How quick can a loan be approved?

The time it takes a lender to upload your application to their processing software and have their credit team review, and hopefully approve, your loan application can be just as important as the interest rate and fee structure attached to the product you are applying for. Quite often we find lenders bring out promotional offers which cause hysteria through the greater mortgage community and as a result, application turn-around can blow out from industry accepted two business days to as many as fifteen business days in extreme cases.

A consumer researching products and loan facilities online will not have access to the same information on processing times as your local broker. Speaking with your broker can mean the difference between securing finance for a property or missing out because another buyer sweeps in whilst you are waiting on your loan approval. Would you give up a percentage point on your interest rate to have a loan approved in one business day rather than five?

Part of our daily operations is monitoring the ebb and flow of lender processing times of each lender on our panel. We know at present some lenders are beyond seven business days to process and approve an application but we also know some lenders can accept an application and provide an unconditional approval in as little as four hours!! As an example, our average loan size in the past twelve months is $389,000, if you needed to give up ten basis points on your $389,000 loan which represents $389 per year, would you do it?