How much does LMI cost on a $700,000 home with a 10% deposit?

There is no single published figure for this — and giving you one would mean making up the exact number you’re asking for. Lenders Mortgage Insurance isn’t priced on a public rate card. It depends on the loan-to-value ratio, the size of the loan, the individual insurer, and the arrangement between that insurer and your specific lender. Two lenders can quote different premiums for the same $700,000 purchase at the same 10% deposit, and neither figure would be wrong.

That refusal to print a number is the useful part of this answer: a figure quoted here would be fabricated on precisely the detail you’re trying to check, and that’s worse than no figure at all.

What LMI is, and what your numbers mean

Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is a one-off insurance premium some lenders require when a loan exceeds 80% of the property’s value — it protects the lender if you default, not you (our guide to what LMI is and how it works covers this in full). The trigger is the loan-to-value ratio (LVR):

LVR = (loan amount ÷ property value) × 100

On a $700,000 home with a 10% deposit ($70,000), you’d be borrowing $630,000 — a 90% LVR. That’s above the usual 80% line, which is why LMI would typically apply to this scenario at all. Knowing your LVR tells you whether LMI is likely, not how much it will cost.

What actually moves the premium

No government or consumer body publishes a formula, but the factors that move a premium in one direction or another are well understood:

Factor	Effect on premium
Higher LVR (smaller deposit)	Pushes the premium up
Larger loan amount	Pushes the premium up
Which insurer underwrites the policy	Varies — insurers price risk differently
The lender’s arrangement with that insurer	Varies — affects the rate passed to you

A 90% LVR sits well above the 80% threshold, and a $630,000 loan is a substantial sum — both of those push toward the higher end of whatever range your specific lender and insurer land on. But “higher end” isn’t a number, and this article isn’t going to invent one.

Where to get an actual figure

Moneysmart, the government’s consumer finance site, doesn’t publish LMI premium figures at all. The one place a genuine, current estimate exists is an interactive calculator: Helia, one of the insurers active in the Australian market, offers an LMI fee estimator that takes your loan amount, property value and other details and produces a figure specific to that scenario. Your own lender or a mortgage broker can also quote the premium that would actually apply to your loan, because they’re working from the real insurer arrangement behind your specific application — something no general article can see.

If avoiding the cost altogether matters more than sizing it

Since the Home Guarantee Scheme’s expansion on 1 October 2025, eligible first home buyers can purchase with as little as a 5% deposit (see our guide to buying a house in Australia with a 5% deposit) while the government guarantees part of the loan — removing the need for LMI entirely rather than pricing it. Price caps apply and vary by state (as at July 2026), and eligibility depends on factors like being a first home buyer and buying as an owner-occupier. That’s a different question from the one this article set out to answer, but worth knowing if the $700,000/10% scenario isn’t fixed for you.

The honest bottom line

A $700,000 purchase at a 10% deposit sits at 90% LVR, above the point where LMI usually applies — but what that specific policy would cost isn’t a figure this article, or any general guide, can responsibly state. Your lender or a mortgage broker, working from your actual loan application, is the only source for a real number. For the bigger picture on deposit sizes generally, see our guide to how much deposit you need for a first home in Australia.

This article provides general information only — see the disclaimer below.