41110 – First Home Buyers | Australian Property Network™

41110 — First Home Buyers

Overview

Buying a first home differs from every subsequent purchase in one structural way: there is no existing property in the transaction. A first home buyer brings only savings, borrowing capacity and (in most cases) government assistance to the table — there is no sale proceeds cheque, no equity to draw on, and no chain of settlements to manage. That single fact shapes almost everything distinctive about this stage of buying: how the deposit gets built, how much of it is genuinely the buyer’s own money versus a gift or a grant, and how heavily government schemes factor into what is actually affordable.

Two broad categories of assistance exist side by side and are frequently confused with one another. The first is deposit assistance — the federal First Home Guarantee, which does not hand over cash but instead lets an eligible buyer purchase with a smaller deposit than a lender would otherwise accept, by having the government guarantee the shortfall instead of the buyer paying for lenders mortgage insurance. The second is direct financial assistance from state and territory governments, delivered through two separate levers that are commonly bundled together in conversation but are legally and administratively distinct: a First Home Owner Grant (a cash payment, generally restricted to new homes) and a stamp duty or transfer duty concession (a reduction or waiver of the tax otherwise payable on the purchase, available more broadly). A buyer can be eligible for one, both, or neither, depending on the state, the price of the property, and whether it is new or established.

This entry sets out the deposit-building landscape a first home buyer faces, the mechanics of the federal First Home Guarantee, and a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction comparison of grant and duty concession settings. It assumes the reader already understands the generic transaction — how to search for a property, arrange finance, make an offer, and settle — and focuses only on what is genuinely different about doing those things for the first time.

This entry is general information about publicly available schemes. It is not personal financial or legal advice, and eligibility should always be confirmed directly with the relevant revenue office, Housing Australia or a licensed adviser before a buyer relies on it.

Scope & Boundaries

This entry covers:

Deposit-building strategies specific to buyers with no existing property equity
The federal First Home Guarantee (Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme) and the First Home Super Saver Scheme
State and territory First Home Owner Grants and stamp duty/transfer duty concessions, compared jurisdiction by jurisdiction

This entry does not cover:

How to search for and shortlist a property → addressed in 41140
Arranging a standard home loan, serviceability assessment and lender comparison → addressed in 41160
Making an offer or negotiating a purchase price → addressed in 41170
The conveyancing process, contract review and cooling-off arrangements → addressed in 41180
Settlement day mechanics → addressed in 41190

Key Concepts

Genuine Savings

Most lenders require evidence that at least part of a deposit has been accumulated by the borrower over time (typically shown through a savings history of three to six months), rather than appearing as a single lump-sum deposit shortly before the loan application. A gift from family or a First Home Owner Grant is usually treated separately from genuine savings, and some lenders will not count either toward the genuine savings component even though both add to the total deposit available. This distinction matters most for buyers relying heavily on a gifted deposit, who may need to plan further ahead than the headline deposit target suggests.

Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI)

LMI is an insurance policy, paid for by the borrower but protecting the lender, that applies when a home loan exceeds roughly 80% of the property’s value. It can add a substantial one-off cost (often financed into the loan itself) for a buyer without a large deposit. The federal First Home Guarantee exists specifically to remove this cost for eligible buyers by having the government stand behind the portion of the loan that would otherwise require insurance, rather than by paying any part of the deposit itself.

First Home Owner Grant vs Stamp Duty Concession

These are two different instruments and a buyer’s entitlement to each is assessed separately. A First Home Owner Grant is a fixed cash payment funded by a state or territory government, in every current case restricted to new or substantially renovated homes below a value threshold. A stamp duty or transfer duty concession instead reduces or removes the transfer tax that would otherwise be charged on any eligible purchase (new or established, depending on the jurisdiction), and is calculated as a proportion of what would have been payable rather than as a flat sum. Some jurisdictions currently offer generous versions of one but very little of the other — the comparison table below sets out each jurisdiction’s settings side by side.

First Home Guarantee (Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme)

A federal scheme administered by Housing Australia under which the government guarantees a portion of an eligible buyer’s home loan, allowing purchase with a deposit as low as 5% (2% for eligible single parents and legal guardians) without paying LMI. It operates through a panel of participating lenders and is subject to a property price cap that varies by state, territory and location (see the table below). It does not provide any cash payment and is not means-tested by household income under its current settings.

First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSSS)

A federal scheme allowing eligible first home buyers to make voluntary contributions into their superannuation fund and later withdraw them, plus associated deemed earnings, to help fund a deposit. Voluntary contributions of up to $15,000 in a single financial year count toward the scheme, up to a lifetime total of $50,000 released per person. Because contributions are taxed concessionally inside superannuation, the scheme can produce a modest tax advantage over saving the same amount outside super, though the benefit depends on the saver’s marginal tax rate and how long the funds remain in the fund before withdrawal.

Guarantor Loans

An alternative (or complementary) deposit strategy in which a family member offers equity in their own property as additional security, allowing a buyer to borrow a higher proportion of the purchase price — sometimes the full amount — without LMI, independently of any government scheme. Guarantor arrangements carry real risk for the guarantor, who becomes liable for the guaranteed portion of the debt if the borrower defaults, and are a private lending arrangement rather than a public scheme, so are outside the scope of the schemes compared in this entry.

Regulatory & Legal Framework

First home buyer assistance in Australia sits across two levels of government that do not coordinate their settings with one another. The federal government runs the First Home Guarantee and the First Home Super Saver Scheme on nationally consistent terms (though the Guarantee’s price caps are set per region). Each state and territory independently sets its own First Home Owner Grant amount, its own duty concession thresholds, and its own rules for whether established homes qualify at all — and each government revises these settings at its own budget, on its own timetable, with no obligation to align with any other jurisdiction or to give notice beyond its own announcement. The figures below reflect the settings in force as researched in late August 2026 and should be treated as a snapshot, not a permanent reference — a buyer should always confirm current thresholds directly with the relevant state or territory revenue office before relying on them.

Federal: First Home Guarantee price caps by region

State / Territory	Capital City & Regional Centres	Other Areas
New South Wales	$1,500,000	$800,000
Victoria	$950,000	$650,000
Queensland	$1,000,000	$700,000
Western Australia	$850,000	$600,000
South Australia	$900,000	$500,000
Tasmania	$700,000	$550,000
Australian Capital Territory	$1,000,000 (single cap, no regional split)
Northern Territory	$750,000	$600,000

Both the purchase price and the lender-assessed value of the property must sit at or below the applicable cap. The deposit requirement is 5% for eligible first home buyers generally, and 2% for eligible single parents and legal guardians; there is currently no household income cap and no fixed limit on the number of places available under the scheme.

State & territory First Home Owner Grants and duty concessions

Jurisdiction	First Home Owner Grant	Stamp / Transfer Duty Concession
New South Wales	$10,000 — new homes only, valued under $600,000 (or house-and-land package under $750,000)	Full exemption up to $800,000 (new or existing homes), tapering concession to $1,000,000. Vacant land: full exemption to $350,000, tapering concession to $450,000
Victoria	$10,000 — new homes only, valued up to $750,000	Full exemption up to $600,000, tapering concession to $750,000 (new or existing homes)
Queensland	$30,000 — new homes only, valued under $750,000 (including land); applies to contracts signed from 20 November 2023, continuing beyond 30 June 2026	Established home: full exemption to $700,000, tapering concession to $800,000. New home: full concession with no price cap, for transactions from 1 May 2025
Western Australia	$10,000 — new homes only; capped at $800,000 south of the 26th parallel, $1,000,000 north, for transactions from 7 May 2026	First Home Owner Rate: full exemption to $600,000, tapering concession to $800,000 (new or existing homes). Vacant land: full exemption to $450,000, tapering concession to $550,000
South Australia	$15,000 — new homes only; no property value cap, for contracts from 6 June 2024	Full duty exemption for new homes and vacant land to build on, no value cap, for contracts from 6 June 2024. NIL RETURN — no duty concession currently applies to established homes
Tasmania	$20,000 — new homes only, for transactions commencing between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027	NIL RETURN — the established-home duty exemption (previously a full exemption to $750,000) expired for settlements after 30 June 2026 and had not been renewed as of the date of research
Australian Capital Territory	NIL RETURN — the ACT abolished its cash grant in 2019 in favour of the concession scheme at right	Home Buyer Concession Scheme: full conveyance duty exemption, with no property price threshold and no income threshold, from 1 July 2026
Northern Territory	HomeGrown Territory Grant: $50,000 — new homes, off-the-plan or owner-builder, no value cap, for contracts from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2027. A separate $10,000 established-home grant closed to contracts after 30 September 2025	NIL RETURN — the NT does not offer a general first home buyer duty concession. A House and Land Package Exemption gives a full duty exemption, with no price cap, for a single-transaction house-and-land package bought from a builder, for contracts to 30 June 2027

These figures move with each jurisdiction’s own budget cycle and can change with little notice. Every row above should be re-verified against the relevant revenue office at the time of an actual purchase — the sources cited below name the specific page checked and the date it was checked, but none of them should be treated as current beyond that date.