we don’t do
Maximum borrowing power isn’t the goal. Right borrowing power is. There’s a version of this story where a broker just pushes the number as high as it will go, and that’s not the right thing to do, especially when it’s genuinely stretching. We had detailed conversations with Tim and Hannah to determine that $1.1 million was appropriate, suitable, and manageable into the future. That’s the bar. The borrowing capacity is only useful if the loan still works on a Tuesday morning two years from now.
The Bottom Line
A new pilot and a multi-income GP were quoted $700,000 to $800,000 by banks who didn’t fully understand either income type. With the right lender, the right timing and the right structure, we got them to $1.1 million, and into a home they can grow into. Same clients. Same incomes. Different outcome.
If you’re a pilot still climbing the pay scale, a medical professional with income across multiple practices or structures, or a couple where both of those things are true at once, the borrowing number you’ve been given may not be the real number. It’s worth a proper conversation.
Wondering what your actual borrowing capacity looks like? Get in touch with the team at Specialist Broking and we’ll work through the numbers with you.