Listen to our Webinar: Financing & Purchasing Lifestyle Acreage
Join Reggie Hart (Mortgage Broker) and Tim Flynn (Solicitor, Regional Specialist) covering finance, legal due diligence and what to look for on the ground before you buy acreage in a regional area.
Reggie Hart (Thunderbolt Lending) · Tim Flynn (Land Law Co) · Nick Kirshner (Kirshner Mackay)
As featured in The New England Times — March 2026
Read it HERE
About Us
Reggie and her team offer a full suite of lending services Australia wide to help you get to where you want to get to in life, whether its your first home, increase your land holdings to run more cattle or buy an inner Sydney investment property. We are equine specialists.
Reggie's previous career as a Certified Financial Planner means she can see your big picture goals and structure lending around them. The purpose of lending is to help you live the life you dream of and its our aim to help you get there.
Contact us now for a no obligation chat to see if we can help you move forward.
We are set up remotely and can help you anywhere, anytime.
Peter C
Please accept my sincere thanks for your fast and efficient service and the benefit of your extensive experience in providing extremely valuable and wise advice from this Snowy Mountains farmer.
Craig B
Reggie's passion to improve her clients position is first class.
I worked with Reggie on a project for 9 months in Jindabyne and when it comes to trusting someone to get advice from I would highly recommend Reggie.
John S
It is my experience that Reggie is not a sales person, but an educator who genuinely wants her clients to build wealth. Her approachable non judgemental style meant I felt I could ask her any question along the way.
No wonder Thunderbolt Lending is Jindabyne's Go To Mortgage Broker
Dean W
We had the absolute pleasure of working with Reggie from Thunderbolt lending, and I can confidently say she was fantastic. Our situation in Tamworth was quite complex, and after being let down by local brokers, we weren’t sure it could even be done. But Reggie went above and beyond to make it happen.
Steve M
The team at Thunderbolt Lending were amazing.
Very helpful, understanding and caring.
Highly recommend.
Mary G
I’m grateful for Reggie and her clear direction with our mortgage. She helped us get a much lower rate and made the entire process so easy! She is someone with years of solid experience and who knows what she’s doing. I chose Reggie because she wants to help people get ahead. She has a heart of gold and is someone I trust completely.
FAQs
Straight answers to the questions we hear most from acreage and rural residential buyers.
01.
Can you help me get a loan with the 5% Deposit Scheme or a parent guarantee?
Yes. We love to help first home buyers. We will discuss with you all the pros and cons. Dont get overwhelmed, we will help you every step of the way. And if you arent ready , we will give you a road map how to get there.
02.
What counts as "acreage" or "rural residential" to a lender?
Definitions vary by lender, but most banks start applying rural residential rules once a property sits on a larger title outside a standard suburban subdivision — commonly once land size moves beyond around 2–5 hectares, or where the property is zoned rural, farming or agricultural rather than residential. Some lenders assess purely on hectares, others on zoning, and some on both.
03.
Is there a maximum land size lenders will approve?
Most lenders cap acreage lending somewhere between 40 and 100 hectares (roughly 100–250 acres) before a property is treated as a farm or commercial holding rather than a lifestyle block, though caps differ between lenders and can depend on whether the land generates income. Properties above these caps usually need a specialist rural or agribusiness lender.
04.
Can sheds, machinery sheds or a second dwelling be included in the loan?
Often yes, but lenders treat non-standard structures like large machinery sheds, barns or a second dwelling (such as a granny flat or manager's residence) more cautiously than a standard home, and may limit how much of their value counts toward the loan. Getting the loan structure and lender selection right before you buy or build avoids surprises at valuation stage.
05.
What if the property has farm income, produces livestock, or has a business use?
Properties with a genuine farming or business use — livestock, cropping, agistment income and similar — can move a loan out of standard home lending and into rural or commercial lending, which has different servicing rules, different documentation requirements and sometimes different lenders altogether. It's worth clarifying this before you make an offer.
06.
Why use a mortgage broker who specialises in regional properties instead of a bank direct?
Not every lender on a broker's panel — or on a bank's own product list — genuinely wants acreage, rural residential or hobby farm business. A specialist broker already knows which lenders will accept larger land sizes, non-standard construction, farm income or unusual zoning, and can structure the application and valuation instructions to match. That typically means fewer declined applications and fewer surprises during valuation.
07.
How long does finance approval take for acreage or rural property?
Acreage finance often takes longer than a standard suburban home loan because rural valuations can take longer to schedule and complete, and some applications require extra documentation (zoning certificates, water and septic details, or farm income evidence). Building in extra time on your finance clause when making an offer on acreage is a sensible precaution.
08.
Why do banks value acreage and regional properties differently to suburban homes?
Valuers rely on comparable recent sales, and comparable rural sales are often scarce, older, or spread across a wide area — unlike a suburban street with dozens of recent sales to reference. Land value and improvement value (house, shedding, water, power) are also often split out and assessed separately, which can produce a more conservative valuation than buyers expect. So dont trust realestate.com.au on regional properties - get some local intel as well.