Every government scheme and grant a buyer can use in 2026

Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme

This is the scheme most people still call the Home Guarantee Scheme, or the First Home Guarantee. It was renamed, and on 1 October 2025 it changed substantially.

You buy with a deposit of 5% and pay no Lenders Mortgage Insurance. Housing Australia guarantees up to 15% of the property's value to your lender, which bridges the gap to the 20% the lender would otherwise want. Single parents and legal guardians can go in on 2%.

What changed in October 2025 is the part worth knowing about:

• No income caps. The old limits of $125,000 for an individual and $200,000 for a couple are gone.
• No waitlists and no cap on places. The scheme used to run out of spots each financial year. It does not any more.
• Higher property price caps in every state and territory.

More than 320,000 Australians have used it since it started in 2020.

Property price caps

Both the purchase price and the lender's valuation have to sit at or under the cap. If you are building, the land price plus the build cost has to come in under it together.

A few practical things that trip people up. You cannot apply to Housing Australia directly, only through a participating lender as part of a loan application, which is where a broker comes in. Once you are pre-approved you have 90 days to find a place and sign a contract. And you have to live in the home as an owner-occupier to keep the guarantee, so it does not work for an investment purchase.

Help to Buy

The federal shared equity scheme. Applications opened on 5 December 2025.

You contribute a deposit as low as 2% and the government takes an equity share in the property alongside you: up to 40% of the purchase price for a new home, or up to 30% for an existing one. You own and live in the home, and you buy the government's share back over time or when you sell.

• Income caps apply: $100,000 for an individual, $160,000 for couples and single parents.
• 10,000 places a year, over four years.

Shared equity is not automatically better than a 5% deposit loan. You give up part of the capital growth, and for some buyers that costs more over ten years than the LMI they avoided. Which one suits you depends on your income, your deposit and how long you plan to stay. That is worth working through properly rather than guessing.

First Home Super Saver Scheme

A way to save your deposit inside super, where it is taxed at a lower rate than your regular income.

• Up to $15,000 of voluntary contributions in any one financial year.
• Up to $50,000 in total per person across all years, so $100,000 for a couple who are both eligible.
• You withdraw the contributions plus associated earnings when you are ready to buy.

The catch is timing. Release takes roughly 15 to 20 business days once you apply, so this is something to start well before you are house hunting, not the week you find a place. The tax treatment on the way out is your usual rate less a 30% offset.

Victoria: stamp duty

The biggest single saving for most Victorian first home buyers, and it is a state concession rather than a federal one.

• Up to $600,000: no stamp duty at all, if it is your first home and you move in.
• $600,001 to $750,000: a sliding concession that tapers away as the price rises.
• Above $750,000: full duty.

You can run your own numbers on our stamp duty calculator. The threshold is worth planning around: the difference between a $600,000 purchase and a $610,000 one is a lot more than $10,000.

Victoria: First Home Owner Grant

$10,000 towards a new home. It applies to newly built or substantially renovated homes rather than established ones, and it sits on top of the stamp duty concession rather than replacing it.

Victoria: off-the-plan duty concession

A temporary concession on apartments and townhouses in a strata subdivision, and an unusually broad one. It is not limited to first home buyers, there is no property value threshold, and investors, companies and trusts can use it. It does not apply to standalone house and land packages that are not part of a strata subdivision.

It was extended in the 2026-27 Victorian Budget, announced on 5 May 2026, to 21 April 2027. That extension is subject to legislation, so if you are relying on it for a purchase, check where the bill is up to before you sign.

Victorian Homebuyer Fund: closed

Worth saying plainly, because it is still all over the internet and people still ask. The Victorian Homebuyer Fund is closed to new participants. It ran from October 2021 and helped more than 16,000 Victorians into a home. If shared equity is what you are after, the federal Help to Buy scheme above is the current version.

How they stack together

A common Victorian combination looks like this. You save your deposit through the First Home Super Saver, buy a $620,000 home using the 5% deposit scheme so you avoid LMI entirely, and pick up a partial stamp duty concession because you are just over the $600,000 line. Three separate schemes on one purchase, and none of them cancel the others out.

What does not combine is Help to Buy and the 5% deposit scheme, because they are two different ways of solving the same problem. You pick one.

The legal details

This page is general information only and does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Eligibility criteria, caps, thresholds and dates change, sometimes at short notice, and the final word always sits with Housing Australia, the ATO, the Victorian State Revenue Office and your lender. Figures here were checked on 30 August 2026. Exceed Finance Pty Ltd (ACN 618 917 918) is a Credit Representative (000499740) of Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 389328.