“There’s a real penny-drop moment for [buyers], and that’s when they realise LMI is not the enemy; it’s an enabler and actually helps them get into the market”

Aaron Christie-David, Atelier Wealth

“The key is education, helping [buyers] see LMI not just as a cost but as a way to access the market earlier and potentially get ahead in the long run”

Tram Nguyen, OneSite Finance

“Once LMI is framed early, alongside capacity and deposit, it stops being an objection and starts being an option”

Tony Tran, BOQ Group

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LMI confidence is rising as brokers embrace the benefit

Brokers and lenders are rethinking how they talk about lenders mortgage insurance, moving from cost-focused conversations to those built around strategy, equity and timing

Read on

Strachan Taylor

Helia

Aaron Christie-David

Atelier Wealth

Tony Tran

BOQ Group

Tram Nguyen

OneSite Finance

Industry experts

FIVE THOUSAND one hundred and ten days. This is how long the average Sydney couple spends paying someone else’s mortgage before they can save a 20% deposit for their own home loan.1 Fourteen years. Three federal elections. Two property price cycles. Somewhere in the vicinity of $400,000 in capital growth that belonged to a property they didn’t own. That’s the real cost of waiting.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same, and that is the continued mismatch between demand for housing and supply of housing, which is actually seeing demand outstrip supply and therefore pushing property prices up, and they’ve been on an upward trajectory for quite some time,” says Taylor. For brokers and lenders, the shift is tangible. Every month a client delays is not neutral; it’s a position against a potential rising property market. Reframing LMI: from cost to capability Experienced brokers have found ways to work through this tension. “They are not avoiding the LMI conversation; they are reframing it,” says Aaron Christie-David, mortgage broker and founder of Atelier Wealth, who takes a direct approach. “You’re not buying a loan; you’re buying a home, and an LMI fee is simply an expense or a cost of doing business, like stamp duty, for example, or fees,” he says. That framing lands because it shifts LMI out of the ‘penalty’ category and into something homebuyers accept: the price of entry. And, more importantly, it reframes what the client is actually buying: not a fee but time in the market. “There’s a real penny-drop moment for them, and that’s when they realise LMI is not the enemy; it’s an enabler and actually helps them get into the market,” Christie-David says. “By the time they’ve settled, or soon after their property prices increase in value, the cost fades into the background and is quickly forgotten.”

The campaign that reframed the conversation Against this backdrop, Helia launched its LMI Lets Me In and LMI Lets Me Invest campaign, an industry-facing initiative designed to shift the LMI conversation from cost to capability. The campaign featured real brokers and lenders speaking from genuine client experience, and that authenticity was not incidental. “As property prices climbed, so did the LMI fee, and with that came hesitation. Brokers saw it. Lenders felt it. Clients defaulted to delay,” Taylor explains. “What we found was the entire conversation had shifted to cost. Borrowers were saying, ‘I don’t want to pay that; I’ll wait and save’. So we had to reframe it to what is LMI actually doing for you?” The naming convention was deliberate. LMI Lets Me In says exactly what it does; it creates access. LMI Lets Me Invest extends that thinking to a more sophisticated borrower, one focused on leverage, timing and portfolio growth.

But what made the campaign resonate wasn’t the messaging. It was the messenger. Helia deliberately put real brokers and lenders at the centre, people having these conversations every day, not actors or hypothetical scenarios. “We didn’t build this in isolation,” Taylor says. “We worked closely with brokers and lenders to understand how these conversations actually happen and to make sure what we created reflected real client experiences.” The result is a campaign that didn’t introduce a new idea; it gave the industry a clearer, more confident way to express an existing one. And that matters. Because many brokers already understood the value of LMI; they just didn’t always have the language to land it cleanly with clients.

Tram Nguyen, mortgage broker at OneSite Finance, echoes this but adds a practical dimension. She breaks the numbers down visually, using spreadsheets to walk clients through purchase price, loan amount, loan-to-value ratio and LMI cost across different scenarios, making the opportunity cost concrete rather than abstract. “Paying LMI allows them to enter the market sooner,” Nguyen says. “In terms of mindset, I found my investor clients generally view and use LMI very differently from first home buyers. The investor clients tend to see it as a strategic tool to accelerate their portfolio and are more comfortable leveraging it. However, first home buyers, on the other hand, are more cautious and emotionally driven. So the key is education, helping them see LMI not just as a cost but as a way to access the market earlier and potentially get ahead in the long run.”

LMI as a growth lever For investors in particular, the conversation shifts again. It’s no longer about access. It’s about timing and acceleration. Christie-David puts it plainly. “At a current long-term growth rate of 7% annually, as property prices have over the past 30 years, a deposit target that looks achievable today will be a moving target tomorrow. LMI, in this framing, is not just a cost of entry but a tool to capture growth that would otherwise be missed.” “Your income and your savings aren’t compounding at that rate,” Christie-David says. “And like I said, you can call the elephant in the room an expense. [But] you can’t fight stamp duty – that’s the government clipping the ticket right there. And we’re saying this is simply another expense on the journey. Strap in and pay it.”

Tony Tran, mobile banker at BOQ Group, sees this as a potential missed opportunity. “If LMI comes in at the end, it then feels like a problem. If it’s introduced in the right sequence, up front, it becomes part of strategy.” The timing of the conversation, he argues, matters as much as the content. “Because once LMI is framed early, alongside capacity and deposit, it stops being an objection and starts being an option.” Nguyen takes the same approach with every new client engagement. “From my first meeting with the clients, I make it a point to walk through all the key finance jargon, including LMI,” she says. “And if they’ve heard of it, I’ll ask them, ‘tell me how you understand LMI’, so I can understand their knowledge and address any misconceptions they have. When LMI is introduced late, it can feel like an unexpected cost, which naturally creates resistance. That’s why I believe it should be a part of the initial strategy conversation, alongside borrowing capacity and deposit.” The numbers that drive better outcomes The most powerful conversations are grounded in outcomes, and the data is increasingly difficult to ignore. Taylor backs the data. He says people who use LMI can enter the market up to nine years earlier than those who wait to reach a 20% deposit – and that, on average, homebuyers who have used LMI have grown their equity by an additional $107,000 within five years.2 “There’s a real financial impact of having it on the table,” he says. In other words, LMI can materially change a client’s long-term position.

When LMI does not make sense Good brokers know LMI’s limits. Nguyen is clear that LMI is not a universal solution and that positioning it as one undermines trust. There are scenarios in which LMI doesn’t stack up. “If a client is very close to a 20% deposit, or they can bridge the gap with family support, waiting could be an option,” Nguyen says. “Similarly, if servicing is already tight, taking on a higher loan amount and the LMI cost could place unnecessary financial pressure.”

She also cautions against using LMI for short-term strategies, where the upfront cost can be harder to justify. “It’s about positioning LMI as an option, not a default,” Nguyen says. “If it doesn’t align with the client’s goals, financial situation or their risk appetite, we’re upfront and guide them to a better-fit strategy, and that’s how trust is built.” Christie-David simplifies the conversation by breaking LMI into a monthly cost instead of a lump sum. “It might be $200, $300 a month,” he says. “Suddenly it’s not a $20,000 or $30,000 expense, and it’s a manageable amount to get into the market now. This helps clients focus on what matters: whether they can afford to move forward today, rather than waiting years to save.” Tran acknowledges the criticism around the LMI structure itself – that LMI is designed to protect the lender rather than the borrower. “When people hear the word insurance, it’s fair that they question it,” Tran says. “ ‘Why am I paying for this?’ So this is where we can be transparent in the scenarios and explain to the client that, although it protects the lender, the key is what it enables: helping clients get into the market sooner and move towards their goals.”

Confident conversations and better tools Beyond strategy, improving LMI conversations comes down to mindset. Christie-David warns against brokers letting personal bias shape advice. “Give clients the option and choice,” he says. “They’re the ones paying, not you.” Tran frames the same point in terms of professional courage. “Brokers and lenders just need to be brave, and we just need to not be afraid of the objections that can arise when we start discussing LMI, because if we don’t discuss it, we put an option off the table,” he says.

Helia has developed a suite of tools designed to support exactly these conversations. The Home Deposit Estimator and LMI Fee Estimator give brokers a clear, visual way to guide clients. Resources are also available in other languages, including Simplified Chinese, Punjabi and Arabic, reflecting the demographic range of homebuyers across major Australian cities. The resources are available free to download at www.helia.com.au. “The goal isn’t just promoting LMI; it’s improving how it gets discussed,” says Taylor. “It’s about introducing LMI earlier as a strategic option. When you do that, the conversation shifts from hesitation to possibility.”

Helia exists to accelerate financial wellbeing through homeownership. As Australia’s first lenders mortgage insurance provider, we’ve played a pivotal role in the property market since 1965. In 2025, Helia supported over 36,000 people on their property ownership journey. Helia is proud to partner with brokers, providing client-friendly tools, resources and multilingual materials to support confident, value-driven conversations around homeownership and LMI.

Find out more

Strachan Taylor is a proven financial services business leader with over 25 years’ experience across banking, mortgage broking and financial services. Taylor has been a member of the commercial solutions leadership team for eight years, driving growth for the company’s business and customers. He is an expert in helping people understand how LMI works and how it can help make homeownership more accessible. Before Helia, Taylor was head of home and personal finance at Woolworths Group, ran his own mortgage broking business with Loan Market and held various commercial lending and mortgage distribution roles at Westpac during a 10-year tenure. Taylor is a qualified mortgage broker and understands the needs of today’s mortgage brokers.

Helia

Strachan Taylor

Aaron Christie-David is a multi-award-winning mortgage broker and entrepreneur and the co-founder and managing director of Atelier Wealth, one of Australia’s leading mortgage broking firms. He hosts the Australian Property Investment Podcast, interviewing industry experts and investors to share practical, no-nonsense strategies for building wealth through property. Christie-David is also the author of The Happy Home Loan Handbook, a clear and friendly guide that helps borrowers navigate the lending process with confidence. Known for his down-to-earth style and client-first values, he is passionate about helping Australian families make smarter money and property decisions.

Atelier Wealth

Aaron Christie-David

Tony Tran began his career as a young real estate agent, driven by a passion for property and the hunger to understand every angle of the transaction. That foundation in market insight, negotiation and relationship building ultimately led Tran to the other side of the table into mortgage lending. For a decade, Tran has helped clients from all walks of life navigate one of life’s biggest financial decisions. He is proud to have served his customers as a mobile banker at BOQ Group for the past five years, building long-term relationships and delivering lending solutions based on trust, strategy and experience.

BOQ Group

After winning the MFAA Award – Loan Administrator NSW/ACT 2023 and PLAN Australia Loan Administrator of the Year NSW/ACT 2021, Tram Nguyen transitioned from a loan administration career into mortgage broking when she discovered a passion for helping clients navigate property finance. Over the past four years as a broker, she has helped many clients purchase their first homes and investment properties, including through SMSFs, as well as strategically refinance to build their portfolios. With over 10 years’ experience in client-focused roles across global markets, she brings a strategic, solutions-driven approach to broking, helping clients enter the property market sooner, with clear guidance and tailored lending strategies.

OneSite Finance

Tram Nguyen

Published 04 May 2026

Tony Tran

While 14 years is the Sydney number, mortgage brokers around the country know its local equivalent. They watch what happens when a client hears their local number for the first time. The silence. The recalibration. The quiet realisation that the traditional advice – save harder, wait longer, avoid LMI – may not be good advice at all. That moment is when better conversations begin. The shift is already underway. Strachan Taylor, strategic partnership leader at Helia, one of Australia’s leading LMI providers, sees genuine progress around market sentiment towards LMI, driven by rising property prices.

“The goal isn’t just promoting LMI; it’s improving how it gets discussed. It’s about introducing LMI earlier as a strategic option. When you do that, the conversation shifts from hesitation to possibility”

Strachan Taylor, Helia

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Disclaimer: Lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI) is insurance that protects credit providers, not home buyers, and cannot be provided directly to home buyers. Eligibility criteria, terms, and conditions apply.The information contained in this article is general information. It does not constitute legal, tax, credit or financial advice and is not tailored to an individual’s circumstances. Borrowers should consider their own personal circumstances and seek advice from your professional advisers before making any decisions that may affect their financial situation. LMI fee rates may change for investor scenarios. Past performance is no indication of future performance. LMI can often be capitalised into the loan. The LMI fee may vary depending on a range of factors, including the loan purpose, borrower amount and the security type. Helia does not provide or engage in credit activities as a credit provider, except for limited credit activities engaged by it as an assignee in relation to providing LMI products or as a credit provider under the doctrine of subrogation in relation to providing LMI products. The information provided in this graphic does not refer to a credit contract with any particular provider.

Source: Helia

How long does it take for a medium-wage Sydney couple to save a 20% deposit?

For a house: 14 years

For an apartment: 8 years

Source: Helia

How much additional equity, on average, would home buyers gain within five years if they used LMI?

$107,000

1 Helia Home Buyer Sentiment Report 2024 2 This outcome is based on Helia internal data for properties purchased using Helia’s LMI between 2014 to 2019 across all Australian states and territories. The average additional equity growth is the increase in the value of the portfolio over a 5-year period following purchase.

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This outcome is based on Helia internal data for properties purchased using Helia’s LMI between 2014 to 2019 across all Australian States and Territories. The average additional equity growth is the increase in the value of the portfolio over a 5 year period following purchase.