Calculator
APRA DTI Cap Check
Check whether your new home loan falls within APRA's 20% high-DTI lending cap based on your income and existing debts.
Try it nowGuide & How-To
Borrow more than six times your gross income in Australia and your loan now competes for a rationed slice of your bank's book: since 1 February 2026, APRA lets lenders write only 20% of each quarter's new mortgages above that line. Enter income, debts, and the loan you want; the calculator shows your multiple, whether you land in the quota zone, and the exact extra borrowing that keeps you out of it.
What is the APRA DTI cap and how does it work?
From 1 February 2026, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) requires banks and other authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) to limit high debt-to-income lending to no more than 20% of new mortgage origination. A 'high DTI' loan is defined as one where the borrower's total debt equals or exceeds six times their gross annual income. The cap applies separately to owner-occupier and investor loan portfolios and is measured on a quarterly basis.
Who is most affected by the DTI cap?
Property investors are the primary target of the new rule. Approximately 10% of investor loans already exceed the 6x DTI threshold, compared to just 4% of owner-occupier loans. Portfolio investors with multiple mortgages are most exposed. Bridging loans and loans for new dwelling construction or purchase are fully exempt. Non-bank lenders such as Pepper Money, Liberty Financial, and Resimac are not subject to the APRA DTI cap.
DTI threshold calculations and example
A borrower earning $100,000 per year with $540,000 in existing debt has a DTI of 5.4x, below the 6x threshold. If they apply for an additional $200,000 investment loan, their total debt rises to $740,000 and their DTI to 7.4x — entering the high-DTI zone. The bank could still approve this loan, but only if it has remaining capacity within its quarterly 20% high-DTI allocation. This calculator helps you understand exactly where you stand before approaching a lender.
What the numbers actually mean for you
A quota on the bank, not a wall in front of you
The most misread fact about the APRA cap: 6x DTI is not a personal borrowing limit. It marks the loans that count against the BANK'S 20% quarterly allocation. A 6.5x borrower with clean serviceability can absolutely be approved; whether they are depends on how much quota the lender has left that quarter.
Practically, that turns timing and lender choice into levers. Early in a quarter, quota is fresh. Smaller ADIs may price high-DTI space differently from the majors. And non-bank lenders sit outside the cap entirely, at the cost of rates typically 0.5% to 1.5% higher.
The other half of your file, the serviceability buffer, did not move: banks still test whether you could repay at your actual rate plus 3%. Passing the buffer but landing above 6x DTI puts you in the rationed pool; failing the buffer means no loan anywhere in the ADI system regardless of quota. Knowing which of the two is actually binding on your application tells you whether to shrink the ask or grow the documented income.
Why investors feel this rule twice as hard
APRA's own data going into the rule showed roughly 10% of investor loans above 6x DTI against about 4% for owner-occupiers, and the cap is measured separately for each pool, so banks cannot borrow spare owner-occupier room to approve investors. When quotas tighten, investor applications queue first.
The two exemptions are the pressure valves: bridging loans, and construction or purchase of NEW dwellings. For a portfolio investor bumping against 6x, the exemption makes a new build materially easier to finance than an established property of identical price, a distortion worth knowing before you pick the asset.
None of this changes what a 6x-plus multiple means for the household carrying it: at current rates the repayments on six times your income consume a very large share of take-home pay before a single rate rise. APRA's line is a reasonable proxy for genuine strain, so treat brushing against it as information about the loan, not just about the bank's paperwork.
The credit card limit you forgot about
Lenders assess around 3% of your card LIMITS as monthly debt regardless of what you actually spend. A forgotten $20,000 limit adds $600 of assessed monthly commitments, roughly $85,000 of borrowing capacity gone, and for borderline files that can be the difference between 5.9x and 6.1x.
Closing or cutting unused limits before applying is the cheapest DTI repair available. The other quiet input is rate cuts: each 1% fall in rates lets the same income service roughly 0.5x more debt, which is exactly why APRA installed this brake while rates were still restrictive. If a joint applicant is an option, remember the ratio runs on combined gross income, adding a partner's $70,000 salary to the file lifts the 6x ceiling by $420,000 at a stroke.
One more comparison worth having in your back pocket at the broker's office: Australia's 20%-at-6x setting is loose by world standards. New Zealand caps at 6x for owner-occupiers and 7x for investors outright, Ireland holds mortgages to 3.5x income, and the UK restricts lending above 4.5x to 15% of new loans. The cap you are checking against today is the gentle version, and APRA has said plainly it can tighten the dial if high-DTI lending accelerates.
How the DTI math works
Your debt-to-income multiple is every dollar you owe, existing loans plus the new one, divided by gross annual income. From 1 February 2026, APRA classifies anything at 6x or above as high-DTI lending, and banks may write no more than 20% of each quarter's new mortgages in that zone, counted separately for owner-occupiers and investors.
The calculator computes your multiple, flags whether you land in a bank's quota zone, and shows the maximum borrowing that keeps you under 6x.
Calculation Steps:
- Enter gross annual income, existing debt (lenders count roughly 3% of credit card LIMITS as monthly liability, not your balance), and the proposed new loan you are hoping to add.
- Total debt after the loan is divided by income to get the multiple.
- At 6.0x or above, the loan falls inside the lender's 20% quarterly high-DTI quota; below it, the cap is irrelevant to you.
- The headroom figure shows the largest loan that keeps you under 6x: (6 x income) minus current debt.
Worked example
Sam earns $120,000 gross and carries $540,000 across two investment property loans: a 4.5x multiple.
A new $200,000 loan lifts total debt to $740,000, and the multiple to 6.17x, into the quota zone.
The bank can still say yes, but only from its limited high-DTI allocation, and investor books hit those limits first. If the quarter's quota is spent, Sam waits, tries another lender, or pays non-bank rates.
His alternative: a new-build construction loan of the same size is exempt from the cap entirely, which quietly redirects investors toward new housing supply, exactly as APRA intended.
Input definitions
Review the glossary of terms used in the calculation model below. Click on highlighted links to read more in-depth definitions in our financial glossary:
| Parameter | Definition & Context |
|---|---|
| Gross Annual Income | Pre-tax income. The multiple runs on gross figures, not take-home pay or negatively geared cash flow. |
| Current Total Debt | All outstanding balances: mortgages, personal and car loans, plus assessed credit card liabilities based on limits. |
| New Loan Amount | The proposed borrowing. This is the lever: reducing it is usually the fastest way back under the 6x line. |
| Existing Monthly Debt Payments | Your current monthly commitments, used to show total monthly obligations after the new loan. |
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