Does HECS affect how much I can borrow for a home loan?
Yes, and more than most people expect. Lenders do not treat HECS as a debt with a balance; they treat the compulsory repayment as a reduction in your income. On $90,000 the repayment is roughly $3,500 a year. On $120,000 it is closer to $8,000. Every dollar of that comes off the surplus a lender uses to size your loan, so a HECS debt can quietly remove $40,000 to $80,000 of borrowing power.
Since 2025 the repayment has been calculated on income above a threshold rather than on your whole salary, which softened the effect for people earning between about $67,000 and $125,000. It did not remove it.
Paying HECS out is rarely the best use of a deposit, because the debt is interest-free and only indexed. But if you are within a year or so of clearing it, or the balance is small and it is the difference between a lender saying yes and no, some lenders will disregard it once you can show it is paid. That is a conversation for a broker, not a rule.
Borrowable's check deducts HECS the way a lender does, so the range you see already accounts for it.
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