Loans

Open Loans in the sidebar and choose Add loan. Every loan needs a legal owner, so with none recorded the page says Add a legal owner first. With owners and no loans, it says No loans yet, with Add loan.

Add loan takes three steps, shown in the header as Step 1 of 3. Continue checks each step, and Back returns to the one before. Nothing is saved until Add loan on the last step. The loan's page then opens and says the loan was added.

1. Details and Current balance. Name is what you call the loan. Matures on is the date it is due to be repaid in full. It does not close the loan. Balance is what the lender showed on a date, before offset cash, and As at is that date. Use the figure on a recent statement.
2. Contract terms. Annual interest rate is the yearly rate the lender quotes. Repayment type is Principal and interest or Interest only. Payment frequency is Weekly, Fortnightly or Monthly. Scheduled payment is the amount the lender asks for each time. First payment on is the first payment under these terms, and Starts is the day the terms begin. Fixed term ends is the last day of a fixed rate, when the term has one.
3. Who is responsible, What the loan paid for and Offset accounts. The next two sections explain them.

The post interest only or principal and interest compares the two repayment types.

A loan has four sets of shares. Each set adds up to 100% on its own, because the person who owes, the person who pays and the person who claims can differ.

• Borrowers: each legal owner's share of what is legally owed. Split equally shares it evenly, and Custom lets you type each share.
• Payments: each owner's share of the repayments. Use borrower shares for repayments copies the borrower shares.
• What the loan paid for: one loan use for each Purpose. Purpose is Property, with the property it bought, Other investment, Private spending or Not sure. Choose Not sure rather than guess. Add loan use adds another, and each use then asks for its Balance used. The uses must add up to the loan balance.
• Interest claims: each owner's share of the interest on a Property or Other investment use. Private spending and Not sure have none.

The Mitchells are an example household we use to explain. Their home loan is owed half each by Daniel and Emma, who each pay half. Its one use is Private spending, for the Mitchell home, so no one claims its interest. The Armadale loan is Daniel's alone, its use is Property for the Armadale house, and Daniel claims 100% of its interest.

From 10 August 2026, an SMSF can borrow only to buy business real property. A loan an SMSF is responsible for, used for a property bought from that day, is refused. A property marked Not a residential dwelling can still be bought with a loan.

An offset is a cash account linked to a loan. Its cash lowers the balance interest is charged on, the debt after offsets Debt after offsets Balance less linked offset cash. Interest is charged on this amount. The offset cash stays as cash and does not repay the loan. . The cash stays yours as cash. It does not repay the loan.

On Add loan, tick This loan has an offset account, then tick each account. On Edit loan, the accounts are under Offset accounts. An account can be linked only when every owner of it is a borrower on the loan. Otherwise the panel says No cash account is held only by this loan's borrowers, as at the balance date. With no cash account at all, it says Record a cash account before linking an offset.

The Mitchell home loan's balance is $445,000. The Mitchell offset holds $332,763, so the debt after offsets is $112,237. The offset saves $1,580 of interest a month on average, which leaves $560 a month to pay in interest.

The loan's page lists each offset under Offset links, with the date it was linked, such as From 30 June 2021. Correct link date changes that date. Recorded balances do not change. The post what an offset account does follows the offset through the position and the cashflow.

The header has Watch the guide and Add loan. Loan position starts with Balance, Linked offsets and Debt after offsets for every current loan. Here they are for the Mitchells as at 4 October 2026.

• Debt by loan draws each loan's debt after offsets on one scale. Beside it are the Monthly interest, Monthly principal and Monthly payment of all the loans, and the Monthly offset saving. For the Mitchells they are $6,089, $5,138, $11,227 and $1,580.
• Balance by borrowing use shows when a loan has more than one use.
• Claimable interest splits the year's interest into Claimable and Private, with Claimable interest by legal owner. Section 6 explains it.
• What to record shows only when a loan needs a record, with a link that fixes it.

Loan records has one card per loan. Its first line says what it funds, when it matures and who owes it, such as Funds Armadale house · Matures 30 June 2049 · Owed by Daniel Mitchell. The card shows the Interest rate, the Scheduled payment, the Balance, the Linked offsets and the Debt after offsets. An interest-only loan shows its Payment frequency in place of a scheduled payment. Each card has Record the payout, Edit, Compare a refinance and Record balance. Show chooses Current loans, Closed loans or All loans.

Interest is worked out at each payment. It is the debt after offsets at that time, times the rate in force, divided by the number of payments a year. The rest of the payment repays the balance. On an interest-only loan the payment is all interest, so the balance stays the same.

The balance shown is the latest recorded balance, less the principal in the scheduled payments since. The Armadale loan's balance was $225,400 on 30 June 2026. The July, August and September payments repaid $1,255 of principal, so on 4 October 2026 the balance is $224,145.

The monthly figures are an average month of the financial year. The page carries the loan through 2026-27 from its balance on 30 June 2026, adds up the interest and the principal, and divides by 12. The Armadale loan's year has $13,585 of interest and $5,135 of principal, at 6.09% and $1,560 a month.

These figures come from the recorded terms, not from bank transactions. If your statement differs, record its balance, as section 8 explains.

Interest can be claimed only on a loan use whose Purpose is Property or Other investment, and only by the owners recorded under Interest claims, at their shares. Interest on Private spending or Not sure is never claimable. The claim is the interest charged after any offset, not what it would have been without it.

Here is the Mitchells' interest for 2026-27.

The $6,722 private part is the Mitchell home loan's interest. Claimable interest by legal owner shows who claims the rest: Emma $24,086 on the Frankston loan, Mitchell Holdings Pty Ltd $17,815, Daniel $13,585 and the Mitchell Family Trust $10,863.

Money redrawn from a loan for private spending is a new borrowing for private use, and its interest is not claimable. Record it as a second loan use with its own Balance used. A use with something missing reads Needs the borrowing use records.

PropRetire does not check your statements or transactions. The estimate is general information, not tax or credit advice, and does not replace a registered tax agent.

Select a loan's name to open its page. The header has Record the payout, Edit loan and Record balance. Position starts with Balance, Linked offsets and Debt after offsets, then Compare a refinance, which opens Refinance on this loan.

Balance to maturity charts the balances you recorded, then the balance projected from the last one. Beside it, Loan cost lists the monthly figures and what the loan costs from today if the current terms continue.

• Repaid by is the first 1 July the projected balance is $0. The Armadale loan matures on 30 June 2049 but is repaid by 1 July 2048.
• Interest to maturity is the interest in every scheduled payment from today.
• Principal to maturity is the balance those payments repay.
• Payments to maturity adds the two.

A linked offset changes these. It keeps today's balance until the next 1 July. After that it holds what your saved retirement plan's Keep everything strategy has in it on each 1 July, or today's balance where no saved retirement plan runs. The Mitchell home loan matures in 2042, but with its offset it is repaid by 1 July 2035, with $4,375 of interest to maturity.

Interest and principal by year charts each financial year's split. Then come Use and tax treatment, or Responsibility and use for a shared loan, with each owner's share of the balance and what they pay a month. Recorded terms lists every set of terms, newest first. Offset links ends the page.

Choose Record balance on the loan's card or page. Enter the Balance from the lender and its As at date. The dialog says The latest balance is as at a date, and a new balance must be dated after it. With more than one use, it asks for each use's balance. Once saved, the page says Balance recorded.

From the latest balance, the scheduled payments carry it forward, so a loan balance does not go out of date as it ages. Record a new one when a statement shows a different figure. In Edit loan, Current balance lists every recorded balance. Only the latest can be changed, or you can add one with a later date.

Some results need a balance from before the first one recorded. What to record then offers Record earlier balance. Enter the earlier Balance and As at date from the lender, and tick I confirm these current loan facts also applied on the earlier as-at date. It adds the earlier record and leaves the current balance unchanged. If the loan already has a balance early enough, the page says An earlier balance is already recorded.

Each change the lender makes is a new term. In Edit loan, open Contract terms and choose Add term. Enter the new rate, repayment type, payment and the day it Starts. The term before it ends the day before.

The Armadale loan has two terms.

When a fixed term or an interest-only term ends within 90 days, Setup lists it under Ending within 90 days, with Compare a refinance. Once a fixed term has ended with no newer term, the loan needs a newer figure, and What to record asks for it with Record the loan term. The post when your fixed rate ends explains what changes.

Choose Record the payout on the loan's card or page. It opens with Check the loan record first, with Review loan record, because the payout reuses the loan's balance and shares on that day. Have the lender's discharge statement to hand.

1. Payout date, the day the lender confirms the loan was paid in full. The form then loads the balance owing that day.
2. Lender statement reference, Balance before payment, Final interest and Lender fees, from the statement. Balance before payment starts at the recorded balance less the principal scheduled since.
3. Each cash account that paid, with the Amount paid and a Payment evidence reference. Add cash account adds another. Funding difference must be $0.
4. Who paid this payout, and for each use, the final interest each claimant claims. These start at the loan's recorded shares.
5. Tick I confirm these payout details, and that the loan and its linked records end on the payout date. Then save.

The loan moves to Closed loans, and its page shows the recorded payout. Here is the Parramatta loan's, paid from its unit's sale on 15 March 2024.

Daniel and Emma each paid $244,875, and each claims $700 of the final interest. A loan repaid from a sale is paid out in the property's Record the sale.

Edit loan shows Details open and every other part as a closed panel with its answer, such as 5.84% · Principal and interest · 3 terms. Open only what you change, then Save loan.

Delete loan, at the foot of Edit loan, asks first. It deletes the loan with all of its balances, terms, shares and purposes. Every result, past years included, then reads as if it was never borrowed. A loan that was paid out keeps its history by recording the payout instead.

A closed loan cannot be edited or deleted. It stays in history, and Correct the payout changes it. A correction asks for a Correction reason and keeps the earlier version. Complete the payout finishes a closed loan that has no payout recorded.

A missing record is never read as zero. The page says what to add.

• With only closed loans, Loan position says No current debt.
• A loan with no terms says No terms recorded, with Edit loan.
• Current terms need more records, Projected balance needs more records and Interest tax treatment needs more records each list the record to add, with a link.
• A Not sure purpose is never claimable until you choose the real one.
• A loan past its maturity date says Record the payout to close it.

Setup lists every record a result is waiting on. Records that need a newer figure says when a loan's terms need updating.