Victorian Teachers Strike (2026): While the Pay Fight Drags On, the Teacher Home Loan Deal Quietly Got Bigger
On Thursday 23 July, members of the Australian Education Union's Victorian branch are set to walk off the job for 24 hours, the second statewide strike this year in a pay dispute that has already seen teachers reject an offer of 28 to 32 per cent over four years. Up to 2,500 public schools could be affected. Whatever you think of the politics, the dispute is fundamentally about one thing: what a teacher's work is worth. Here is the part of that conversation nobody is covering this week. While the pay fight grinds on, one lender we work with has quietly reopened and expanded its LMI waiver for educators, and the expansion matters more than the headline: teachers no longer need to be first home buyers to use it. Up to 90 per cent lending with no LMI premium, on loans up to $1.5 million, for an owner-occupied purchase. If you are a teacher who already owns and assumed the good deals ended with your first home, this piece, written by former bankers, is for you.
- AEU Victorian members are set to strike for 24 hours on Thursday 23 July, after rejecting a 28 to 32 per cent pay offer in June. The parties are due back at the table on 31 July.
- Meanwhile, a select lender has brought back its educator LMI waiver with wider eligibility: up to 90 per cent lending, no LMI premium, loans up to $1.5 million.
- The big change: you no longer need to be a first home buyer. Upgrading to your next owner-occupied home now qualifies.
- Only one borrower needs to work in education or healthcare, and the waiver typically keeps $15,000 to $30,000 of LMI in your pocket.
- Criteria and credit assessment apply, and offers like this change. Book a chat with a former banker and we will tell you plainly whether you fit.
What is happening on Thursday
AEU Victorian branch members are set to stop work for 24 hours on Thursday 23 July 2026, alongside a renewed ban on unpaid overtime, after members rejected an in-principle deal offering 28 to 32 per cent over four years. It is the second statewide strike this year, and the parties are due to meet again on 31 July.
The dispute has been building all year. In March, Victorian public school teachers, principals and education support staff held what was reported as their first statewide strike in over a decade, with roughly 35,000 participating. In May the union reached an in-principle agreement with the state government offering pay rises of 28 to 32 per cent over four years plus additional student-free days, a deal the government said would have made Victorian teachers the best paid in the country. In June, members voted it down anyway.
The union's case is not only about the headline percentage. The AEU points to workload, claiming its members average 12 hours of unpaid overtime every week, and is seeking an enforceable cap on face-to-face teaching hours alongside the pay claim. Thursday's 24-hour stoppage, which could affect up to 2,500 public schools, comes with a renewed ban on unpaid overtime, and the two sides are expected back at the table on 31 July, or earlier if a revised offer lands.
We are a mortgage brokerage, not an industrial umpire, so we will leave the merits to the parties. But the whole dispute turns on a question we deal with every day from the other side of the desk: what is a teacher's income worth? And on that question, this week, there is genuine news.
The quiet expansion in teacher lending
A select lender has brought back its LMI waiver for educators and healthcare workers with expanded eligibility: lending up to 90 per cent of the property value with no LMI premium payable, loan sizes up to $1.5 million, for owner-occupied purchases, with only one borrower needing to work in education or healthcare. Criteria and credit assessment apply.
While the pay negotiations stalled, the lending side of the ledger moved. A select lender we work with has reopened its LMI waiver for the education and healthcare professions, and widened who can use it. The current shape of the offer:
- Borrow up to 90 per cent of the property value with no LMI premium payable, a cost that normally runs $15,000 to $30,000 at that deposit level.
- Loan sizes up to $1.5 million, which covers a genuine family home in most of Melbourne, not just a starter apartment.
- Owner-occupied purchases of an established or completed property, lived in as your principal place of residence.
- Only one borrower on the loan needs to be employed in education or healthcare. A teacher married to a tradie, an analyst or anyone else still qualifies.
Why does a lender do this while teacher pay is contested on the front page? Because credit teams read teachers the way we described in our full guide to home loans for teachers: permanent employment, award-backed pay, superannuation, and some of the most reliable repayment behaviour of any profession. Strike or no strike, that is a borrower lenders compete for. The same logic covers nurses and other healthcare workers, covered in our guide to home loans for nurses, and the broader landscape of profession-based waivers is mapped in our LMI waiver guide for professionals. Nurses are already on the other side of this line: their rises are landing now, as our nurses pay analysis covers.
One policy note before the details: we do not name lenders in public content. Offers like this are lender-specific, they change without notice, and knowing which lender runs which policy this quarter is precisely the value a broker brings. What we can do is confirm your fit against the live criteria in one conversation.
The change that matters: it is no longer first home buyers only
Profession-based LMI waivers have often been pitched at first home buyers. This offer now covers any qualifying owner-occupied purchase, which makes it most valuable to teachers buying their next home: the upgraders who fall outside the government's 5 per cent deposit scheme and assumed full LMI was the price of moving.
Here is the detail that makes this news rather than a repeat of what you already knew. Teacher lending perks have traditionally clustered around the first purchase, and the government's Home Guarantee Scheme reinforced that pattern: generous help at the entry point, then nothing. This offer inverts it. Borrowers no longer need to be first home buyers. In fact, the offer is explicitly built for people who are not eligible for the government's 5 per cent deposit scheme; if you qualify for the government route, the lender expects you to use it instead.
Think about who that actually describes. A teacher couple who bought an apartment years ago, outgrew it, and now need the house near the school they both work at. A leading teacher or assistant principal whose income has climbed past the entry-level bracket. A teacher whose family is upgrading and whose deposit, after selling costs, lands at 10 or 12 per cent of the next purchase rather than 20. That household has historically faced a blunt choice: wait and save to 20 per cent, or hand a five-figure LMI premium to an insurer for a policy that protects the bank, not them. The expanded waiver removes that choice for a qualifying purchase: 10 per cent deposit, no LMI, up to $1.5 million of lending.
It is worth saying plainly: this is the segment the market has ignored. Endless attention goes to first home buyers, and almost none to the teacher in their thirties or forties making the one move that actually defines family life. If that is you, this is your window, while it is open.
What it is worth in dollars
On a 90 per cent lend, the waived LMI premium typically lands between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on price and loan size. Separately, if the pay dispute ends in a rise, every $10,000 of additional annual salary can support up to roughly $50,000 of extra lending under a debt-to-income cap of five, subject to full serviceability assessment.
Two sets of arithmetic, both indicative rather than quotes. First, the waiver itself. Lenders Mortgage Insurance on a 90 per cent lend is priced on the loan size and typically runs somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000 for the price range a Melbourne family home occupies. Under the waiver, that line item is simply not payable. It is the difference between a deposit that works and one that does not, and unlike a discount on rate, it is money you never hand over at all.
Second, the pay dispute's lending shadow. We make no prediction about where the negotiation lands. But it is worth understanding the mechanics: this offer carries a maximum debt-to-income ratio of five, meaning total debt can be up to five times household income. Run that forward: every $10,000 a year added to your pay can support up to roughly $50,000 of additional lending under that cap, subject to the lender's full serviceability assessment, which always governs. When a new agreement is eventually ratified and lands in your payslip, it will not just change your fortnight, it will change what a credit assessor can approve. Lenders assess the pay you can evidence today, so a settlement later this year flows into borrowing power as it hits your pay, not before.
Put the two together and the strike-week irony sharpens: while the public argument is about whether teachers are paid enough, the lending market has already priced teachers as premium borrowers, and is competing for them with offers most teachers have never heard of.
The money questions teachers are asking this week
Taking part in a one-day strike does not change how a lender assesses you: assessment runs on your base salary, permanent status and account conduct, not on a single day of deducted pay. And a future pay rise counts once it is ratified and visible in your pay, not while it is a claim.
Every time industrial action makes the news, the same quiet worries surface in our booking notes, so let us answer them directly.
Does striking hurt my home loan application? No. Lenders assess your employment status, base salary and account conduct. A day of deducted pay for industrial action does not change your permanent status or your award salary, and it is not something an assessor is combing your payslip to find. What matters is the shape of your income across months, not one Thursday.
Should I wait for the pay deal before buying? That is a strategy conversation, not a one-liner, but the honest framing is this: a rise that has not been ratified adds nothing to your file today, while the waiver exists today and lender offers change without notice. If the right home appears this spring, you buy it with the borrowing power you can currently evidence. If the deal lands first, your capacity improves and we reassess. Waiting for certainty on pay while an uncertain offer expires is not automatically the safe option; sometimes it is the expensive one.
Does unpaid overtime count? The union says its members average 12 hours of it a week, and the credit answer is blunt: unpaid work is invisible to a lender. Which is exactly why profession-based waivers matter, they are the one place the system pays teachers a premium for being teachers, rather than asking for more evidence.
Who fits, and what is excluded
Best fit: teachers and healthcare workers, or couples where one borrower is, buying an established or completed home to live in, with roughly a 10 per cent deposit and genuine savings, total debts within five times income, and a purchase outside the government's 5 per cent deposit scheme. Excluded: construction lending, refinances, debt consolidation and cash out.
The honest checklist, in plain language:
| Works under the offer | Outside the offer |
|---|---|
| Owner-occupied purchase of an established or completed property, as your principal place of residence | Construction lending and house-and-land builds |
| At least one borrower employed in education or healthcare | Refinancing an existing loan, debt consolidation, or cash out |
| Lending up to 90 per cent of the value, loans up to $1.5 million, no LMI premium | Investment purchases |
| Genuine savings and total debts within five times household income | Buyers eligible for the government's 5 per cent deposit Home Guarantee Scheme, who are expected to use that route instead |
General information only, not credit advice. Full criteria, serviceability and security requirements are set by the lender at application.
Two reading notes. The refinance exclusion means this is a purchase offer: it rewards the move, not the restructure, which is why the upgrade angle matters. And the government-scheme exclusion is not a trap, it is a boundary line: the 5 per cent deposit scheme largely serves first home buyers, and this waiver picks up where it stops. If you are unsure which side of the line you sit on, that is exactly the kind of question we answer on the spot, and the broader map is in our professionals LMI waiver guide.
Why run it through Everstone rather than walking into a branch? Because the branch can only tell you about its own shelf. We are former bankers who compare across the market, we know which lender is running this offer and which others run rival education and healthcare policies, and under the Best Interests Duty we are legally required to recommend what suits you, not what suits any lender. If your circumstances fit a different door better, that is the door we will point at.
Striking on Thursday? Bring your questions.
Tell us what you earn, what you own and what you are hoping to buy, and we will tell you plainly whether the expanded waiver fits, what it saves, and what your realistic buying power looks like. No cost, no obligation, no judgement about the picket line.
Book a chat with a former bankerFrequently asked questions
Does going on strike affect my home loan application?
No. Lenders assess your permanent employment status, base salary and account conduct over time, and a single day of deducted pay for industrial action changes none of those. Assessors are not scanning payslips for strike days; they are confirming your award salary and your employment is ongoing, which a one-day stoppage does not alter.
Do teachers still need to be first home buyers to get an LMI waiver?
Not under the expanded offer we are describing: the first home buyer requirement has been removed, so a qualifying owner-occupied purchase of your next home is eligible. That is the single biggest change, because it opens the waiver to upgraders who assumed profession-based deals ended with their first purchase. Criteria and credit assessment still apply.
Can I use the waiver to upgrade to my next family home?
Yes, that is exactly the purchase it now serves: an established or completed property bought as your principal place of residence, with lending up to 90 per cent of the value, no LMI premium, and loan sizes up to $1.5 million. Construction, refinances, debt consolidation and cash out sit outside the offer.
My partner is not a teacher. Can we still qualify?
Yes. Only one borrower on the loan needs to be employed in education or healthcare, so a household where one partner teaches and the other works in any other field can still use the waiver, provided the application meets the lender's wider criteria including genuine savings and a debt-to-income ratio within five.
Will the new pay deal increase my borrowing power?
Once a deal is ratified and the higher pay appears in your payslip, yes, mechanically: lenders assess the income you can evidence, and under a debt-to-income cap of five, every $10,000 of additional annual salary can support up to roughly $50,000 of extra lending, subject to full serviceability assessment. A claim or an in-principle offer adds nothing until it lands in your pay.
How much does the LMI waiver actually save?
Lenders Mortgage Insurance on a 90 per cent lend typically costs somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on the property price and loan size, and under the waiver that premium is simply not payable. It is usually the largest single saving available to a teacher buying with a 10 per cent deposit, larger than most rate discounts over the first several years.
Does the waiver cover nurses and other healthcare workers too?
Yes, the same offer covers borrowers employed in healthcare as well as education, and only one borrower needs to qualify. Nurses, midwives and allied health professionals have their own landscape of lender policies beyond this single offer, which is exactly what we compare across the market before recommending a direction.
Marking essays at 9pm and reading this? The union says that overtime is unpaid. Your profession is still worth $15,000 to $30,000 to the right lender. Book a time with a former banker and find out what your payslip actually unlocks.
Sources
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About the author. Ahmed Lotfi is co-founder of Everstone Finance and a former banker who now works as an independent finance and mortgage broker in South Yarra, Melbourne, arranging home, investment and commercial lending for clients across Australia. Everstone Finance operates under the Best Interests Duty as Credit Representative 526374, Australian Credit Licence 391237.
They are arguing about your pay. We work with what it already proves.
A 10 per cent deposit, no LMI, and up to $1.5 million of lending for your next home, while the offer lasts. One conversation tells you if you fit.
Book a chat with a former banker