Tips for Paying Off Your Home Loan Faster

You don't need a bonus or an inheritance to pay off your home loan years earlier than your loan term suggests. A handful of consistent habits, applied over time, do most of the work.

Make extra repayments whenever you can

Even small, irregular extra repayments reduce your principal faster, which reduces the interest charged on that lower balance from that point forward. Most variable loans allow unlimited extra repayments with no penalty — check your loan doesn't have a cap or fee before relying on this, particularly if you're on a fixed rate.

Switch to fortnightly repayments

Paying half your monthly repayment every fortnight instead of the full amount once a month results in 26 half-payments a year — the equivalent of 13 monthly payments instead of 12. That one extra repayment a year, made almost without noticing, can take years off a 30-year loan.

Use a 100% offset account

Keeping your savings and everyday spending money in an offset account reduces the interest charged on your loan without locking the money away — you still have full access to it. We cover exactly how to get the most from one in our offset account guide.

Put lump sums straight onto the loan

Tax returns, bonuses and work allowances are easy to absorb into everyday spending if they land in your regular account. Redirecting them straight onto your mortgage (or into your offset) instead turns an irregular windfall into a permanent reduction in the interest you'll pay over the life of the loan.

Round up your repayments

If your minimum repayment is $2,180 a month, setting it to $2,300 barely changes your budget but compounds meaningfully over a 30-year term. It's one of the easiest habits to set and forget.

Review your rate — and refinance if it's not competitive

A rate that was competitive when you signed up may not be a few years later, especially if lenders don't always pass on cuts to existing customers. Refinancing to a lower rate reduces your interest cost directly, and redirecting the saving back into extra repayments compounds the benefit. Our refinancing guide walks through when it's worth doing.

Essential workers have an additional lever here: specialist lending policies that count 100% of overtime and shift allowances as income can support a genuinely higher repayment from day one, without it feeling like a stretch.