English · دری Dari
An Afghan mortgage broker for Sydney
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 NSW
In New South Wales the number that matters is $800,000
An eligible first home buyer in New South Wales pays no transfer duty on a home worth up to $800,000, new or established. Between $800,000 and $1 million you pay a concessional rate that phases in gradually rather than switching on all at once.
Buying land to build on runs on separate numbers. Full exemption up to $350,000, concession between $350,000 and $450,000. In a lot of western Sydney that gap between the house threshold and the land threshold is the whole decision.
These are Revenue NSW thresholds and they move, so check revenue.nsw.gov.au or take your own advice before you commit. Where we help is working out what it does to your deposit and what you can actually borrow, and whether sitting just under a threshold is worth it.
Being honest about it
We are not in Sydney, and it has not mattered
Exceed Finance is based in Melbourne. We are not going to pretend to have a Sydney 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 Sydney 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.
14,623 people in New South Wales were born in Afghanistan
2021 Census, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Most of Sydney's Afghan community is in the west, around Auburn, Merrylands, Granville and out through Blacktown.
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 New South Wales?
Eligible first home buyers pay no transfer duty on a home valued up to $800,000, whether it is new or established, and a concessional rate between $800,000 and $1 million. Vacant land has its own thresholds. Full exemption applies up to $350,000, with a concession between $350,000 and $450,000. This is the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme, administered by Revenue NSW, and the thresholds change, so confirm your position with them or your own adviser. We can tell you what it means for the deposit you need and the price range that actually works.
Is there a Dari-speaking mortgage broker for Sydney?
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 Sydney 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 Sydney
Clients across Greater Sydney
Most of Sydney's Afghan community is in the west, around Auburn, Merrylands, Granville and out through Blacktown. We work with clients right across Greater Sydney and the rest of New South Wales, and everything is done by phone, video and secure upload.
- Auburn
- Merrylands
- Granville
- Guildford
- Blacktown
- Lidcombe
- Parramatta
- Liverpool
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.