Surgepoint › Guides › Refinancing
Refinancing · Updated October 2026 · Phil SkeneFinding refinance clients: fixed-rate expiry, equity and rate reviews
Refinancers are often the most time-sensitive people who visit a broker's site, and the easiest to miss. A first home buyer may be a year away. Someone whose fixed rate ends next month needs a conversation this week.
Who is looking to refinance
Refinance enquiries tend to come from a few situations: a fixed rate about to roll onto a higher variable rate, a feeling that their current lender isn't rewarding their loyalty, wanting to put equity to work for renovations or an investment, or simply wanting to know if they could be paying less.
What they have in common: they already own a home, they already have a lender, and they're usually comparing their options right now.
Coming off a fixed rate
When a fixed term ends, most loans revert to the lender's standard variable rate, and repayments can change sharply. Many borrowers don't look closely until the letter arrives. A broker who reaches them before the rollover date can compare options while there's still time to act.
This is why the Borrowing Profile Engine asks refinancers when each fixed loan ends, flags one that's close with an amber alert, and puts the urgency in the subject line of the email you receive.
Usable equity
Equity is the part of the home the owner holds outright. Many lenders will lend up to 80% of a property's value without lenders mortgage insurance, so a common way to show usable equity is 80% of the home's value, less what's owed. For many owners that figure opens up renovations, an investment property or a debt consolidation conversation they hadn't considered.
What a refinance enquiry should tell you
- Estimated home value
- Current lender
- Each loan: balance, rate, fixed or variable, and when a fixed term ends
- What matters most to them: lowest rate, keeping their setup, or borrowing more
- Income, debts and household, so you can check serviceability straight away
- The best time to call
The first call: open questions
Refinancers already have a relationship with a lender, so the first call should feel like help, not a pitch. A few open questions that work:
- "What made you start looking at your loan now?"
- "When your fixed rate ends, what are you expecting to happen?"
- "If the loan could do one thing better for you, what would it be?"
- "What would you do with some of that equity, if it were easy?"
Then let them talk. Every answer tells you which lenders and structures to look at.
Common questions
What happens when a fixed rate home loan ends?
Most loans revert to the lender's standard variable rate when the fixed term ends, which can change repayments considerably. Reviewing options before the rollover date gives the borrower time to refinance or negotiate.
How is usable equity usually estimated?
A common estimate is 80% of the property's value, less the amount still owed, because many lenders lend up to 80% without lenders mortgage insurance. Actual usable equity depends on the lender, a valuation and serviceability.
How can brokers find refinance clients?
Make refinancing a clear path on the website, capture each loan's fixed-rate end date, flag the urgent ones, and follow up before the rollover date with open questions about what the client wants the loan to do.
Catch the refinancers before their rate rolls over.
Have a go as if you were a client. On your site it sits at the top of your homepage, in your colours, and sends you their whole picture.
More guides
Where it sits, what it asks first, what it sends you, and the wording that keeps people going.
EnquiriesMore finished applications from the traffic you already haveSix practical moves that turn quiet website visits into conversations, starting with the homepage.
ServiceabilityHow borrowing power is calculated in AustraliaThe APRA buffer, income shading, living costs and tax, with a worked example.