Home loans for first home buyers

Who this is for

• You're buying your first home and don't know where to start.
• You want to know what you can actually borrow before you fall for a place.
• You've heard about government schemes and want to know which ones apply to you.
• You'd rather have one person explain it all than piece it together from forums.

How the process works

1. We talk. A conversation about your income, savings, and what you're hoping to buy. No documents needed for the first chat.
2. We check your borrowing power and scheme eligibility. We work out what lenders will realistically offer you, and whether government support like the First Home Guarantee could apply to your situation.
3. We arrange pre-approval. So you can make offers with confidence, knowing a lender has already assessed you.
4. We manage the loan to settlement. Application, valuation, approval, settlement — we chase the lender so you don't have to.

What a broker does that a bank doesn’t

• A bank can only offer you its own products. We compare across our lender panel and tell you why we're recommending what we recommend.
• We assess your eligibility for first-home-buyer schemes across lenders — banks tend to mention only the ones they participate in.
• Our service is at no cost to you — we're paid commission by the lender when your loan settles, and we disclose it.
• We stay with you after settlement and review your rate, rather than moving on to the next application.

Government support, decoded

First home buyers have more genuine support available than most realise — and the schemes interact, which is where guidance earns its keep. The federal First Home Guarantee (recently expanded and rebranded as the 5% Deposit Scheme) lets eligible buyers purchase with a minimum five per cent deposit while the government guarantees part of the loan, so no lenders mortgage insurance applies — and following the expansion there are no income caps and no cap on places (firsthomebuyers.gov.au, retrieved August 2026). Property price caps still apply and vary by location, so eligibility is checked purchase by purchase.

In NSW, the First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme separately reduces or eliminates transfer duty below its thresholds — our stamp duty calculator shows the current figures. The schemes stack for many buyers: a small-deposit purchase without mortgage insurance and without duty is a very different proposition from the full-cost version of the same home. Which combination you can access depends on price, property type, and your circumstances — that check is the first thing we do.

How much deposit you really need

The traditional answer is a fifth of the purchase price, because at that point no lenders mortgage insurance applies. The practical answer is more nuanced. Buying earlier with a smaller deposit and paying LMI — or avoiding LMI through the guarantee scheme or a family guarantee — can beat saving for years while prices move. It can also be the more expensive path. The arithmetic depends on your market, your savings rate, and the premium involved, and it deserves to be done properly rather than assumed either way.

A family guarantee is the third path: a parent's property secures part of your loan, lifting your effective deposit without cash changing hands. It's a genuine commitment by the guarantor and we treat it that way — both generations in the room, the exit plan agreed before anyone signs.

Mistakes we see first home buyers make

Almost every hard lesson we've watched a first home buyer learn fits one of these:

• Falling for a property before knowing their real borrowing figure — then negotiating under pressure.
• Leaving unused credit card limits open, which quietly cut borrowing power.
• Assuming the advertised rate is the deciding factor, when structure and fees move the total cost more.
• Skipping pre-approval in a market where agents take pre-approved buyers more seriously.
• Not budgeting for duty, legal costs, and moving costs on top of the deposit.
• Applying with the wrong lender for their situation, collecting a decline that makes the next application harder.