Your first home,
without the guesswork.

How much deposit do I need to buy my first home?

Five per cent of the price, plus stamp duty and costs, if you qualify for the First Home Guarantee. Otherwise plan on 8 to 12 per cent with lenders mortgage insurance, or 20 per cent to avoid LMI altogether.

On a $700,000 Melbourne home that is $35,000 under the guarantee, roughly $60,000 to $85,000 with LMI, and $140,000 without it. Stamp duty is the other big number: nothing up to $600,000 for a first home, then a sliding scale to $750,000, then the full rate.

Lenders also look at where the deposit came from. Most want at least 5 per cent held or saved for three months ("genuine savings"), though several accept rent history or a gift instead. Which lender that is depends on your situation, and that is the part we do.

Do first home buyers pay stamp duty in Victoria?

Not on a home up to $600,000. Between $600,001 and $750,000 you pay a reduced amount on a sliding scale, and above $750,000 you pay the standard rate, with the normal owner-occupier concession below $550,000 not applying because it is already covered.

The exemption is once only, you have to live in the home for twelve months starting within a year of settlement, and it applies to new and established homes alike. Apartments and townhouses bought off the plan in a strata development get an extra, temporary concession: for contracts signed before 21 April 2027, construction costs incurred after you sign are deducted from the dutiable value, with no price cap and open to all buyers.

What is the First Home Guarantee and do I qualify?

It is a federal guarantee that lets a participating lender treat your 5 per cent deposit as if it were 20 per cent, so you skip lenders mortgage insurance. Since 1 October 2025 there are no income caps and no limit on places, just a price cap: $950,000 in Melbourne and Geelong, $650,000 in the rest of Victoria.

You need to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, 18 or over, buying to live in, and not have owned property in Australia in the last ten years. Singles, couples and friends buying together all qualify. Not every lender is on the panel, and the ones that are price the loan differently, so "which guarantee lender" is a real decision rather than a formality.

• Works with the Victorian stamp duty exemption and the First Home Owner Grant at the same time.
• Different from Help to Buy, the federal shared-equity scheme (open since December 2025): that one has income caps of $103,000 single and $165,000 joint, a 2 per cent minimum deposit, the government taking up to 40 per cent equity, and a panel of only a couple of lenders. We can model both.
• Works with the First Home Super Saver Scheme: the released super counts toward your deposit.
• New and established homes, houses and apartments, as long as the price is under the cap.

How much can a first home buyer borrow?

Usually five to six times your household income after the lender adds a 3-percentage-point buffer to the actual rate, deducts living expenses and any HECS repayments, and counts your credit card limits as if they were fully drawn. The same person can get different answers from different lenders, sometimes $100,000 apart.

That spread is why we run your numbers against the whole AFG panel instead of one bank. A HECS debt, a car loan, a probation period, bonus income or self-employed income all move the answer, and each lender treats them differently. Our borrowing power calculator gives you a starting figure; the written lending plan we prepare before any application gives you the real one.

Which lender is best for first home buyers?

There is no single best one. The right lender is the one that is on the First Home Guarantee panel if you need it, prices a 90 to 95 per cent loan sharply, accepts your deposit source and income type, and will still be competitive once the honeymoon rate ends.

In practice that means we usually compare three or four, show you the trade-offs in writing, and recommend one. The recommendation does not change with the commission, which is disclosed in your Credit Guide before you decide.