I am John Carson-Zangor, a residential mortgage broker based in Bethania, Logan. A good chunk of my work is people who started their own ABN in the last year or two and then got told to come back with two years of financials. That line is one lender's policy, not the whole market.
Phone, video or face to face. Tell me what you are trying to do and I aim to respond by the end of the next business day.
Here is what usually happens. You go out on your own, the work is flowing, the income is real - and the first bank you ask says no, come back when the ABN is two years old and you have two full years of financials. Fair enough. That is their written policy. What nobody at the branch mentions is that it is only their written policy.
Lenders each write their own rules about how much trading history they want and what income evidence they will work with. Some hold the two-year line firmly. Others can consider a shorter history - in some cases around the one-year mark - when the rest of the file supports it. Neither approach is wrong; they are different appetites for the same borrower. The job is finding the lender whose written rules your file actually fits, which is the same policy-first approach I take on every self-employed home loan.
Take the lender's seat for a second. Two years of financials is really a proxy for one question: will this income keep arriving? With a short trading history, that question gets answered from other angles. Four things do most of the work.
Twelve months of trading reads very differently depending on what came before it. An electrician who spent six years on wages before going out on their own is still the same electrician - the income changed shape, not substance. A brand-new venture in a field you have never worked in is a harder conversation. Continuity is the quiet hero of short-ABN files.
The question is not just what you earn but how you can prove it. Tax returns, interim financials, activity statements, business bank statements - different lenders lean on different evidence, and what you can actually produce shapes which lenders are realistic for you. More on the options below.
A solid deposit and a genuine savings pattern do a lot of talking when the trading history is short. They show the business is actually paying you and that a buffer exists if a quiet month lands. The more you bring to the deal, the more comfortable a lender generally is with a newer income story.
Repayments on time, no unpaid defaults, bills handled. When one part of a file is unusual - a young ABN - lenders look harder at everything else. Boring credit conduct is a genuine asset here. And if the credit file is not clean, that is a different conversation I also have every week, not a dead end.
This is where the market splits. The standard route is full documentation - tax returns and financial statements. If you have finished your first year and lodged the return, that first year is real evidence, and some lenders can work with one year of figures where their policy allows it.
Where the return is not lodged yet, or the first year does not reflect where the business is now, there is a second route most branches never mention: alt-doc. Instead of full financials, some lenders can consider alternative evidence of income - an accountant's declaration, business activity statements or business bank statements. It is a legitimate, regulated form of lending, not a loophole. You are still proving your income; you are just proving it with different paperwork.
The honest trade-off: alt-doc lending generally costs more than standard lending, and it does not suit every situation. Used well, it can be a bridge - a way into the home now, with the loan reviewed once the financials catch up. Every loan I arrange goes onto my free annual loan review, so that follow-up is built in rather than left to memory.
Before any talk of lenders, I want the shape of the file. What you did before the ABN and what you do now. What the business has actually put in your pocket so far, and what evidence of that exists on paper. Your deposit, and what stays in reserve after settlement. Your credit file - as it actually reads, not as you remember it. The order matters, because a young-ABN application has less room for surprises, and one unexpected detail can turn a workable file into a decline.
Then I match the file against written lender policy and tell you straight: here is a realistic path, or here is what has to change first. If a bank has already knocked you back, that is familiar territory - declined files are the work I am best known for, and a decline with one lender is not a decline everywhere. If you would rather talk than type, book a 20-minute call and bring the awkward questions.
The classic file: years on wages, then the ute, the ABN and better money than the payslip ever showed. The income is real; the paperwork is just young. My tradie and contractor work is built around exactly this handover from wages to ABN.
Same skills, same clients, new invoice header. If you moved from PAYG to contracting in the same field, the continuity story is often stronger than you think - it just needs packaging so a lender can see it at a glance.
No return lodged yet, activity statements building up quarter by quarter. Sometimes the answer is a lender open to alternative evidence. Sometimes it is a short, specific wait with the file prepared in advance. Either way, you leave knowing which one you are.
If the no was about ABN age or income evidence, it may say more about that lender's rules than about your file. Worth checking properly before you conclude you cannot buy.
I will not pretend a one-year ABN file is the same as a five-year one. The lender pool is smaller. The evidence requirements are pickier, alternative-documentation routes generally cost more, and some files genuinely are too early - if the business has only traded a few months, with nothing lodged and no consistent income landing in the account, the right advice is usually to wait and prepare rather than apply and hope.
What I can promise is the process, not the outcome: your file checked against written lender policy, a straight answer on whether a realistic path exists now, and if it does not, a specific list of what to have ready and when to come back. A loan can be possible depending on your circumstances - and nobody honest in this industry will word it more strongly than that.
It can be possible, depending on your circumstances. Some lenders are open to shorter trading histories where the rest of the file is strong - what you did before self-employment, the income evidence available, your deposit and your credit conduct all carry weight. It is not automatic and it is not every lender, which is why I check the file against written lender policy before anything is lodged.
No. It is a real policy at plenty of lenders, but it is their rule, not the market's. Different lenders write different rules about trading history and income evidence, and some can consider a shorter history depending on the overall file. The useful step is checking written policy rather than treating one lender's answer as everyone's answer.
It depends on the lender and the file. Common options include your first year of tax returns and financials, accountant-prepared figures, business activity statements or business bank statements. Each option suits different situations and carries different trade-offs, so the evidence plan should be matched to the lender before you apply.
Generally, yes. A tradie who goes out on their own after years on wages in the same trade tells a steadier income story than someone starting fresh in an unfamiliar field. Lenders tend to read that continuity as lower risk. It is one factor among several, but it is often the one that makes a short ABN history workable.
Talk it through first. Sometimes the honest answer is that a few more months of trading, another activity statement or your first lodged tax return changes the picture completely - and waiting beats collecting a decline. Sometimes the file already works. I will tell you which one you are, and if the answer is wait, I will tell you exactly what to have ready.
Tell John what you are trying to do. He can review your position and come back with the next sensible step.
General information only, not credit advice. Your circumstances, lender criteria and responsible lending requirements apply. John Carson-Zangor is a credit representative (537545) of QED Credit Services Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 387856.
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