Margin Loans Steps to set up a marginal loan?

Depends - you don't necessarily need the shares first. If you already have them, great - if not, you just need some cash.

With most margin lenders, the loan amount isn't fixed (unless you go fixed interest for the entire amount), if you have the "margin value" available, you can just keep borrowing until you reach your limit (although better to not borrow to your limit - keep a larger buffer to avoid margin call).

Most lenders have a minimum loan of $20,000 ... but the maximum will only depend on the value of your portfolio (or the amount of cash you can put in).

You need to decide what LVR you are comfortable with, and you need to check the maximum LVR offered by your margin lender for the shares/funds you want to invest in.

I'm going to assume you have a 70% max LVR on offer for your proposed portfolio ... so you might choose to gear to 50% to give yourself a good buffer.

50% LVR means that if you borrow $25,000, you must put in $25,000 of your own money as well ($50,000 to invest).

Alternatively, if you had decided to go 60% LVR, you would only need to put in $20,000 of your own money to borrow $30,000 (total portfolio = $50,000, LVR = $30,000/$50,000 = 60%)

If you have shares/funds already, you need to work out their margin value when you transfer them into your margin account - that will determine how much you can borrow against them.

Think of it like owning a PPOR before using the equity to buy an IP.