If you need money and don’t want to sell your home outright, you have two broad routes: borrow against it, or sell a share of it. The borrowing routes are refinancing or a cash-out home equity loan, a reverse mortgage, and the government’s Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS). The share-based routes are home reversion, fractional funding — the model MyBrix operates — and, if you’re prepared to sell the whole property, downsizing into something less expensive.

None of these options is better or worse in the abstract. Each trades a different cost — interest, a discount on future value, transaction fees, or the effort of moving — for money now, and each comes with its own eligibility gate. This post maps the landscape; it doesn’t tell you which one to choose.

What are the alternatives to selling my home outright?

• Refinance or a cash-out home equity loan — borrow more against your existing mortgage, subject to a bank’s serviceability assessment.
• Reverse mortgage — borrow against your home with no repayments until you sell or die, at a compounding interest rate.
• Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) — a Commonwealth loan for Age Pension-age Australians, secured against real estate.
• Home reversion — sell a share of your home’s future sale proceeds to a provider today, at a discount.
• Fractional funding — sell fractional interests in the property to investors while remaining the registered legal owner; the MyBrix model.
• Downsizing — sell the property in full and buy somewhere less expensive, keeping the difference.

Each is explained below, with the factors that typically decide who qualifies.

What if I borrow against the home instead of selling it?

Borrowing keeps you in full ownership of the property, with nothing sold. The cost is a debt: interest, and in most cases a repayment obligation, whether that shows up monthly or compounds until the loan is repaid.

Refinancing or a cash-out home equity loan

Refinancing replaces your existing mortgage, or adds to it, so you can draw out equity as a lump sum. A lender assesses your income, expenses and existing debts against its serviceability rules before approving the increase — the same test as any new loan. If your income doesn’t meet that test, this route isn’t available regardless of how much equity sits in the property.

Repayments start immediately, at whatever term and rate the lender offers. It’s the most familiar of the six options, and the one most directly limited by your ability to service new monthly repayments.

Reverse mortgage

A reverse mortgage lets you borrow against your home with no repayments required until you sell, move into aged care, or die — and the interest compounds onto the loan balance in the meantime. Lenders set their own age minimums, and the amount available generally rises with age and property value.

Reverse mortgages are a credit product under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, so they carry a statutory protection: for loans taken out from 18 September 2012, negative equity protection means you can’t end up owing the lender more than your home is worth, even if the loan balance eventually exceeds the sale price (Moneysmart, ASIC’s free consumer website). Contracts signed before that date may not include it — worth checking if you’re looking at an existing arrangement rather than a new one.

The Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS)

HEAS is a Commonwealth loan run by Services Australia for people of Age Pension age. As at July 2026, it charges interest of 3.95% per year, compounding fortnightly, against Australian real estate offered as security (Services Australia).

Two caps limit how much you can draw. Each fortnight, your combined pension and loan payments can’t exceed 150% of the maximum pension rate, and the maximum loan amount is set by an age-based formula applied to the security value, rounded down to the nearest $10,000 — not a simple percentage of the property. You can also take lump-sum advances instead of fortnightly payments, capped at 50% of the maximum annual pension rate per 26 fortnights, with a maximum of two advances.

To qualify, you or your partner must be of Age Pension age and meet the qualifying pension test (including at a zero rate), offer adequately insured Australian real estate as security, and not be bankrupt (Services Australia).

What if I raise money without taking on new debt?

The alternative to borrowing is selling something — a share of future value, a fractional interest, or the whole property. None of these carries interest or a repayment schedule; what you give up instead is a portion of the home’s current or future value.

Home reversion

Home reversion is the sale of a share of your home’s future sale proceeds to a provider, in exchange for a lump sum today. No interest is charged, because it isn’t a loan — it’s a property transaction, and it sits outside the consumer credit framework that covers reverse mortgages. That also means the negative equity protection described above doesn’t apply to a reversion agreement; ASIC retains conduct jurisdiction over the provider, but under different rules.

The provider is paid from its discount, not from interest. As at July 2026, in Moneysmart’s worked example, a provider buying a 20% share of a $500,000 home’s future value might offer between $37,000 and $78,000 today, depending on the owner’s age. Older research from ASIC (2005) found providers paying 35–60% of the market value of the share sold — dated, but a useful sense of scale.

As at July 2026, at least one provider (Homesafe) operates in the Melbourne and Sydney metropolitan markets, with published minimum ages of 60 in Victoria and 55 in New South Wales provided one owner is at least 60. Its published terms offer lump sums from $25,000 to $3,000,000, with a cap of 65% on the share of the property’s future sale proceeds it will buy.

Fractional funding (the MyBrix model)

Fractional funding divides a property’s economic value into small units, sold to investors, rather than selling a fixed share to one provider. On MyBrix, each listed property is split into 10,000 Brix — a fractional economic interest that’s a financial product under Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), not a loan and not a transfer of your title.

You remain the registered legal owner and can keep living in the home; you also keep the owner’s usual responsibilities of rates, insurance and maintenance. As at July 2026, the funding fee is either 5.0% of the funded amount upfront or 0.1% per month deferred. You must also retain a minimum holding — generally 20% of the property’s Brix — once funding completes, and the maximum term is 10 years.

You can sell the property, or buy back Brix, at any time during that term, at a price agreed before listing. Once Brix are sold, the economic benefit attached to them belongs to the investors who hold them, unless you buy them back. Our guide to accessing home equity without a loan walks through the mechanics in more detail.

Downsizing

Downsizing is the most direct option: sell the home in full, buy something less expensive, and keep the difference. There’s no provider, no ongoing arrangement, and no share of future growth to give up — the trade-off is entirely practical.

Selling costs include a real estate agent’s commission — a negotiable professional fee that varies by agent, location and service, with no fixed or government-set rate (NSW Government) — plus stamp duty on whatever you buy next, and the practical cost of moving. Some owners raise smaller amounts a different way, such as renting out a spare room or a granny flat, without releasing any equity or taking on debt at all — a much smaller-scale option, but sometimes enough on its own.

How do these six options compare?

Option	New debt?	Cost driver	Repayments required	Typical eligibility gate
Refinance / home equity loan	Yes	Interest	Yes, monthly	Bank serviceability assessment
Reverse mortgage	Yes	Compounding interest	None until sale or death	Lender age minimum
HEAS	Yes (Commonwealth)	Compounding interest	None during the loan	Age Pension age + pension test
Home reversion	No	Discount + future-value share sold	None	Provider age minimum
Fractional funding (MyBrix)	No	Fees + future value on sold interests	Fees per agreed terms	Property + minimum-holding criteria
Downsizing	No	Transaction and moving costs	None	None — an ordinary market sale

Assumptions behind this table: an owner-occupied residential property in Australia; general product structures as described by Moneysmart (reverse mortgages, home reversion) and Services Australia (HEAS); individual lender, provider and platform terms vary. Figures stated are as at July 2026.

The table shows structure, not a ranking. A debt option’s cost grows the longer it runs, win or lose on the property market; a sale-based option’s cost tracks what the property is actually worth when it’s realised. Working out which is smaller for your situation is a calculation for a licensed financial adviser, not a rule of thumb.

What should you weigh before choosing?

Whether you can service a loan. Refinancing depends on passing a lender’s serviceability assessment; a reverse mortgage and HEAS depend on age rather than income; the sale-based options depend on property and provider criteria instead. If your income doesn’t meet a lender’s test, that alone rules out refinancing without ruling out the rest.

How long you expect the arrangement to run. Compounding interest grows with time regardless of the property market; a sold share’s cost depends on what the property is worth when the arrangement ends. Neither is automatically cheaper — the horizon and the market both matter.

Occupancy and control. Ask any lender or provider exactly which rights you keep — to live in the home, renovate it, rent it out, or sell it — and get the answer in writing before committing.

Your Age Pension. Converting home equity into money or other assets can change how your entitlements are assessed under the assets and income tests. Payments can be affected in ways specific to your situation — contact Services Australia’s free Financial Information Service before proceeding.

Tax. Tax treatment differs between borrowing, selling a share, and selling the whole property. Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances — speak with a registered tax agent before acting.

Where can you check the details for each option?

Moneysmart — ASIC’s free consumer website — covers reverse mortgages and home reversion; Services Australia publishes the full HEAS terms and eligibility rules; and for fractional funding, MyBrix’s Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination, available at mybrix.com.au, sets out the current terms. General information like this can map the options; a licensed financial adviser can help you weigh them against your own circumstances.