English · دری Dari
An Afghan mortgage broker for Adelaide
Shaheera is Afghan, speaks Dari, and spent more than twenty years inside Australian banking before starting Exceed Finance. Most of the families she has helped into their homes are Afghan. She is based in Melbourne and works with clients right across Australia, so if it is easier to have this conversation in Dari, you can.
Why it matters
Nobody should be buying a home through a translator
Plenty of people manage everyday English perfectly well and still find a loan contract hard going. Offset versus redraw, lenders mortgage insurance, comparison rates, what a lender actually means by "genuine savings". These are not everyday words in any language.
What usually happens is that a son or daughter comes along to translate. They do their best, but they are translating terms they have never had to use themselves, on the biggest financial decision the family will make. Details get lost. Questions people are embarrassed to ask never get asked at all.
You can just ask Shaheera directly instead, in Dari, and take as long as you need. There is no cost for the conversation and no obligation at the end of it.
- Twenty years of Australian lending experience, including senior roles at ANZ
- 35+ lenders compared, not one bank's product range
- Free to you on residential home loans, with everything disclosed in writing
Rated 5.0 from 25 reviews
Families trust Exceed Finance for plain, honest advice, with no jargon and no pressure.
What you get
Straight answers, in your language
Shaheera speaks Dari and has spent more than twenty years in Australian lending, including senior roles at ANZ. Our service is free to you on residential home loans and everything is disclosed in writing.
Buying in SA
South Australia scrapped stamp duty for first home buyers on a new home
Since June 2023, an eligible first home buyer in South Australia pays no stamp duty at all on a new home, and unlike almost everywhere else in the country there is no property price cap on it. That is the most generous first home setting in Australia and a lot of people still do not know it exists.
There is also a First Home Owner Grant of $15,000 for building or buying a new home, and you can receive both on the same purchase. The word doing the heavy lifting in all of this is new. An established house is treated differently, which changes the maths on what you should be looking at.
Both are set by RevenueSA and the rules change, so check revenuesa.sa.gov.au or get your own advice before you sign anything. What we can do is tell you what it means for your deposit and your borrowing power, which is usually the real question underneath.
Being honest about it
We are not in Adelaide, and it has not mattered
Exceed Finance is based in Melbourne. We are not going to pretend to have an Adelaide office, because we do not have one and you would find out.
What we do have is a credit licence that covers all of Australia, a panel of 35+ lenders who all lend nationally, and a process that has been done by phone, video and secure document upload for years. Nobody needs to sit across a desk from anybody for a loan to settle. The week this page was written, someone in Adelaide rang us about buying a property interstate, which is exactly the kind of thing that gets easier with a broker who is not tied to one city.
Brokers near you are not in short supply. There are hundreds of them. What is genuinely hard to find is one who can explain a fixed rate lock or a guarantor structure to your mother in Dari, without anybody having to translate it for her.
8,214 people in South Australia were born in Afghanistan
2021 Census, Australian Bureau of Statistics. A lot of Adelaide's Afghan community settled around Blair Athol and Enfield in the northern suburbs, and has spread out from there ever since.
Where we can usually help most
The situations that come up again and again
Deposit help from family
Gifted deposits are normal and lenders accept them, but they want it documented a particular way. We set it up properly from the start.
Casual, shift and second-job income
Lenders treat irregular income very differently from one another. Matching your pattern to the right lender is often the whole difference.
Visa and residency questions
Rules vary by lender and visa subclass. Worth knowing where you stand before an application leaves a mark on your credit file.
Larger households
Dependants and household size change your borrowing power more than most people expect. We work out the real number first.
Simple from start to finish
How it works from anywhere in Australia
Free chat
Phone or video, in English or Dari. We work out your goals and what you can actually borrow.
We compare
We search 35+ lenders and shortlist the ones that fit your situation and your state.
We apply
Documents come in by secure upload. We package and submit it, and chase it for you.
Settlement
We see it through to approval, and stay in touch afterwards.
Common questions
Questions we get asked a lot
Do first home buyers pay stamp duty in South Australia?
Not on a new home, if you are eligible. Since June 2023 South Australia has abolished stamp duty for eligible first home buyers buying or building a new home, with no property price cap, and there is a separate $15,000 First Home Owner Grant available on the same purchase. Established homes are treated differently. RevenueSA sets the rules and they do change, so confirm your position with them or with your own adviser before committing. We can tell you how it changes the deposit you actually need.
Is there a Dari-speaking mortgage broker for Adelaide?
Yes. Shaheera at Exceed Finance is Afghan and speaks Dari. She is based in Melbourne and licensed to work with clients anywhere in Australia, so she looks after Adelaide clients by phone, video and secure upload. You can go through deposits, borrowing power, contracts and the whole loan process in Dari instead of having a family member translate it for you.
Can I get a home loan in Australia on a temporary or partner visa?
Sometimes, and it depends on both the lender and your visa subclass. Some lenders will not lend to temporary residents at all. Others will, usually with a larger deposit. Permanent residents are generally treated like citizens by most lenders, so if permanent residency is close, timing can matter more than which lender you pick. There is a separate question about whether you are allowed to buy the property at all, which is covered below. Worth sorting out before you walk into a bank branch, because a declined application leaves a mark on your credit file.
Do I need FIRB approval, and can I still buy an established house?
If you are not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, you count as a foreign person under the foreign investment rules, and that includes most temporary visa holders. Two things follow. You generally have to notify the Australian Taxation Office before buying any residential property, whatever it costs. And between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2029, foreign persons are generally prohibited from buying established dwellings, with only limited exceptions. New and near-new dwellings, and off-the-plan purchases, are still open with approval. This is set by the Foreign Investment Review Board and administered by the ATO. It sits completely separate from your home loan, and the exceptions and fees change, so check foreigninvestment.gov.au or get your own advice before you sign anything.
My parents want to help with my deposit. Will the lender accept that?
Usually yes. Most lenders accept a gifted deposit from family, but they will want a signed letter confirming it is a gift and not a loan, and many want the money sitting in your account for a period before settlement. Some also want to see genuine savings alongside it. It is very common among our clients and it is manageable, as long as it is set up properly rather than explained after the fact.
I work casual shifts and some of my income is irregular. Can I still borrow?
Often yes. Lenders treat casual, shift, overtime and second-job income very differently. Some will use it after six months in a role, others want twelve, and some count only a portion of it. Matching your income pattern to a lender that accepts it is a large part of the job, and it is a common reason an application knocked back at one bank gets approved somewhere else.
Do you charge for this?
Our service is free to you on residential home loans. Everything is disclosed to you in writing before you commit to anything, and as a licensed credit representative we operate under Best Interests Duty, which legally requires us to act in your interests rather than our own.
Around Adelaide
Clients across Greater Adelaide
A lot of Adelaide's Afghan community settled around Blair Athol and Enfield in the northern suburbs, and has spread out from there ever since. We work with clients right across Greater Adelaide and the rest of South Australia, and everything is done by phone, video and secure upload.
- Blair Athol
- Enfield
- Prospect
- Salisbury
- Elizabeth
- Port Adelaide
- Mawson Lakes
- Munno Para
Looking for another city?
Have the conversation in your own language
Tell us where you are up to and we will tell you honestly where you stand. Free, and no obligation either way.