Christmas cut-off dates 2026: the last day to lodge for a settlement before Christmas
Lenders have started publishing their end-of-year cut-offs, and the first one falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026. Lodge after it and a settlement before Christmas is no longer assured. This page lists every lender's dates as they are announced.
What are the Christmas cut-off dates for 2026?
Each lender publishes its own set of dates. Three matter for a settlement before Christmas: the last day to lodge a new application, the last day it will issue unconditional approval (the lender's final yes, with every condition met), and the last day signed loan documents can come back. Miss one and the lender will still try, but it no longer promises the date.
As at 30 October 2026 one lender has published: NAB, with applications lodged by Tuesday 1 December, unconditional approval by Monday 7 December and signed original documents back by Thursday 10 December.1 ANZ, CBA, Westpac, Macquarie and the rest of the panel have not published theirs yet, and they are added to the table below as they do.
NAB describes its dates as a guide and says its teams keep working through December to settle as many loans as they can. That is an intention, not a promise: a file that misses a milestone is competing with every other late file for the same assessors.
Published end-of-year cut-off dates, 2026
| Lender | Application lodged by | Unconditional approval by | Signed loan documents back by | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAB | Tue 1 Dec 2026 | Mon 7 Dec 2026 | Thu 10 Dec 2026 | 30 Oct 2026 |
Lenders not listed have not published 2026 dates yet. They are added here the day their dates arrive.
Why has the clock already started?
Because the deadline is for a complete, lodged application, and the work before lodgement is what takes the time. A purchase needs a signed contract, a valuation, verified income and a credit assessment before a lender counts it as lodged; from 30 October 2026 to the first published cut-off there are 22 business days to do all of that.
Most of the panel publishes its dates through November. Waiting to see them all leaves less time, not more, which is why we plan every file to the earliest date published until its own lender's dates arrive.
Lodging on the cut-off day itself leaves no margin. A short valuation, a request for one more payslip or a missed signature on the documents pushes the settlement into January.
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What do I need to do, and by when?
Work backwards from the documents date, not the application date. Thursday 24 December is the last business day before Christmas, and NAB, the first lender to publish, asks for signed documents at least 10 business days before settlement; 10 business days before 24 December is 10 December, which is where the documents deadline comes from. Documents returned after that push the settlement into January.
The practical order for a purchase or refinance that has to settle this year:
- Lodge in November, not on 1 December. Aim to have the full application with the lender by mid-November so there is room for a valuation or a document request.
- Gather the documents now: recent payslips, the last 3 months of bank and loan statements, ID, and the signed contract of sale or the current loan statements for a refinance.
- Get the valuation ordered the day the contract is signed. NAB's own valuation team does not take new residential requests from 21 December to 1 January; over that period they go to an outside valuer, at the usual cost.
- Return the signed loan documents the day they arrive, fully signed, witnessed with the witness's full address, and with the certificate of currency (the insurer's proof that the property is covered) attached for the right amount.
- For a refinance, lodge the discharge (the request to close the old loan) with the outgoing bank in the first half of November. NAB wants completed discharge forms by 10 December 2026, and the outgoing bank's discharge is usually the slowest step in any refinance.
Working backwards from a pre-Christmas settlement with NAB
| Settlement | No later than Thu 24 Dec 2026, the last business day before Christmas |
|---|---|
| Signed loan documents back with NAB | Thu 10 Dec 2026 |
| Unconditional approval issued | Mon 7 Dec 2026 |
| Application lodged with NAB | Tue 1 Dec 2026 at the latest; mid-November to leave room for a valuation or a document request |
| Documents gathered, contract signed, valuation ordered | Now |
NAB's dates. Other lenders will have their own and are added to the table at the top as they publish.
What happens if I miss the cut-off?
The settlement moves into January. The lender does not refuse the loan; it simply cannot guarantee the people and the steps needed to settle it before its holiday closures. For a purchase with a fixed settlement date in the contract, that can mean penalty interest to the vendor or a negotiated extension, so the contract date matters as much as the lender date.
NAB's lending teams keep working through the festive season, closing only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day (observed on Monday 28 December) and New Year's Day. Its valuation team is the part that stops: construction valuations and progress inspections lodged during the shutdown are completed from Monday 4 January 2027.1
NAB's other end-of-year dates
| Construction progress payments, including final payments | By close of business Wed 9 Dec 2026 |
|---|---|
| Discharge authority forms | Thu 10 Dec 2026 |
| Redraw and loan modification requests | Fri 11 Dec 2026 |
| NAB valuations shutdown | Mon 21 Dec 2026 to Fri 1 Jan 2027 inclusive. Residential requests go to an outside valuer at the usual cost; construction and non-residential requests are completed from Mon 4 Jan 2027 |
| NAB public holiday closures | Fri 25 Dec 2026, Mon 28 Dec 2026 and Fri 1 Jan 2027 |
Did last year look the same?
Yes. In 2025 the big banks wanted new applications and discharge requests in the first days of December, and signed documents back about a week before Christmas.
The lenders' own 2025 notices went only to brokers and are no longer online, so the dates below come from a public list another broker published, updated 23 December 2025.2 We could not check them against the lenders' own notices, so they are shown for the pattern only, never as this year's dates.
Reported 2025 end-of-year dates
| CBA: new applications lodged | Mon 1 Dec 2025, to be assessed by Fri 5 Dec 2025 |
|---|---|
| CBA: discharge requests | Fri 5 Dec 2025 |
| Westpac: discharge requests, sale or refinance | Tue 2 Dec 2025 |
| Westpac: documents for purchases, settlements and refinances | Wed 17 Dec 2025 |
As reported in Home Loan Experts' public list, not checked against the lenders' own 2025 notices.
How we keep this page current
Every 2026 date on this page comes from the lender's own communication to brokers, and is added the day it arrives. We do not estimate a lender's dates before it publishes them, and we do not carry last year's dates forward as if they still applied.
The "Last reviewed" date under the headline is the last day we checked every lender on our panel for a new announcement. If a lender you are with is not in the table, it has not published yet.
Lodging on the deadline leaves no margin. One short valuation or one missing payslip and the next free slot is in the new year.
Sources
- NAB Broker, "Festive season cut-off dates for settlements and valuations", broker communication dated 28 October 2026 and received 30 October 2026. Broker-only document; the dates are stated here in our own words. ↩
- Home Loan Experts, "Christmas Cut Off Dates Across Lenders (2025)", updated 23 December 2025. A broker's public list; CBA and Westpac rows only. ↩