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First Home Buyer Loans
Mostly a sequencing problem. We work out which scheme applies, what deposit actually reaches, and what order to do things in.
First home buyers
Buying your first home, in the right order
First home buying is mostly a sequencing problem rather than a savings problem. The three things that decide it are which government scheme you qualify for, what deposit actually gets you to a property you would want to own, and whether family help is available and in what form. Get a genuinely assessed pre-approval before you start looking, not while you are negotiating.
Nobody explains the order. People save a deposit, start looking, find something, and only then discover they are $60,000 short or ineligible for the scheme they were counting on.
We work through it the other way around. What you qualify for, what that means in a real price, and then what to do first.
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First Home Buyers
What we can help you with
First Home Guarantee
Buy with as little as a 5% deposit and no lender mortgage insurance, subject to eligibility and price caps.
First Home Owner Grant
Up to $10,000 for eligible new home purchases in NSW. New builds only, not established homes.
Stamp Duty Concessions
Full or partial exemptions for eligible first home buyers in NSW, worth tens of thousands.
Family Guarantees
A parent can use their equity instead of giving cash. We explain the risk to both households.
Deposit and Savings Planning
A realistic target including the costs people forget, not just the deposit.
30+ Lender Comparison
The right loan, not simply the one most likely to say yes.
The costs nobody budgets for
The deposit is the number everyone knows. It is rarely the number that stops the purchase.
| Item | Typical amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit at 10% | $80,000 | Or 5% at $40,000 under the First Home Guarantee |
| Stamp duty | $0 to $31,000 | Full or partial concession for eligible first home buyers in NSW |
| Conveyancing and legal | $1,500 to $2,500 | Plus searches |
| Building and pest inspection | $500 to $900 | Per property inspected, and you may inspect several |
| Lender fees and registration | $300 to $900 | Varies by lender and state |
| Moving and immediate essentials | $2,000 to $6,000 | Consistently underestimated |
| Council and water adjustments at settlement | $500 to $1,500 | Reimbursing the vendor for prepaid periods |
| Total beyond the deposit | $4,800 to $42,800 | Depending on whether stamp duty applies |
Illustrative only. NSW stamp duty concessions, thresholds and inspection costs change. Current at September 2026. Not a quote.
The stamp duty line is the one that swings hardest. Eligibility, thresholds and the property price all affect it, and it is worth confirming before you set a budget rather than after you have made an offer.
Which scheme applies to you
| Support | What it does | Applies to | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Home Guarantee | Lets you buy with a 5% deposit without paying lender mortgage insurance | Established and new homes | Eligibility criteria and property price caps apply, and places have historically been limited |
| First Home Owner Grant (NSW) | Up to $10,000 cash grant | New homes only, including off the plan and newly built | Established homes do not qualify. Value caps apply |
| Stamp duty concession (NSW) | Full or partial exemption from transfer duty | Established and new homes | Thresholds apply and change. The largest single saving for most buyers |
Scheme rules, caps, thresholds and availability change, sometimes at short notice. Confirm current eligibility before relying on any of this. General information only, not advice.
The interaction matters as much as the individual schemes. A new build can attract the grant and a stamp duty concession and the First Home Guarantee together. An established home usually attracts the concession and the guarantee but not the grant. We check the combination against the specific property rather than in the abstract.
One practical caution. Scheme places and thresholds have changed repeatedly over the last few years. Anything you read more than six months old about caps and eligibility should be treated as out of date, including this page if you are reading it well after September 2026.
Four routes in with less than 20%
| Route | Deposit needed | Cost | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Home Guarantee | 5% | No LMI | Eligibility and property price caps |
| Family guarantee | 5% or less | No LMI | Puts a limited portion of a parent property at risk and reduces their borrowing capacity |
| Capitalised LMI | 5% to 10% | Roughly $28,000 to $34,000 on an $800k purchase | Added to the loan, so you pay interest on it for the life of the loan |
| Gifted deposit | Whatever family can provide | No LMI if it reaches 20% | Needs a gift letter confirming it is not repayable |
Illustrative only. LMI premiums, scheme caps and eligibility change. Current at September 2026.
People assume the guarantee is always better than paying the insurance. It often is, but not always. Where the parents have plans of their own in the next few years, a guarantee ties up their equity at exactly the wrong moment, and the premium can be the cheaper outcome for the family as a whole.
Our guarantor loans page sets out what a family guarantee actually involves, written for the parents rather than the buyer.
Getting your file ready
Three to six months of your personal bank statements will be read closely. Small things that seem invisible are not.
- Genuine savings. Many lenders want to see the deposit accumulated over at least three months rather than appearing as a lump. A gift is fine, but it needs a gift letter and it is treated differently.
- Buy now pay later accounts. Lenders see them and most treat them as a liability. Closing them before applying is usually worth it.
- Gambling transactions. Regular activity gets noticed and can sink an otherwise good file.
- Dishonours and late payments. A single dishonour is explainable. A pattern is not.
- Credit card limits. Counted as if fully drawn. A $15,000 unused limit is roughly $75,000 of borrowing capacity.
- HECS or HELP. Counted as a liability at the compulsory repayment rate. It does not stop you borrowing, but it reduces capacity.
What to do in what order
Confirm scheme eligibility. Work out your real budget including costs. Tidy the file. Get a genuinely assessed pre-approval. Then start looking. Doing it in that order is the single biggest difference between a smooth first purchase and a stressful one, and it costs nothing.
After you buy: the first two years
The advice usually stops at settlement. The two years afterwards are where most of the avoidable money is lost.
Your rate will drift
Lenders price new business more sharply than existing business. The competitive rate you settled on is rarely the rate that lender would write for a new customer eighteen months later, and the gap is commonly 0.3% to 0.8%. On a $720,000 loan, half a percent is around $3,600 a year. We diarise your settlement anniversary and review it every year without being asked, which is usually a repricing phone call rather than another refinance.
Set the offset up properly from day one
If there is any chance you will keep this property and rent it out later, an offset account matters more than it looks. Paying extra into the loan and redrawing it later can change the deductibility of that portion when the property becomes an investment. An offset achieves the same interest saving without touching the loan balance. It is a five minute decision at application and an expensive one to unwind afterwards.
Your first equity release is closer than you think
Most first home buyers assume their next move is years away. Where the property grows and you have been paying principal and interest, usable equity builds faster than expected, and usable equity is 80% of the current valuation less the loan balance. We check the position each year at the review, so if the door opens you know about it.
The process
How a first purchase runs
From first conversation to keys, expect two to four months, most of which is looking. The finance steps are four to six weeks once you have a contract.
- 1Day 1, 45 minutes
Eligibility and budget call
What you earn, what you have saved, what you owe, and which schemes you qualify for. You leave with a realistic price range rather than a hopeful one.
- 2Days 2 to 7
File preparation
The tidying that makes a difference: closing unused credit limits, explaining anything unusual, and confirming the deposit meets genuine savings requirements.
- 3Days 5 to 10
Pre-approval
Submitted to the lender that suits your file, and genuinely assessed rather than system generated. Two to five business days is typical.
- 4Weeks 2 to 12
Looking
The longest part, and the part we are not involved in. Call us before you offer on anything unusual: a small unit, an apartment in a large new building, or anything with a structural report issue.
- 5Day of contract
Offer and contract
We confirm the property fits the lender policy and the scheme caps before you exchange, not after.
- 6Days 2 to 10 after contract
Valuation
Ordered by the lender. This is where a purchase price above recent comparable sales shows up, so we watch it closely on first purchases.
- 7Week 2 to 3
Formal approval and documents
We check the rate, the fees and the structure against what was recommended before you sign.
- 8Week 4 to 6
Settlement
Keys. We confirm the first repayment and the rate are correct afterwards, and diarise your first annual review.
FAQ
Common questions from first home buyers
Answers to the questions we are asked most often. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Twenty percent avoids lender mortgage insurance, but 5% is enough under the First Home Guarantee if you are eligible and the property is under the price cap. What people underestimate is the other costs: conveyancing, inspections, lender fees, moving and settlement adjustments add several thousand on top of the deposit, before any stamp duty.
Often not, or not in full. NSW offers full or partial transfer duty exemptions for eligible first home buyers, subject to thresholds that change. It is usually the largest single saving available, worth more than the First Home Owner Grant, so it is worth confirming eligibility before you set your budget.
A federal scheme that lets eligible first home buyers purchase with as little as a 5% deposit without paying lender mortgage insurance, because the government guarantees part of the loan. Eligibility criteria and property price caps apply, and places have historically been limited, so confirm availability at the time rather than assuming.
No. The NSW First Home Owner Grant of up to $10,000 applies to new homes, including newly built and off the plan purchases. Established homes do not qualify. Stamp duty concessions and the First Home Guarantee do apply to established homes, which is where most first buyers get their help.
It insures the lender, not you, against loss if you default and the sale does not cover the debt. It is charged where your deposit is below 20%, commonly $28,000 to $34,000 on an $800,000 purchase, and is usually capitalised into the loan so you pay interest on it. It is avoidable through the First Home Guarantee, a family guarantee, or a 20% deposit.
Yes, through a family guarantee. They use equity in their property as additional security rather than transferring cash, which removes the need for lender mortgage insurance. It is a real commitment with real risk, and we insist on explaining it to them directly rather than through you.
Typically 90 days, sometimes with an extension on request. More important than the duration is whether it was genuinely assessed by a credit officer or produced by an automated system. A system-generated pre-approval can evaporate when you actually need it.
No, but it reduces your borrowing capacity, because the compulsory repayment is counted as an ongoing liability. Whether paying it down first helps depends on the balance and your income. On a large balance close to being paid out, clearing it can be worthwhile. On a small balance it usually is not.
Many lenders want to see at least 5% of the purchase price accumulated over three months or more, rather than appearing as a lump immediately before the application. A gift from family is acceptable but is treated differently and needs a gift letter. Rent paid consistently can also satisfy genuine savings with some lenders.
Financially they behave differently. Units are cheaper to enter, generally yield more and grow more slowly, and carry strata costs and lender restrictions around building size, internal area and investor concentration. Houses cost more, grow faster historically and carry all the maintenance. For a first purchase, what matters most is buying something you can hold, not optimising the asset class.
Most lenders want at least 50 square metres of internal living area, excluding balcony and car space. Below that, the pool of lenders shrinks and the deposit required can rise from 10% to 30% or more. This catches people out on older studios and small one bedders, so check before you offer.
Yes, and lenders will assess you jointly, which means each of you is liable for the whole loan rather than half of it. That matters if one party wants out later. A written agreement between you covering contributions, exit and dispute resolution is worth having, and a solicitor should draft it.
It depends far more on the lender than on the income. Two lenders reading the same file routinely differ by $200,000 or more, driven by how they treat overtime, bonuses and existing debt, and by the living expense benchmark they apply. We compare rather than accept one answer.
You cover the difference in cash, or find a lender with a more favourable valuation, or renegotiate with the vendor. This is why we watch valuations closely on first purchases, particularly where the price paid is above recent comparable sales, and why a proper pre-approval and a sensible offer matter.
Before you start looking, not while you are negotiating. The order that works is: confirm scheme eligibility, set a realistic budget including costs, tidy the file, get a properly assessed pre-approval, then look. Doing it in that order costs nothing and removes most of the stress.
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Buying your first home?
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