Australian Expats in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman: Home Loans and Refinancing for Property in Australia (2026)
Yes. Australian citizens and permanent residents working in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman can refinance an Australian home loan, or buy property in Australia, without flying home. A salary paid in Kuwaiti dinars, Bahraini dinars or Omani rials is converted to Australian dollars at the rate on the day, shaded, and then taxed on paper at Australian resident rates in brackets, with the 47 per cent top rate touching only the slice above $190,000.
- Who: Australian citizens and permanent visa holders in Kuwait City, Manama, Muscat or anywhere else in the three countries; the Australian Government lists both as needing no foreign investment application. Everstone Finance arranges loans for property in Australia only, run by a former banker in Melbourne.
- The salary: converted at the rate you enter on the day, because the Reserve Bank does not publish the dinar or the rial, shaded at around 70 per cent as a currency outside the published lists, then run through the Australian brackets at every lender. None of the three is on the first tier lists or in the zero tax setting one lender gives UAE dirham and Saudi riyal income, so the file is case by case, usually with a larger deposit.
- Refinance first: the loan you left behind is re-run on your Gulf package, identity is certified where you live, documents are signed electronically and settlement completes on PEXA, four to six weeks in a normal case.
- Documents: payslips, the employment contract, bank statements showing the salary credits and your residence permit. No personal income tax return exists in Kuwait, Bahrain or, until 2028, Oman, so those four items carry the file.
- The clock: Kuwait City and Manama sit seven to eight hours behind Melbourne and Muscat six to seven, depending on Australian daylight saving. A call before your workday reaches Melbourne mid afternoon.
Paid in dinars or rials, with a home in Australia or one in mind? A former banker reads the file, free.
Tell Ahmed which currency you are paid in, what you owe on the Australian property or the price you are looking at, and the deposit you hold. You get the income a lender would count after the shade and the brackets, which lenders take your currency, and whether a refinance or a purchase comes first. Property in Australia only.
Check my Gulf file with a former bankerWho this page is for: Australians in Kuwait City, Manama and Muscat
This page is written for two groups. Australian citizens on a contract in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman, who either left a home loan behind in Australia or want to buy there while the Gulf years build the deposit. And permanent residents whose visa is current, accepted by the lenders that take overseas borrowers, generally at a lower ceiling against the property than a citizen and sometimes with a question about when they intend to return. Our Dubai, Riyadh and Doha guides add the dirham and riyal treatment; this page covers the three currencies they do not.
Most packages share a shape: a base salary paid monthly into a local bank account, a housing allowance in cash or in kind, and an end of service benefit that lands when you leave. A lender reads each piece differently, and the sections below set out how.
One line on scope. We arrange home loans for property in Australia only. Finance from a bank in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman, for anything, is outside our work.
How a lender reads a dinar or rial salary
Conversion. The salary is turned into Australian dollars at a reference rate on the day the file is assessed. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s daily exchange rate table, read for 9 October 2026, does not include the Kuwaiti dinar, the Bahraini dinar or the Omani rial, because the Bank stops publishing a currency once it leaves its trade weighted index. So there is no official Australian reference rate to quote here; the rate is entered on the day from your bank or a converter.
Shading. The lender counts a share of the converted figure, not all of it, as a margin for currency movement and for income it cannot test as closely as an Australian payslip. A currency on a lender’s published list is commonly counted at 80 per cent of gross. The dinar and the rial are not on the lists we work from, so they start at around 70 per cent and the exact share is decided file by file once the lender has read the employer, the contract and the statements. That is what case by case means, and it usually comes with a larger deposit than a listed currency would need.
Tax in brackets. Your dinars or rials carry no income tax at home. An Australian lender models Australian income tax on the counted amount anyway, exactly as a resident on that salary would be taxed: nil on the first $18,200, then 15, 30 and 37 per cent through the bands, 45 per cent on the slice above $190,000, plus the 2 per cent Medicare levy. The top rate of 47 per cent is applied to the top slice only, never to the whole salary.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Package converted on the day | $300,000 |
| Counted after a 70 per cent shade | $210,000 |
| Nil on the first $18,200 | $0 |
| 15 per cent on $18,201 to $45,000 | $4,020 |
| 30 per cent on $45,001 to $135,000 | $27,000 |
| 37 per cent on $135,001 to $190,000 | $20,350 |
| 45 per cent on the $20,000 above $190,000 | $9,000 |
| Medicare levy, 2 per cent of $210,000 | $4,200 |
| Notional Australian tax modelled | $64,570 |
| Income the lender works from | $145,430 a year, about $12,119 a month |
The last line is the income the lender works from, before living expenses, dependants and other commitments come off it. If a lender settles on 80 per cent for your file, it starts from $240,000 and the brackets run the same way. What no lender does with these three currencies is skip the tax line.
Why Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman income does not get the zero tax treatment
Here is where the Dubai and Riyadh story stops. One lender, a major bank owned lender under a recent change, applies the top income tax rate of the source country as a flat figure to a short list of currencies instead of the Australian brackets. For the UAE dirham and the Saudi riyal that rate is zero, so a Dubai or Riyadh salary is counted at that lender with no tax line at all. The Kuwaiti dinar, the Bahraini dinar and the Omani rial are not on that list. They sit outside it, as they sit outside the first tier lists, and at every lender they are assessed under the Australian brackets model above.
The setting does not follow the tax rate of the country; it follows the lender’s list, and the zero rate on that list is UAE and Saudi only at the time of writing; we confirm it on the day rather than assume it. If part of your package is paid in US dollars, as some Gulf contracts are, ask us whether that portion can be read in its own currency with its own shade; where a lender does, it is the biggest lift available to a Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman file.
Refinancing your Australian home loan from the Gulf
If you own in Australia already, the refinance is the first move, and for most of our Gulf files it is the whole move. The loan you left behind was assessed on an Australian salary that no longer exists and sits on a rate nobody has looked at since you flew out. A refinance re-runs the file on your dinar or rial package, moves the rate, and can release equity for the next purchase. Refinancing is the centre of what we do.
The process is the same six steps as any overseas refinance, all run from Kuwait City, Manama or Muscat: a conversation by phone or Zoom; the income assessment, the conversion, shade and brackets above, packaged for the lender; certified copies of your passport and licence; a valuation done in Australia; electronic signing of most loan documents from where you sit, with the mortgage witnessed as the lender directs; and settlement on PEXA, the national electronic settlement platform, which needs nobody in a branch. Allow four to six weeks from application to settlement in a normal case. The identity step is where a Gulf file runs long, so the embassy or notary appointment is booked the day the lender is confirmed.
Switching costs are the discharge fee on the old loan, the new lender’s setup and the government registration fees, set against the rate change on your balance over the years you expect to hold the loan. The identity rules and the equity release rules are in our guide to refinancing an Australian mortgage from overseas, and which lenders write an expat refinance, with the tiers they price in, is in expat home loan refinance lenders, options and rates.
Buying property in Australia from Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman
For a purchase the first fact is the easiest. The Australian Government’s residential real estate table lists Australian citizens living abroad and holders of Australian permanent residency visas as not required to apply for foreign investment approval, so the restriction on foreign persons buying established homes, which runs to 30 June 2029, does not reach you. A permanent resident living overseas should still have the conveyancer confirm the state position before exchange, because New South Wales applies a purchase surcharge to a permanent resident that turns on days spent in Australia; our expat investment property loan guide covers the three largest states.
The second fact is the deposit. Because the dinar and the rial are taken case by case, plan on a larger deposit than a dirham or dollar earner would be asked for, and treat the end of service benefit as savings once it has landed rather than as income the lender will count ahead of time. Whether the home will be rented until you return, which makes it an investment loan priced a step above an owner occupier loan, shapes the file, and the buying property in Australia from overseas hub walks the purchase city by city, with this page as its entry for the three countries.
Running your dinar or rial salary through the expat mortgage calculator
Our Australian expat mortgage calculator does the three steps above on your own figures, then returns an indicative repayment and borrowing figure. It lists fifteen currencies and prefills the exchange rate from the Reserve Bank table where the Bank publishes one. The Kuwaiti dinar, the Bahraini dinar and the Omani rial are not among the fifteen and have no prefill, so run it this way: pick any currency in the list, overwrite the rate field with the units of your currency per Australian dollar from your bank or a converter today, set the income counted field to 70, and leave the tax model on Australian brackets, because the source country rate option is written for the four currencies one lender treats that way, the dirham and the Saudi riyal at zero among them, and does not apply to you. The figure it returns is indicative, not a quote, and it is where we start the conversation.
Documents a Gulf file needs, and the tax return that does not exist
A lender verifying income from a country with a personal tax system asks for the tax return. Kuwait and Bahrain have no personal income tax and no return to file; Oman has none now and has legislated a tax to begin on 1 January 2028. So the usual third document is missing and the lender leans on the others harder. Have these ready:
- Payslips. Commonly the most recent three months, with base salary and each allowance on its own line, with an accredited translation if issued in Arabic only.
- The employment contract and its renewals, with the salary and allowances stated, and a recent salary certificate if the employer provides one.
- Bank statements for the account the salary lands in, usually three to six months, because the assessor matches each credit to the payslip. Housing paid directly by the employer needs explaining, so say so up front.
- Your residence permit and identity card, and your Australian passport, certified as described under each country below.
- The Australian side: the current loan statement for a refinance, rates and insurance on the property, and your Australian credit file, which lenders still read.
Lenders that take overseas income see the missing tax return every week; what they cannot do without is the statement trail, so a salary paid partly in cash is the one structure that genuinely costs borrowing power.
Three currencies off the lender lists. Know which lender takes yours before you apply.
A former banker runs your dinar or rial package through the lenders that accept it, settles the share each would count and the deposit each would want, and prices the refinance or the purchase at the tier your file fits. You get the figures in writing and a plain answer on whether it works.
Book a Gulf expat chat with a former bankerTime zones and calls
Kuwait and Bahrain keep the same clock and run seven hours behind Melbourne through the Australian winter and eight once Melbourne’s daylight saving is on, from early October to early April; Oman runs an hour closer, six and seven. None of the three moves its own clocks, so the gap changes only when Melbourne’s does. In practice, 7am in Kuwait City or Manama is 2pm or 3pm in Melbourne, 7am in Muscat is 1pm or 2pm, and a Gulf lunch hour lands in Melbourne’s evening. The working week in all three countries runs Sunday to Thursday, so your Friday morning, Melbourne’s Friday afternoon, is a quiet slot for a call. The booking page shows Ahmed’s slots in your local time.
Kuwait City: what differs
Residency. Your employer sponsors the residence permit, which Kuwait calls the iqama, and you hold the Civil ID card issued to every resident; a lender takes a copy of both beside the contract as evidence that you live and work in Kuwait. Pay. Salaries are paid monthly by bank transfer in dinars, usually with the housing allowance as a cash line, so the statement trail a lender wants is normally there. Oil and gas and the contractors around the state operators dominate the Australian community, with hospitals, universities, schools and the banks behind them. Certification. The Australian Embassy in Kuwait certifies copies of documents and witnesses signatures, by appointment only, Sunday to Thursday between 8am and 4pm, for documents that are Australian or for use in Australia, and its notarial fee from 1 March 2026 is $90 Australian for most acts, paid by card. That makes Kuwait the simplest of the three for the identity step.
Manama: what differs
Residency. The residence permit sits in your passport and you carry the identity card Bahrain issues to residents, widely called the CPR card; both go on the file. Pay. Manama’s packages lean on financial services, with banks, insurers and fund managers employing many of the Australians there, alongside the aluminium and oil industries, hospitals and schools. A bonus line is often shaded harder than the base, or left out, so set the base figure first. Certification. Australia has no embassy in Bahrain. Consular cover comes from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh, which is accredited to Bahrain; its notarial page makes clear it is not a notary public or a JP, and it will handle posted documents, allowing roughly seven working days for the round trip. In practice most Manama files use a local notary public or lawyer where the lender accepts one, and we confirm the lender’s witness rules in writing before anything is signed.
Muscat: what differs
Residency. You hold the Omani resident card, with the employer as sponsor, and a lender takes a copy beside the contract. Pay. The Australian community in Oman is heavy with oil and gas, liquefied natural gas, ports and logistics, mining, and the engineering firms behind the infrastructure programme, with universities, schools and hospitals alongside. Tax. Oman has legislated a personal income tax to start on 1 January 2028, at 5 per cent on annual income above 42,000 rials, according to the summary we read today. The Australian brackets model applies to the counted amount either way. Certification. As for Bahrain, the Australian Embassy in Riyadh is accredited to the Sultanate of Oman and works by appointment or by mail; a local notary public or lawyer is the usual route for a Muscat file where the lender accepts one.
What happens after you book
The first conversation is thirty minutes by phone or Zoom with Ahmed Lotfi, a former banker, in a slot that fits a Gulf morning. Bring the currency, the gross package and the loan or purchase you have in mind. You leave with the converted, shaded and taxed figure a lender would work from, the lenders that take your currency, the deposit a purchase would need or the equity a refinance could release, and the identity route for your city. If the numbers work we start the file the same week; if not, you will know what changes them, a US dollar portion of the package where a lender reads it separately, a larger deposit or a second borrower. The lender pays us on settlement. For the neighbouring countries, read our guides for Dubai and the UAE, Riyadh and Saudi Arabia and Doha and Qatar, and for the whole picture of tiers and ceilings, Australian expat home loans.
Frequently asked questions
Can an Australian living in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman get a home loan in Australia?
Yes. Australian citizens and holders of a permanent visa who live and work in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman can refinance an Australian home loan or borrow to buy property in Australia from where they live. The lender converts the dinar or rial salary to Australian dollars, counts a share of it, models Australian income tax on that share in brackets, and then assesses the loan as it would for any borrower. Identity is certified in the Gulf, documents are signed electronically and settlement completes in Australia on PEXA, so no flight home is needed.
Does an Australian lender tax a Kuwaiti dinar, Bahraini dinar or Omani rial salary?
On paper, yes, at every lender. Kuwait and Bahrain levy no personal income tax and Oman levies none until 2028, but an Australian lender models Australian resident income tax on the counted share of the salary in brackets, as a resident on that income would be taxed, with the 47 per cent top rate applied only to the slice above 190,000 dollars. The zero tax treatment that one lender gives UAE dirham and Saudi riyal income does not extend to the dinar or the rial.
Why do UAE and Saudi salaries get the zero tax setting when Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman salaries do not?
Because the setting belongs to one lender and to a short list of currencies, not to the Gulf as a region. Under a recent change one major bank owned lender applies the top income tax rate of the source country flat to a handful of currencies, and that rate is zero for the UAE dirham and the Saudi riyal. The Kuwaiti dinar, the Bahraini dinar and the Omani rial are not on that list at the time of writing, so they are assessed under the Australian brackets model at every lender, and they sit outside the first tier currency lists as well, which means a case by case assessment and usually a larger deposit.
Can I refinance my Australian mortgage while working in the Gulf?
Yes, and for most Australians in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman it is the first move. The new lender re-runs the file on the Gulf package, certified copies of your passport are made at the Australian Embassy in Kuwait or through a notary in Bahrain or Oman, the loan documents are signed electronically, a valuation is done in Australia and settlement completes on PEXA. Allow four to six weeks from application to settlement in a normal case, with the identity step the one that most often runs long.
Do I need foreign investment approval to buy in Australia from Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman?
No, if you are an Australian citizen or you hold an Australian permanent residency visa. The Australian Government residential real estate table lists both as not required to apply, so the restriction on foreign persons buying established homes that runs to 30 June 2029 does not apply to you. A permanent resident living overseas should still have the conveyancer confirm the state surcharge position, which in New South Wales turns on days spent in Australia.
What documents do lenders ask for when there is no tax return in Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman?
Payslips, commonly the most recent three months, the employment contract with its renewals, bank statements for the account the salary is paid into so the credits can be matched to the payslips, and your residence permit and identity card. Anything issued only in Arabic needs an accredited English translation. Because there is no personal income tax return in these countries, the payslips and the statement trail carry the income side of the file, and a salary paid partly in cash is the structure that costs the most borrowing power.
Sources
- Australian Government, Foreign investment in Australia, Residential real estate: table “When an application is not required” listing Australian citizens living abroad, New Zealand citizens who hold or are eligible for a special category visa, and holders of Australian permanent residency visas as not required to apply: foreigninvestment.gov.au; Residential land guidance (from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029 foreign investors are generally prohibited from purchasing established dwellings): foreigninvestment.gov.au, both read 10 October 2026
- Reserve Bank of Australia, Exchange rates, daily table with the 9 October 2026 column (the Kuwaiti dinar, Bahraini dinar, Omani rial, UAE dirham and Saudi riyal are not published; the Bank notes that currencies removed from the trade weighted index no longer have their exchange rate data published): rba.gov.au, read 10 October 2026
- Australian Taxation Office, Tax rates for Australian residents, resident tax rates 2026 to 27 (nil to $18,200; 15c to $45,000; $4,020 plus 30c to $135,000; $31,020 plus 37c to $190,000; $51,370 plus 45c above), rates exclusive of the 2 per cent Medicare levy: ato.gov.au, read 10 October 2026. The worked example on this page applies those brackets and the levy to a counted figure; it is our arithmetic and an illustration, not an assessment.
- Australian Embassy, Kuwait (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade): passport, consular and notarial services for Australians in Kuwait, operating hours Sunday to Thursday 8am to 4pm, notarial services by appointment only: kuwait.embassy.gov.au; Notarial services page (certifying copies of original documents, witnessing signatures, documents must be Australian or for use in Australia, most services AUD 90 from 1 March 2026, card payment in Australian dollars): kuwait.embassy.gov.au, both read 10 October 2026
- Australian Embassy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), also accredited to the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Yemen: saudiarabia.embassy.gov.au; Notarial services page (certifying copies, witnessing signatures, statutory declarations and affidavits, the Embassy does not act as a notary public or JP, work by mail takes approximately seven working days): saudiarabia.embassy.gov.au, both read 10 October 2026
- PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Individual taxes on personal income: Kuwait (“There is no personal income tax (PIT) imposed on individuals in Kuwait”, last reviewed 22 July 2026): taxsummaries.pwc.com; Bahrain (“There is no personal income tax (PIT) regime in Bahrain”, last reviewed 26 July 2026): taxsummaries.pwc.com; Oman (personal income tax effective 1 January 2028, 5 per cent above an annual threshold of 42,000 Omani rials, last reviewed 7 July 2026): taxsummaries.pwc.com, all read 10 October 2026
- Time differences computed from the IANA time zone database for Asia/Kuwait, Asia/Bahrain, Asia/Muscat and Australia/Melbourne for July 2026, October 2026 and January 2027; Melbourne daylight saving runs from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April.
- PEXA, the national electronic conveyancing platform on which settlement completes: pexa.com.au, read 10 October 2026
- Lender positions on foreign income as confirmed by Everstone Finance on 3 and 10 October 2026: 80 per cent of a gross salary counted for a currency on a lender’s published list and around 70 per cent as the starting share for a currency outside those lists, decided file by file; Australian income tax modelled on the counted amount in brackets at most lenders; one major bank owned lender applying the source country top rate flat to a short list of currencies under a recent change, zero for the UAE dirham and the Saudi riyal, with the Kuwaiti dinar, Bahraini dinar and Omani rial not on that list; as set out on Australian expat home loans, the Australian expat mortgage calculator (fifteen currencies, Reserve Bank prefill where published) and Refinance your Australian mortgage from overseas (the six step remote process, four to six weeks in a normal case, consular or notary certification)