Methodology
How the mortgage insurance estimate is built
Lenders Mortgage Insurance is the one number in this calculator that cannot be computed from a published rate, because insurers do not publish their premiums. This page sets out exactly what the figure is, and what it is not.
What the figure is
It is the midpoint of a published indicative range, applied to the loan. Insurers and lenders publish estimator tables that give a premium as a percentage of the loan, banded by loan-to-value ratio and loan size. This calculator reads the band your loan falls into and multiplies the loan by the midpoint percentage.
What the figure is not
It is not a quote, and it is not the premium you will be charged. Actual premiums are set per insurer, per lender and per borrower, and they vary within and beyond the published ranges. The figure shown is an estimate labelled as one wherever it appears, and the full band — low to high — is shown beside it in the working.
When no figure is shown at all
At or below a loan-to-value ratio of 80% no premium is charged, and the calculator shows zero. Above the top of the published range, or outside the loan sizes it covers, the calculator will not estimate a premium at all — and because the premium changes the loan and therefore every figure downstream of it, the page shows no figures for those inputs and says why, rather than extrapolating past the published data.
Each band below excludes its lower figure and includes its upper one, so a loan-to-value ratio of exactly 80% attracts no premium.
The published bands used
| Loan-to-value ratio | Loan size | Low | Midpoint | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80% to 85% | $0 to $600,000 | 0.4% | 0.8% | 1.2% |
| 80% to 85% | $600,000 to $1,000,000 | 0.6% | 1.0% | 1.5% |
| 80% to 85% | $1,000,000 and above | 0.8% | 1.3% | 1.9% |
| 85% to 90% | $0 to $600,000 | 0.9% | 1.6% | 2.3% |
| 85% to 90% | $600,000 to $1,000,000 | 1.2% | 2.0% | 2.8% |
| 85% to 90% | $1,000,000 and above | 1.5% | 2.4% | 3.4% |
| 90% to 95% | $0 to $600,000 | 2.0% | 3.2% | 4.4% |
| 90% to 95% | $600,000 to $1,000,000 | 2.5% | 3.7% | 5.0% |
| 90% to 95% | $1,000,000 and above | 3.0% | 4.3% | 5.6% |
Source
This component is recorded as an estimate, not a verified rate. Its status and every other component's are listed on the sources page.