Lending institutions have strict lending criteria in place to ensure that borrowers can service their loans. This is of course a good thing, but there are a number of ways that you can improve your serviceability and therefore increase your borrowing power.

1. Reduce your debt, especially credit cards - Your first step towards improving your borrowing power is to reduce your outgoings and debts. Not many people realise that it is your actual credit card limit that determines how much you can borrow? So a simple change to your credit limits can be one of the simplest ways to increase your borrowing power.

2. Keep records up to date - Good bookkeeping can really help to proving your borrowing capacity to the lenders.

3. Consider a longer loan term - The longer the loan, the less the monthly repayments. Consider a 30 year loan term instead of a 25 year term, as this will reduce your monthly repayments quite considerably.

4. Prepare your loan application in advance - The paperwork requirements are quite onerous when applying for a home loan, so to help move the process along quickly and smoothly, make sure you have the right information ready. This may include tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, payment summary and payslips.

5. Save, save, save - Build up as much savings as you can to ensure you maximise your deposit. It is also good to demonstrate a savings history over at least three to six months.