Lenders Mortgage Insurance waivers are available to registered nurses and midwives through specific lenders, but not all banks treat your profession the same way.
You can borrow above 80 percent loan-to-value ratio without paying LMI if you meet the lender's income threshold and hold current AHPRA registration, but the list of participating lenders is narrower than the one available to doctors and dentists. Some of the country's largest banks explicitly exclude nurses from their professional LMI waiver programs. Knowing which lenders recognise your profession and what they require is the starting point for structuring a home loan for nurses that retains more of your deposit in your own pocket.
Which Lenders Waive LMI for Registered Nurses
Westpac, St.George, and Bank of Melbourne offer LMI waivers to registered nurses and registered midwives at a maximum LVR of 90 percent with a minimum annual income threshold of $90,000. People First Bank includes registered nurses in its Essential Services Professionals Package, with no LMI up to 90 percent LVR for loans up to $1,200,000.
Consider a registered nurse earning $95,000 annually who has saved a 10 percent deposit. Under a standard lender policy, borrowing at 90 percent LVR would trigger an LMI premium that could add tens of thousands of dollars to the loan amount. Under Westpac's nurse waiver, that same borrower pays no LMI premium, reducing both the initial loan balance and the interest paid over the life of the loan. The waiver applies whether you are buying your first home or your next property, and it works alongside the standard credit assessment process, not as a substitute for it.
Commonwealth Bank explicitly excludes nurses from its Professionals Offer LMI and LDP waiver. Bankwest's LMI Waiver Policy also explicitly excludes nurses. NAB does not list nurses or midwives among the eligible professions for its medical practitioners LMI waiver. This is not an oversight. These lenders have assessed the default risk profile of nursing income streams and property purchasing patterns and have chosen not to extend their professional waiver frameworks to your occupation.
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AHPRA Registration and What Lenders Accept
Most lenders require borrowers seeking an LMI waiver on the basis of their healthcare profession to hold current registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Acceptable registration types across lenders generally include general, specialist, provisional, and limited registration where the limitation relates to postgraduate training or supervised practice.
Student registration does not qualify. Non-practising registration does not qualify. Limited registration for area of need or for teaching or research does not qualify under the lender policies reviewed. Your registration must be current at the time of loan application, and lenders verify this as part of the credit assessment process.
If you hold provisional registration as a graduate nurse completing your first year of supervised practice, you can still access the waiver at Westpac, St.George, and Bank of Melbourne, provided you meet the $90,000 income threshold. If your registration lapses or moves to non-practising status during the application process, the waiver is withdrawn and the application reverts to standard LMI treatment.
Income Thresholds and Maximum Loan Amounts
The two lenders that expressly include registered nurses and registered midwives in their LMI waiver frameworks both set a minimum annual income threshold of $90,000 and a maximum LVR of 90 percent. Maximum loan amounts at Westpac, St.George, and Bank of Melbourne are $5 million per borrower with total LMI-waiver lending capped at $7.5 million.
A registered nurse earning $88,000 does not meet the threshold at any of these lenders, regardless of deposit size or AHPRA registration status. A midwife earning $92,000 with a 10 percent deposit and valid general registration qualifies for the waiver across all three brands. The income threshold applies to base income, and overtime or allowances are assessed according to each lender's standard income treatment policy. St.George and Bank of Melbourne include hospital-employed nurses as eligible for their Emergency Services Policy, under which overtime and allowances can be assessed at 100 percent of their value, subject to conditions.
This matters for a nurse working permanent night shifts or a midwife employed in a public hospital with structured penalty rates. If your gross income including penalties exceeds $90,000 and you can provide payslips showing consistent receipt of those payments over a sustained period, the lender may assess the full amount toward the income threshold. The assessment is always subject to the lender's discretion, and it does not override the requirement to meet standard serviceability buffers.
For first home buyers who have not yet reached the $90,000 threshold, the waiver is not available, and the loan application proceeds under standard LMI treatment or an alternative structure such as a guarantor arrangement.
LVR Limits and Why 90 Percent Is the Ceiling
Westpac offers an LMI waiver to registered nurses and registered midwives at a maximum LVR of 90 percent, which requires a minimum deposit of 10 percent. This waiver sits in the 90 percent LVR tier, separate from the 95 percent LVR waiver available to doctors, dentists, and hospital-employed medical practitioners under Westpac's medico policy.
There is no 95 percent LVR waiver for nurses or midwives at any lender covered in the source material. The distinction reflects the lender's assessment of income stability, default risk, and the historical loss experience associated with nursing borrowers compared to higher-income medical specialists. A doctor earning $250,000 annually can borrow at 95 percent LVR without LMI through the same lender that caps a nurse at 90 percent LVR. Both are healthcare professionals. Both hold AHPRA registration. The difference is income level and the actuarial data behind it.
If you have saved a 5 percent deposit and your income is above $90,000, you can access a 95 percent LVR loan through the First Home Guarantee Scheme or a family guarantee structure, but you cannot access a 95 percent LVR professional waiver as a nurse. The cap is fixed, and it is not negotiable.
No Deposit Loans and Why the Waiver Does Not Apply
A professional LMI waiver at 90 percent LVR is not the same as a no-deposit loan. Westpac's LMI waiver at 90 percent LVR requires a minimum deposit of 10 percent. If you have no deposit, the waiver does not apply, and you cannot access the loan under this policy.
No deposit loans for nurses are structured using a family guarantee, where a parent or close relative uses the equity in their own property to support your application and eliminate the need for a cash deposit. The guarantor's property acts as additional security, and the lender assesses the combined position across both properties. Under a family guarantee structure, LMI may still be charged depending on the combined LVR and the lender's guarantee policy. Some lenders waive LMI on a family guarantee loan if the combined LVR is below 80 percent; others charge LMI on the portion of the loan that exceeds 80 percent of your property value alone, regardless of the guarantee.
The professional waiver applies only where you hold a cash deposit of at least 10 percent, meet the income threshold, and borrow under your own name at 90 percent LVR or below. It does not extend to family guarantee structures, joint borrower arrangements where the co-borrower is not an eligible professional, or any structure that relies on non-cash equity substitution.
People First Bank and the Essential Services Package
People First Bank offers an LMI waiver for registered nurses through its Essential Services Professionals Package, with no LMI up to 90 percent LVR for loans up to $1,200,000. This package is separate from the Medical Professionals Package applicable to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, vets, and other medical specialists, under which no LMI applies up to 90 percent LVR for loans up to $2,000,000.
People First Bank is a trading name of Heritage and People's Choice Ltd, which also operates People's Choice Credit Union. The Essential Services Professionals Package is not limited to healthcare workers; it includes other occupations assessed as lower credit risk by the lender. The $1,200,000 loan cap is lower than the $5,000,000 cap at Westpac and the St.George and Bank of Melbourne brands, but it covers the purchase price range for most registered nurses buying in outer metropolitan or regional markets.
For a nurse purchasing in a suburb where the median house price sits below the cap, People First Bank is a valid alternative to the major bank options, particularly if the nurse holds membership with People's Choice Credit Union or can establish it as part of the application process.
Why Major Banks Exclude Nurses from Professional Waivers
The CBA CommBroker source document states explicitly that nurses are excluded from the Professionals Offer LMI and LDP waiver. Bankwest's LMI Waiver Policy states explicitly that physiotherapists, psychologists, and nurses are excluded from Bankwest's medical LMI waiver offering.
The exclusion is a credit risk decision. Lenders model default rates, loss-given-default rates, and recovery rates for different professional cohorts, and they price risk accordingly. If the actuarial data shows that nursing borrowers default at a higher rate than medical specialists, or that the loss-given-default is higher because of lower average income or lower property price segments, the lender will either charge LMI to cover that risk or decline to extend a waiver.
Nursing income is stable, but it is not high income. The median base salary for a registered nurse in Australia sits below the $90,000 threshold at Westpac without shift penalties or overtime. A GP's median income is materially higher, and a specialist's income is higher again. Default risk is inversely correlated with income level, and LMI pricing reflects that relationship directly. The major banks that exclude nurses have determined that the risk-adjusted return on a 90 percent LVR loan to a nurse without LMI does not meet their portfolio return targets.
This does not mean you cannot borrow through CBA, NAB, or Bankwest. It means you pay LMI if your LVR exceeds 80 percent, or you structure the loan differently to bring the LVR down below that threshold.
How to Use the Waiver Alongside Government Schemes
The professional LMI waiver at 90 percent LVR and the First Home Guarantee Scheme at 95 percent LVR are not the same product, and they cannot be used together. The First Home Guarantee allows eligible first home buyers to borrow up to 95 percent LVR without paying LMI, but the government guarantee covers the lender's risk, and the lender does not apply its own professional waiver on top of a government-backed guarantee.
If you are a first home buyer earning above $90,000 with a 10 percent deposit, you choose between the professional waiver at 90 percent LVR and the First Home Guarantee at 95 percent LVR. The professional waiver leaves you with more equity and a lower loan balance. The First Home Guarantee allows you to borrow with a smaller deposit, but your loan balance is higher and your equity position is thinner. Both options remove the LMI cost, but they do so in structurally different ways, and only one can apply to a single loan.
For second-home buyers or investors, the First Home Guarantee does not apply, and the professional waiver becomes the only LMI-free option if your deposit is below 20 percent. Refinancing for midwives who purchased under a standard LMI structure and now meet the professional waiver criteria may allow you to remove LMI from the loan, but this depends on the lender's refinance policy and whether the waiver is available on a refinance transaction or limited to new purchases.
Working with a Mortgage Broker for Nurses
A mortgage broker for nurses knows which lenders waive LMI for your profession without requiring you to contact each bank individually. We submit your application to the lender that offers the waiver, meets your income and deposit position, and prices the loan competitively across rate, fees, and ongoing costs.
We also structure the application to maximise your borrowing capacity where shift penalties, overtime, or allowances form part of your income. Standard lenders assess penalty rates at 80 percent of their value, discounting the income before applying the serviceability buffer. Lenders with emergency services income policies assess the same income at 100 percent, lifting your borrowing capacity by the amount of the discount. For a nurse earning $15,000 annually in shift penalties, the difference between 80 percent and 100 percent assessment is $3,000 in recognised income, which translates to approximately $18,000 in additional borrowing capacity at a 6x income multiple.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which lenders waive LMI for registered nurses?
Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne, and People First Bank waive LMI for registered nurses at 90 percent LVR. You must earn at least $90,000 annually and hold current AHPRA registration. CBA, NAB, and Bankwest explicitly exclude nurses from their professional waiver programs.
What is the minimum deposit required for a nurse LMI waiver?
You need a minimum 10 percent deposit to access the LMI waiver at 90 percent LVR. There is no 95 percent LVR waiver available to nurses or midwives at any lender, and the waiver does not apply to no-deposit loans structured using a family guarantee.
Does AHPRA registration type affect LMI waiver eligibility?
General, specialist, provisional, and limited registration for postgraduate training qualify for the waiver. Student registration, non-practising registration, and limited registration for area of need or teaching do not qualify. Your registration must be current at the time of application.
Can I use the nurse LMI waiver with the First Home Guarantee Scheme?
No, the professional LMI waiver and the First Home Guarantee Scheme cannot be used together. You must choose between the waiver at 90 percent LVR with a 10 percent deposit or the government scheme at 95 percent LVR with a 5 percent deposit.
What is the maximum loan amount under the nurse LMI waiver?
Westpac, St.George, and Bank of Melbourne allow up to $5 million per borrower with total LMI-waiver lending capped at $7.5 million. People First Bank caps the loan at $1,200,000 under its Essential Services Professionals Package.
