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Your location: Home > Loans and grants > Home loans > Home loans from the Department of Housing > Queensland State Housing Loan

About the Queensland State Housing Loan

What is the Queensland State Housing Loan?

The Queensland State Housing Loan is a home loan product designed to assist you if you purchase the public rental property you are renting or another available Department of Housing-owned property. You need to be a:

• Queensland Department of Housing tenant; or
• waitlist applicant; or
• eligible to be on a waitlist for public housing.

This product is also available to Queenslanders who are not public housing tenants but who wish to purchase available Department of Housing-owned properties.

The loan will only be offered to you if you intend to live in the home you buy.

Which houses are available for purchase?

The Queensland State Housing Loan is available for the purchase of a State housing rental property.

Not all departmental rental properties are for sale.

Those not for sale ('not available') include properties in very high demand areas, sites with future redevelopment potential, townhouses, units and cluster houses.

How does the Queensland State Housing Loan work?

The loan is designed for owner-occupiers, and as long as you remain living in your home you are entitled to special concessions on your interest rate and safeguards against steep rises in interest rates.

Interest rate features

One of the main features of the Queensland State Housing Loan is its interest rate features for owner-occupiers. These interest rate features are designed to protect you from rapid increases in interest rates whilst giving you the benefit of any decreases. The interest rate setting works as follows:

The first five years¹

During the first five years ¹ of your loan, your interest rate is capped (it cannot rise above the Standard Variable Interest Rate ² at the time your loan is approved). This means your loan repayments will not increase during this time unless you choose to pay more.

Should the department’s Standard Variable Interest Rate ² fall below your capped rate during these first five years¹, your interest rate will fall to that lower rate but it will not rise above the capped rate for the first five years¹.

After the first five years¹

The interest rate will automatically switch to the department’s Standard Variable Interest Rate² but if that rate is more than 0.5% p.a. above your rate at that time, your interest rate cannot rise at that time by more than 0.5% p.a. (or a further 0.5% p.a. each twelve months thereafter).

This means that you may benefit from interest rate decreases but will be protected against steep increases in your interest rate as it cannot increase any more than 0.5% per year from the rate applicable at the end of the previous year.

⁽¹⁾ The interest rate is capped during the month in which you receive your loan (or the first installment of it) and then for a further full five years.

⁽²⁾ The department's Standard Variable Interest Rate is set with reference to the standard variable interest rates offered by the four major banks. Being a variable rate, it can go up or down over the term (length of time) of a loan.

To find out the current interest rates offered by the department, phone 1300 654 322 for the cost of a local call or email loaninformation@housing.qld.gov.au.

Interest rate features that apply if you are not living in your home

If you do not live in your home, your interest rate will immediately switch to the Standard Variable Interest Rate.

How is interest charged?

Interest is calculated on daily balances and charged to your loan account at the end of the month.

Queensland State Housing Loan Comparison Rate

A comparison rate is a tool to help consumers identify the true cost of a loan. It is a rate which takes into account both the interest rate and fees and charges relating to a loan, reduced to a single percentage figure.

Comparison rates are calculated in accordance with a standard formula, which takes into account:

• the amount of the loan;
• the term of the loan;
• the repayment frequency;
• the interest rate; and
• the fees and charges connected with the loan (except for government charges, such as stamp duty or mortgage registration fees, and fees and charges which may or may not be charged, because they depend on some event which may or may not occur such as early repayment fees, and fees and charges which are not ascertainable at the time the comparison rate is provided).

Queensland State Housing Loan Comparison Rate Schedules

A comparison rate schedule is a list of comparison rates for a range of standard loan amounts and terms for a particular credit product. The standard amounts and terms have been set in legislation and a comparison rate must be provided for all of the listed amounts that are generally available for that credit product.

As they use the same loan amounts and terms, comparison rate schedules can be used to compare the comparison rates of different credit products.

• If you are a Department of Housing tenant or on the waitlist for public housing, use the Queensland State Housing Loan Comparison Rate Schedule for Department of Housing tenants (21Kb).
• All other eligible applicants should use the Queensland State Housing Loan Comparison Rate Schedule (21Kb).

Last updated 01 October 2008