Refinance, restructure, or pull equity.

Refinances assessed under APRA's 'genuine refinance' carve-out can use a tighter buffer (down to +1% in some cases) than new lending, opening up better rates for existing borrowers. The shift came with APRA's 2022 prudential update; most major banks apply it automatically when LVR is ≤80%.

Cashback offers ($2-5K typical) are structured as upfront payments against settlement. They don't reduce ongoing rate. Run the cashback-vs-rate-differential math: a 0.1% rate gap on a $700K loan is $700/year, so a $3K cashback is recovered in ~4 years. Worth it if you stay; not if you'll refinance again in 2 years.

What we model: equity-pull capacity at 80% LVR cap, cashflow impact of new rate vs old, fixed-vs-variable break-cost on existing fixed loan, and the LMI-clawback if you fall below 80% LVR via aggressive equity-pull.