Mortgage Broker · Gladstone, QLD

Mortgage broker in Gladstone: home loans for permanent crews and project crews

Pilbara Finance is a boutique brokerage, born in Western Australia and working nationally, with sixty-plus lenders behind every Gladstone file we take. Two people can earn almost identical money in this city and get very different answers from the same bank. One has a permanent role at a refinery, the smelter or the port. The other is on project and construction work, contract to contract, often earning more. Lenders treat those two files nothing alike, and knowing which lenders are genuinely comfortable with contract and project income is most of what we bring. Industrial, port and refinery crews, construction and contractor workers, first home buyers and families, investors after the yield, self-employed and trades, and anyone who simply wants their shift and allowance income counted in full: ring us on (08) 9122 3929 and we will tell you which side of that line you are on and who lends to it.

(08) 9122 3929
60+ Lenders on panel Banks · Non-banks · Private Born in the Pilbara Servicing all of Australia Est. 2015 Boutique team, no call centres FIFO income specialists Self-employed specialists WA-owned & operated FBAA Member SFG Member Authorised Credit Rep: 478535 Mon–Fri 7am–8pm WA time Sat–Sun 7am–12pm WA time
Why Gladstone Locals Choose Us

Contract income is not second-class income, and we know who agrees

Built in the Pilbara
100+ Local Clients
and Counting
Areas we help across Gladstone: Kin Kora, Clinton, New Auckland, Telina, West Gladstone, plus nearby Tannum Sands and Calliope
Our Story

Industrial towns are the ones we know best

Pilbara Finance began in Karratha, which exists for much the same reason Gladstone does: heavy industry, export infrastructure, and a workforce that keeps it running around the clock. A decade of arranging finance in that setting means shift rosters, allowances, project phases and contract income are not unusual to us, they are the standard file. It also means we know how a lender's credit team thinks about a city built on a handful of very large employers, and which lenders are relaxed about it rather than nervous.

Permanent, or contract to contract

Permanent industrial employment is straightforward to assess and most lenders handle it without blinking. Project and construction income is where the panel divides. Some lenders want two years of continuous history in the same role and treat a finished contract as a gap. Others understand that in a city like this one, moving from project to project at good money is a career rather than instability, and they assess it on the pattern rather than the paperwork. We use the second group, and the difference in outcome is substantial.

A city built on a handful of very large employers

Gladstone runs Queensland's largest multi-commodity deepwater port, LNG plants on Curtis Island, two of the world's largest alumina refineries, an aluminium smelter, plus cement, chemicals and coal export. That is a serious industrial base by any measure, and it is also a concentrated one, which some lenders weigh when they look at the postcode. As a substantial city, a good part of the panel still lends here at standard LVRs. Knowing where each lender sits before anything is submitted is what keeps your options open.

Prices that move with the projects

This is honest information rather than a warning. A market driven by major industry and large construction projects moves with those project phases more than a diversified city does, and lenders and valuers both know it. What that means practically is that the lender you choose, and the valuation approach that comes with them, matters more here than in a city with a broader base. It is a solvable problem and solving it early is the difference.

What We Sort

Finance for every kind of Gladstone client

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Local Proof

One of the country's great industrial cities, and still affordable

Gladstone is a Central Queensland industrial port city and one of the largest industrial and export centres in the country, with an affordable market of established homes and family estates across Kin Kora, Clinton, New Auckland, Telina and West Gladstone. Coastal Tannum Sands and Calliope sit nearby for anyone who wants a bit more distance from the industry. For a city doing this much heavy lifting, the housing is genuinely reachable, which is a large part of why people come here for the work and end up staying.

Affordability plus industrial wages is what puts Gladstone on an investor's list, and the yield is usually what starts the conversation. The finance question is finding a lender relaxed about both the return and a city with concentrated employment, then building the investment property loan so it holds up alongside whatever else you own. Punch the numbers into a mortgage repayment calculator and you will have a working estimate. We do not put dated numbers on a page, but we give you the current price and rent figures when we talk, which is a good reason to pick up the phone.

The Gladstone calls we take divide fairly cleanly. Refinery, smelter and port workers on permanent rosters who want their allowances counted in full. Construction and contractor crews on project-linked money, who have usually been knocked back somewhere and told it was their income. First home buyers and families who have realised what their wage buys here. Investors running the numbers. And self-employed trades servicing the industrial base, who are assessed on returns rather than payslips. Five situations, five different shortlists of lenders.

Mortgage broker in Gladstone QLD arranging a home loan in Kin Kora
Gladstone refinery worker getting shift allowances counted toward a home loan
Family home at Tannum Sands near Gladstone financed through a broker
What People Say

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Common Questions

Gladstone FAQs

The questions we get asked every week. Anything else — give us a bell.

Plenty do, and a single rejection tells you far less than people assume. What matters is the pattern: consistent work across projects, at a consistent kind of money, reads very differently from a single short contract. Some lenders want continuous employment in one role and will not budge. Others assess the history as a whole and are entirely comfortable with contract income in an industrial city. Send us your last two years and we will tell you which lenders your history actually suits.
Pick the lender well and almost none of it gets left out. Shift loading, allowances and overtime on an industrial roster are real income, and lenders range from assessing effectively the lot to taking the base rate and ignoring the rest. On Gladstone wages that difference is large enough to change which suburb you can buy in. Two recent payslips is all we need to give you a firm figure rather than an estimate.
It makes some of them more careful, not all of them. A city reliant on a handful of very large employers is read differently from a diversified one, and a portion of the panel prices or limits that. The rest lend here on ordinary terms because Gladstone is a substantial city with real infrastructure behind it. Our job is knowing which is which before your application goes anywhere, so you get an answer rather than a lesson.
Two years of returns is the usual starting point, though there are lenders who will work with less if the business is solid. Income is assessed from tax returns and add-backs rather than payslips, and add-backs are frequently where a good chunk of your borrowing capacity is hiding if whoever did your last application did not use them. Contractors and trades servicing the plants should start at low doc home loan, then ring with the figures.
The lender, before the property. A market that moves with industrial project cycles is straightforward to lend into with the right lender and awkward with the wrong one, and that choice also affects how a valuation is approached. We find the lender who is at ease with this city, put every dollar of your existing income into the assessment, and build the loan so the whole portfolio still stacks. Then we will talk you through the risks honestly rather than just the return.

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If you have been knocked back on contract income, ring us

It is the most common reason people in this city end up on the phone to a broker, and it is very often a lender problem rather than an income problem. A short conversation and a look at your work history usually tells us which lenders will take a completely different view. Same broker from that call through to settlement, and we work around industrial hours because we always have. Dial (08) 9122 3929, or drop us a WhatsApp.

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