To what extent does rental yield affect your borrowing capacity?

The very first article that I wrote for a magazine was published 19 years ago! No wonder I feel old. The article was called ‘Unlimited finance…’. My thesis was that investing in high yield properties, doesn’t magically extend ones borrowing capacity allowing them to invest a lot more.  

Some investors believe targeting high rental yielding investment properties will allow them to borrow a lot more and therefore buy more properties. And the more property they hold, the more wealth they accumulate, or so their theory goes. However, the truth is that borrowing capacity isn’t that sensitive to rental yields.  

How much does rental yield affect borrowing capacity 

I wrote a blog last week highlighting that borrowing capacity is probably the tightest that it’s been in 20 years. The reason is that lenders must add a benchmark interest rate of 3% on top of the actual rate you will pay to ensure you can afford a loan, should interest rates rise further.  

Banks will also base their affordability on principal and interest repayments over a 25-year loan term. As such, the benchmark repayments for a $1 million investment loan will be $93,000. Consequently, for an investment property to be borrowing capacity neutral, it must generate a gross rental yield of over 13%, as most lenders shave off 20-30% of rental income to allow for expenses.  

Obviously, there aren’t a lot of residential properties yielding more than 13%. As such, even higher yielding investments (e.g., 4-6% p.a.) eat into an investors borrowing capacity.  

Lower yielding properties reduce your borrowing capacity by 25% 

I spoke to an investor recently that had invested in 3 properties. The aggregate value of these properties was $1.2 million, and the portfolio had $1 million of debt. The gross rental yield across the portfolio was around 5.2% p.a. This investor thought targeting high yielding properties would allow him to borrow more and buy more properties.  

It is true that higher yielding properties do increase your borrowing capacity. Let’s look at an example. I assumed each spouse earns $100k p.a. gross, an outstanding home loan of $350k, spend $5,500 per month on living expenses and have a credit card with a $5k limit. Based on these assumptions, I calculated their borrowing capacity as follows: 

• If they achieve a gross rental yield of 5.5%, they can invest $1 million in property. 
• If they achieve a gross rental yield of 3%, they can invest $815k, a reduction of 18.5%. 
• If they achieve a gross rental yield of 2%, they can invest $750, a reduction of 25%.  

It’s all about the amount and quality of land 

Generally, a property’s accommodation size and quality will determine how much rental income it will attract. Therefore, to achieve a higher rental yield, you must spend proportionally more on building value, and less on land value. But doing so will mean that you will probably accumulate less wealth, as discussed here.  

Using the same assumptions that I used in this blog, I have calculated the amount of wealth an investor would accumulate if they invested in a property and sold it after 30 years, repaid the loan and paid any tax liability (CGT). The cash flow holding costs were also included in this calculation.  

As the chart below demonstrates, even though the investor that targeted a 2% rental yield and invested 25% less (i.e., $750k versus $1m), they accumulated almost twice as mu

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This podcast provides general information about finance, tax and credit. It doesn't take into account your specific objectives, financial situation or needs, so you need to assess whether it's relevant to your circumstances before acting on it. If you're not sure, speak to a licensed, trustworthy professional.