Be ready to access the First Home Guarantee

The First Home Guarantee is part of an Australian Government initiative to support eligible home buyers buy a home sooner. Eligible borrowers are able to save on lenders mortgage insurance, which is a significant cost hurdle for home buyers.

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Under the Scheme, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) guarantees a portion of the home loan to the lender.
For the July 2025 financial year, 35,000 places have been made available.
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Are You Eligible?
If you:
- Have up to two borrowers on the application
- Are Australian citizen(s) or permanent resident(s)
- Have a household income of less than $125,000 for individuals, or $200,000 for joint applicants (as noted on your 2023 Notice of Assessment from the Australian Taxation Office)
- Are intending to owner-occupy the property
- Are a first home buyer, or a home buyer who haven’t owned a property in Australia in the past ten years

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You have gotten through the first criteria!

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HOT TIP #1: Complete and lodge your 2024 income tax returns as your Notice of Assessment will be required.

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HOT TOP #2: Be ready prove to Australian residency/citizenship. Your current (or recently expired) Australian passport, birth certificate or citizenship certificate are all acceptable forms of ID. Make sure you have them.

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The Deposit
Participants will need to have a 5% deposit, which has been genuinely saved.
- The deposit needs to be no less than 5% of the purchase price
- Genuine savings means the deposit has been held or saved up (with regular payments added) for a minimum period of 3 months
- They must be held in Australian bank account in the applicants’ own name
- Some lenders will accept evidence of rental history paid to a licensed real estate agent in lieu of genuine savings, but you will still need your 5% deposit

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HOT TIP #3: If you haven’t got your savings in place, start now. Work out how much you need to put aside and start saving. Open a special purpose bank account to allow this.

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Eligible Properties:
New or used houses, townhouses or apartments.
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The property purchase price is capped depending on your location. The current caps are outlined below:

Capital City and Regional Centre (Regional Centres are Newcastle and Lake Macquarie (but not Maitland and the Hunter Valley), the Central Coast, Illawarra (including Kiama), Geelong, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast):

NSW $900,000
Victoria $800,000
Qld $700,000
WA $600,000
SA $600,000
Tas $600,000
ACT $750,000
NT $600,000
Jervis Bay & Norfolk Island $550,000
Christmas & Cocos Islands $400,000

Rest of State:
NSW  $750,000
Victoria $650,000
Qld $550,000
WA $450,000
SA $450,000
Tas $450,000
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HOT TIP #4: Lenders will still have criteria around properties, such as minimum living area, maximum land area, high rise and certain other risk factors. If in doubt, we are always happy to check out your chosen property’s eligibility.

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Choosing Your Lender
There are 33 lenders on the panel. Each lender has different policies; different loan products: different prices: different processing times. If you don’t want to waste your time and efforts, this is where your broker comes in! We know the policies, products, prices and processing times and are here to ensure your application runs smoothly, so that you get into your home of choice.

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HOT TIP #5: Check your borrowing power. Its easy and complimentary! Get in touch with us today; we will run through your current situation, and where you would like to get to, work out some borrowing power, give you some targets where you need them, select the right lender for you and get you into your home.

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