If you’re in the market for your first home, you’ll know how much of a difference an extra $40,000 could make.

But we all know money doesn’t go on trees, and your boss is unlikely to give you a massive payrise along with a salary advance.

Luckily, you don’t have to go grovelling to your boss or set off in search of any magic beans, according to new analysis from comparison website Mozo. There’s an easier way to give your first-home fund a boost.

The researchers there did some number crunching and found that by looking beyond the major lenders, buyers could be eligible to borrow up to $40,000 more for their first home.

The data, which was analysed for the Mozo Experts Choice Awards, showed that the super-competitive rates offered by some independent lenders would give first homebuyers the chance to borrow significantly more than with the bigger banks.

Buyers could end up with $40,558 more to spend if they chose to go with one of the smaller lenders.

This is based on a 30-year first homebuyer loan of $330,600 with monthly principal and interest repayments.

Mozo Director Kirsty Lamont said the variable rates offered by small online and non-bank lenders were on average 0.67% lower than the four big banks – that means an average rate of 3.76% compared to 4.43%. On a 30-year loan, which would you rather have?

“We crunched the numbers on how much more you could potentially borrow with these rock-bottom rates and found it was 11 per cent of the average cost of a first home, which could be a big help to a buyer struggling to get into the property market,’’ she said.

She added that out of all the home loans available on the market analysed as part of the research, 90% of the most competitive ones came from non-major lenders.

That’s certainly food for thought if you’re in the early stages of buying a home and wondering which lender to borrow from.