Top Strategies to Refinance Multiple Properties

Why Refinancing Multiple Properties Is Different

Refinancing multiple properties requires a coordinated approach that treats your portfolio as a system, not a series of unrelated loans. You can't just cherry-pick one property to refinance without understanding how that decision affects your borrowing capacity, your loan-to-value ratios across the board, and whether you're inadvertently locking yourself into cross-collateralisation.

Consider an investor with three properties in Cannington, Baldivis, and Mandurah. Each property sits with a different lender, each on a different rate, and one is coming off a fixed term in the next few months. Refinancing just the fixed rate property to a lower variable rate might seem like the obvious move, but it ignores whether the other two loans are costing more in interest than they should, whether the offset accounts are actually being used, and whether consolidating some or all of the debt would improve cashflow or release equity for the next purchase.

The decision isn't whether to refinance. It's which properties to refinance, in what order, and whether to bring them under one lender or keep them separated.

Should You Refinance All Properties With One Lender or Split Them?

Keeping your properties with separate lenders preserves flexibility and avoids cross-collateralisation, which can limit your ability to sell or refinance individual properties later. Consolidating with one lender can reduce paperwork, streamline offset accounts, and sometimes unlock package pricing, but it often means tying your properties together in a way that restricts future decisions.

In a scenario where someone holds four properties across Joondalup, Butler, Ellenbrook, and Midland, consolidating all four loans with one lender might deliver a 0.15% discount and a single offset account. But if they want to sell the Midland property in two years to fund a commercial purchase, they'll need the lender's consent to release that security, and the remaining three properties may need revaluation. If values have dropped or serviceability has tightened, the lender could refuse or require a partial paydown.

Splitting the properties across two or three lenders, on the other hand, means each loan is assessed and managed independently. You can sell one property without affecting the others, and if one lender's rates drift upward, you can refinance that loan without touching the rest. The cost is slightly more admin and potentially missing out on minor rate discounts, but the upside is control.

How to Avoid Paying LMI Again When You Refinance

Lenders Mortgage Insurance is triggered when your loan-to-value ratio exceeds 80%, and refinancing can push you back over that threshold if property values haven't moved in your favour or if you're accessing equity. If you originally paid LMI on a property, refinancing to a new lender won't transfer that coverage. You'll pay it again if the LVR breaches 80%.

The way around this is to refinance only properties where your current equity position keeps you below 80% LVR, or to stage your refinancing so you're not triggering multiple LMI charges at once. Some lenders offer LMI waivers for specific professions or portfolio investors with strong serviceability, but these aren't universal.

If you're refinancing to access equity for another investment loan, the equity drawdown itself increases your loan amount, which can tip you into LMI territory even if your original loan was under 80%. Running the numbers before you apply, rather than discovering the LMI charge at settlement, is the difference between a refinance that improves your position and one that costs you several thousand dollars you didn't budget for.

When to Refinance Properties Coming Off Fixed Rates First

Properties coming off fixed rate periods should be the first candidates for review, because most lenders will revert you to a variable rate that's significantly higher than what you could negotiate by refinancing or renegotiating upfront. The reversion rate is rarely disclosed clearly during the fixed term, and by the time the fixed period ends, you're already paying it.

In our experience, investors often assume their lender will contact them proactively to discuss options when the fixed term expires. Some do, but many don't, and the ones that do are usually offering retention rates that are still above what a new lender would offer to win your business.

If you hold multiple properties and one or more are coming off fixed terms in the next six months, the window to act is now, not after the fixed term ends. Lenders need time to assess, value, and settle a refinance, and if you wait until after the fixed rate expires, you'll be paying the higher reversion rate while the new loan processes. Starting the conversation three to four months before the fixed term ends gives you time to compare offers, understand what each lender will value your properties at, and lock in a new rate before the old one rolls over.

How Equity Release Affects Your Borrowing Capacity Across the Portfolio

Accessing equity from one property reduces your borrowing capacity for future purchases, because the additional debt increases your total loan commitments and affects your serviceability calculation. Lenders assess your ability to service all loans together, not individually, so drawing equity from your Applecross property to fund a deposit on a new investment property in Ellenbrook will reduce how much the lender is willing to let you borrow for that new purchase.

This becomes more complex when you're refinancing multiple properties at once and accessing equity from more than one. Each equity drawdown adds to your total debt, and if your income hasn't increased, your borrowing capacity drops. The sequencing matters. If you refinance and release equity from two properties at the same time, the lender assesses your serviceability based on the new, higher loan amounts across both properties. If you'd refinanced one property, accessed the equity, and then refinanced the second property a few months later, the second lender would only see the first property's debt as a committed liability, not as an ongoing refinance.

For investors planning to grow their portfolio, this is why a loan health check before refinancing is useful. It maps out how much equity you have, how much you can access without overextending your serviceability, and which properties are in the strongest position to release equity without triggering LMI or pushing your debt serviceability ratios into uncomfortable territory.

What Happens If One Property Doesn't Revalue as Expected

Property valuations during a refinance can come in lower than expected, particularly in areas where recent sales data is thin or where the valuer takes a conservative view. If you're refinancing multiple properties and one revalues below your anticipated figure, it affects your LVR on that property and may reduce how much equity you can access or whether the refinance proceeds at all.

In a scenario where someone is refinancing three properties in Rockingham, Kwinana, and Secret Harbour, and the Rockingham property revalues 8% below their estimate, the LVR on that property jumps from 72% to 78%. If they were planning to access equity and keep the LVR at 80%, they now have far less equity available, and the refinance may not deliver the outcome they were banking on. If the revaluation tips the LVR above 80%, they're either paying LMI or the lender declines the application.

The mitigation is to assume conservative valuations when you're planning a multi-property refinance, and to avoid structuring your entire strategy around accessing maximum equity from every property. If one property undervalues, you need room to absorb that without the whole refinance collapsing.

How to Sequence a Multi-Property Refinance Without Overloading Serviceability

Refinancing all properties at once can overwhelm your serviceability, especially if you're accessing equity, because the lender sees all the new debt hit your position simultaneously. Staging the refinancing across a few months spreads the serviceability impact and gives you time to adjust your income or debt position between applications.

The usual approach is to refinance the highest-rate or poorest-performing loans first, lock in the lower rates and improved cashflow, and then use that improved cashflow to support the serviceability assessment for the next refinance. If you hold five properties and three of them are on rates above 6%, those three get refinanced first. Once the new loans settle and your repayments drop, your serviceability improves, and the remaining two properties become easier to refinance without pushing your debt serviceability ratio into decline territory.

Some investors refinance one property, use the improved cashflow to pay down a small personal loan or car loan, and then refinance the next property with a cleaner debt profile. It's slower than doing everything at once, but it reduces the risk of a lender declining your application because your committed liabilities are too high relative to your income.

Should You Switch All Properties to Variable or Keep Some Fixed?

Splitting your portfolio between variable and fixed rates gives you a hedge against rate movements, but it also means you're managing multiple rate structures and expiry dates. If rates are rising, locking in fixed rates on some properties protects your cashflow. If rates are falling or stable, keeping everything on variable gives you flexibility to make extra repayments, access redraw, and refinance without break costs.

There's no universal formula, but a common structure is to fix the properties where cashflow is tight or where you want repayment certainty, and keep the properties with strong cashflow on variable so you can pay down debt faster or access redraw if needed. For someone with properties spread across the northern suburbs of Perth, fixing the newer or higher-debt properties in Yanchep or Two Rocks, and keeping the older, lower-debt properties in Joondalup or Hillarys on variable, gives you stability where you need it and flexibility where you can afford it.

If you do decide to fix, avoid fixing all properties with the same expiry date. Stagger the fixed terms by six or twelve months so you're not facing multiple refinancing decisions in the same month, and so you're not exposed to rate movements all at once.

Refinancing Multiple Properties Without a Full Income Reassessment

Some lenders allow you to refinance without a full income reassessment if you're not increasing your loan amount and your existing loans are performing well. This is more common when you're moving loans between lenders as a straight refinance to a lower rate, rather than accessing equity or consolidating debt.

If you're refinancing three properties and none of them are increasing in loan amount, and you can show consistent repayment history across all three, some lenders will assess your application using your existing loan commitments rather than requiring fresh payslips, tax returns, and a full serviceability calculation. It's faster, requires less documentation, and reduces the risk of your application being declined due to a recent drop in income or an increase in living expenses.

This approach works best when you're moving loans across at similar LVRs, not accessing equity, and not switching loan structures. If you're changing from interest-only to principal and interest, or consolidating two loans into one, the lender will usually require a full reassessment.

Call one of our team or book an appointment at a time that works for you. Refinancing multiple properties isn't something you should approach without running the numbers first, and we'll walk through your portfolio, identify which properties are costing you more than they should, and build a sequence that improves your position without overloading your serviceability or triggering unnecessary costs.

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